In an unsurprising move, the deadline to apply franchise and/or transition tags has passed without the Buffalo Bills electing to utilize either. Defensive tackle Jordan Phillips, defensive end Shaq Lawson, and cornerback Kevin Johnson are the most notable unrestricted free agents Buffalo chose not to tag.
The franchise tag figures, specifically, would have been the following:
Defensive Tackle - $15.209 million
Defensive End - $17.128 million
Cornerback - $16.022 million
Although Spain, Johnson, Phillips, and Lawson played well for the Bills last year, the team clearly was not comfortable applying the one-year tender to any of those players at the above-mentioned salaries.
Another year goes by without any tag utilization by the Bills, meaning John Fina (1996), Peerless Price (2003), Nate Clements (2006) and Jairus Byrd (2013) remain the only instances in team history of the franchise tag being used. With Dion Dawkins, Matt Milano, Tre’Davious White, and Josh Allen coming up for extension in the next few years, the Bills will have their work cut out for them if they intend to keep the streak of tag-less offseasons going.
The following players ended up being tagged before the start of the free-agent legal tampering period:
Kenyan Drake RB (Arizona Cardinals) Transition
Matt Judon OLB (Baltimore Ravens) Franchise
A.J. Green WR (Cincinnati Bengals) Franchise
Dak Prescott QB (Dallas Cowboys) Franchise
Justin Simmons S (Denver Broncos) Franchise
Yannick Ngakoue DE (Jacksonville Jaguars) Franchise
Chris Jones DE (Kansas City Chiefs) Franchise
Hunter Henry TE (Los Angeles Chargers) Franchise
Anthony Harris S (Minnesota Vikings) Franchise
Joe Thuney G (New England Patriots) Franchise
Leonard Williams DT (New York Giants) Franchise
Bud Dupree OLB (Pittsburgh Steelers) Franchise
Shaq Barrett OLB (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) Franchise
Derrick Henry RB (Tennessee Titans) Franchise
Brandon Scherff OG (Washington) Franchise