Exclusive: NFL Executives Predict Minimal Use of Franchise Tags in 2026

The NFL’s upcoming free-agent class is being viewed around the league as one of the least impactful in recent years, and it also features far fewer obvious candidates for a franchise tag.

Two general managers and three top personnel executives all concurred that they would not be surprised at all if George Pickens (Cowboys) is the only player to receive a franchise tag, with some decision makers anticipating perhaps more use of a transition tag with this crop of players. 

Of all the league’s pending unrestricted free agents, the execs maintained only tight end Kyle Pitts (Atlanta), receiver Alec Pierce (Indianapolis) and linebacker Devin Lloyd (Jacksonville) merited heavy consideration given the financial requirements to tag these players and given their productivity and health, with several pegging Pitts as the next most likely to get the tag.

The Case For Pitts

Pitts, a former top pick of the Falcons, is not going to be the dominant tight end he was in college (his blocking receives low marls), and he failed to make an impact most of his time in Atlanta. 

“He didn’t really look like he really wanted it until it was time to get paid,” is how one personnel executive put it, noting Pitts set career highs basically across the board in 2025. 

“That’s a big red flag for me.” Even that exec acknowledged that he would prefer to secure Pitts’s rights for one year at roughly $16M on the tag rather than give him upwards of $40M on the open market potentially. 

New Browns coach Kevin Stefanski ran more multiple tight end sets than anyone in the league last year as head coach in Cleveland, which could also prompt a tag.

As one GM put it: “Even with Stefanski there I’m not sure they do it. But he is the one player we think might get it. The offensive line number is too high, you don’t need to tag a linebacker... Pierce is an ascending player, but that’s a huge number ($28M). I don’t think (Colts GM Chris) Ballard does it.”

All of the execs I spoke to agreed that this offseason, more so than perhaps any other in recent history, is going to require creative thinking on the trade market, with a dearth of elite players available, especially at the most critical positions (quarterback, edge, left tackle).

As a second GM put it: “You are going to have a hard time raising your ceiling with this group (of free agents). We’ll be working the phones.”