There’s a reason that it’s short
Today marks the first day that teams around the National Football League can use the Franchise or Transition Player tags on players to stop them from hitting unrestricted free agency. While there has been some debate on which player the Minnesota Vikings might use a tag on this offseason, or whether they’ll use it at all, their use of it has been a rarity since the rule was made back in 1993. In fact, the Vikings have only used the franchise tag three times and have never used the transition tag.
The first time the Vikings used the franchise tag, they placed it on none other than tight end/fullback Jim Kleinsasser back in 2003. The tag for Kleinsasser that season came in at just a shade over $3 million. . .yes, there was a time when that was considered big money in the National Football League, particularly for someone with Kleinsasser’s role in the offense. The Vikings didn’t want to put Kleinsasser in the same position in 2004, so in March of that year they signed him to a five-year contract worth $15 million and he played the rest of his career in purple.
In 2011, the Vikings had a significant quandary on their hands when it came to free agency, as they had three significant players getting ready to hit free agency: defensive end Ray Edwards, linebacker Chad Greenway, and wide receiver Sidney Rice. The Vikings chose to tag Greenway, a move that cost them around $10 million, while letting Edwards and Rice go.
Rice, who had struggled with injures for most of his career, departed for the Seattle Seahawks on a five year, $41 million contract. He spent three seasons with Seattle, with a solid 2012 season sandwiched between two more injury-riddled seasons before retiring from the NFL in 2014. Edwards made his way to the Atlanta Falcons, signing a five-year, $30 million deal. He only lasted a season and a half with the Falcons, as they released him midway through the 2012 season.
Greenway, on the other hand, signed a five-year, $41 million deal just before the 2011 regular season got underway. He went on to make the Pro Bowl in both 2011 and 2012 and garner Second-Team All-Pro honors in 2012. Like Kleinsasser, Greenway spent his entire professional career with the Vikings, retiring after the 2016 season.
The Vikings’ most recent use of the tag came in 2020 when they placed it on safety Anthony Harris. Harris, who the Vikings had signed as an undrafted free agent in 2015, made his way up from the practice squad and into the starting lineup over the first few years of his career, and was coming off of a 2019 season that saw him tie for the NFL lead in interceptions. Unable to come to any sort of a deal, the Vikings put the franchise tag on him during the 2020 offseason.
Harris saw a significant drop in his level of play in 2020, and the next season he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles on a one-year contract. After a relatively non-descript 2021 season, he signed another one-year deal with Philadelphia, only to be released at the end of Training Camp. The 2021 season was his last one in the NFL.
Will the Vikings use the franchise tag for just the fourth time in franchise history or use the transition tag for the first time ever this offseason? We’ll know the answer for sure no more than two weeks from today.