Jarvis Landry Gets Hit with the Franchise Tag

By Djack

The Miami Dolphins have placed the franchise tag on Jarvis Landry, restricting him from hitting the free agent market this offseason. Landry is set to make $16 million next season if he signs the franchise tag tender. Obviously him and the team can reach an agreement on a contract extension, but usually that doesn't happen very often. Look at Kurt Cousins and LeVeon Bell. Doesn't matter how good of a player you are sometimes, teams are extremely tentative of signing players to long term deals. Especially in this day an age where every free agent that hits the market gets to set the market by getting the biggest contract for his position. Jimmy G just got $27.5 million and he's played just 8 games in the NFL, don't tell me he's earned the right to be the highest paid QB. That's just how the market happens to work. I'm all for the players getting as much as possible, especially in football where these guys really put their lives on the line every Sunday. That leads me to my point of why I hate the fucking franchise tag.

The franchise tag is the worst part of contract negotiations in football. It stays around because everyone likes it except the players. Agents use it as a floor to negotiate contracts and the teams like it cause they ultimately control the player as long as they're willing to pay them the mean of the top 5 players at that given position. The players hate it because it guarantees them no safety net for the future. Every offseason they head into with a sense of uncertainty. There's no safety net for them if they get injured, there's no guarantee of a paycheck for them the following year, and there's no sense of stability within the organization. Franchise tagging a player is almost disrespectful to a player in some cases. It's essentially leading on that they don't fully trust you have a future with the team, and that's why they're unwilling to commit long term. No player wants to be apart of an organization that doesn't believe in them being apart of the long term picture.

My guess is that Juice Landry isn't all too happy with the tag. I'm sure he loves the $16 million guaranteed, however I'm sure he would've loved a 5 year $80 million contract a whole lot more. He's worth it, the Dolphins just aren't sure if they're going to move forward and try to compete, or begin the rebuilding process once again. Thus, leaving a player like Juice Landry is a state limbo. It must suck being brought into a dysfunctional organization that can never make up their mind. Regardless, Landry will be back with the Dolphins for at least another year barring any blockbuster trades around the draft. I just wanted to use this as a time to vent about why the franchise tag sucks ass. That'll be all.