We are officially entering Franchise Tag SZN, otherwise known as the single-most confusing two weeks on the NFL calendar. Starting Tuesday, teams across the league have two weeks to decide if they want to use their tag on any of their impending free agents.
In Green Bay, there’s not a whole lot of precedent for using the tag, which makes the next two weeks not only confusing, but also uninteresting! And to make things worse, they don’t even really have a franchise tag candidate who would be interesting to speculate about. The last time they used the tag was in 2022 with Davante Adams, a move that notoriously went very well for everyone involved.
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And according to ESPN’s Packers reporter Rob Demovsky, it’s unlikely that Green Bay GM Brian Gutekunst goes in that direction again this year. In ESPN’s latest roundup of every NFL team’s most-likely tag candidates, Demovsky wastes few words explaining how it’s just not going to happen.
It doesn't sound like there’s any real chance of Green Bay using the franchise tag on Josh Myers
“The Packers have used the tag just once in the past 15 years. It was on receiver Davante Adams in 2022, and that resulted in Adams wanting out of Green Bay. The closest thing the Packers have to a must-sign free agent is kicker Brandon McManus. Next is Josh Myers, but tag numbers are the same for centers, guards and tackles, and a price of more than $20 million is unheard of for a center.”
Before we get into the more specific Packers stuff in here, it’s maybe worth pointing out that every offensive lineman having the same tag number, in 2025, is kinda wild? Although being a center that gets paid like a top-of-market left tackle is good work if you can get it.
You know the Packers’ roster is in relatively decent shape when *ESPN* speculates that maybe they could sign a kicker? Champagne problems are a good thing to have and a bad thing to write about. Nothing about Demovsky’s write up makes me feel a different way about Green Bay’s chances of signing Myers to a long-term extension, which is probably the only reason anyone clicked on this in the first place (no offense to McManus). So, sorry about that. But ultimately, not having to deal with the drama of a franchise tag is probably for the best. It just leaves the organization more energy to trade for Maxx Crosby and Myles Garrett at the same time.