By james art 
Tuesday (February 18th) marks the beginning of a two -week window in which NFL teams can put the franchise label on soon unlimited free agents. After the deadline on March 4 passes, no player can be marked franchise.
For Seattle Seahawks, this has been historically unavailable on two fronts: they rarely mark their own players and are virtually never as many as watching external free agents that could potentially be marked. Still, we are in a very boring part of the NFL out -season season, so we may just explain why Seattle will almost certainly not use a franchise marker.
What type of franchise labels are there?
Before we enter the monetary value, there are three types of labels:
- Non -exclusive franchise labelS This allows the marked player to sign a bid sheet from another team, and the marking team either corresponds to the offer, or receives two first round selections in return. This is the most common form of franchise label.
- Exclusive franchise labelS No tenders are allowed by other teams. It’s not simpler than that.
- Transition markerS It is not something we see very often, but in fact it is the non -exclusive franchise label that has received the compensation of the draft. New England Patriots’ defense back Kyle Dougger was transferred last season before agreeing to a new contract.
Marking a player does not prevent the team from agreeing to a long -term contract, but the deadline for the end is July 15. A team may cancel the label before the player signs the contract, but it will be considered used for the year.
Why Seahawks most likely won’t franchise label Ernest Jones
Now here’s the fun part. The cost of a franchise label depends on the position you play. Jones will be classified as a linear player (apparently), so if Jones gets that the non -exclusive marker would cost Seahawks a completely year -round one -year deal worth $ 27,050,000.
The transition marker will be $ 22 612,000, while the exclusive franchise label in Jones depends on the average of the five best salaries in the player’s position, so we won’t know until it ends with the limited free agency.
The best contract for the average annual is Rokuan Smith of $ 20,000,000. I think that in itself explains exactly why Jones will not be marked when you can just as easy a deal without marking it first.
Jones is literally the only Seahawks to be a free agent with any reasonable justification to get a franchise label, so it’s either he or no one.
When did Seahawks use franchise under John Schneider?
Only twice. Kicker Olindo Mare was marked in 2010 and playing this contract, but not a day after. In the next season he was replaced by Stephen Haushka.
Edge Rusher Frank Clark was marked in 2019, but he never signed his agreement and had no interest in anything but a long -term deal. Seahawks traded Clark to Kansas City chiefs, who gave him a $ 105.5 million contract and sent Seattle for the first round, a second round choice, in addition to changing slots in the third round.
Under Schneider Seattle has never used the label to extend a actual player and I do not predict this to change in 2025.