NFL teams can retain the rights to one of their impending free agents with the use of franchise or transition tags during a two-week window that began on Feb. 19. Franchise tags are primarily based on the average of the five largest salaries in a prior year at a position; transition tags use the average of the 10 largest salaries. The designation period ends at 4 p.m. ET on March 5.The 49ers have placed a franchise tag on kicker Robbie Gould. Productive young pa s rushers such as defensive end , outside linebacker , outside linebacker and defensive end are strong candidates for the franchise designation this year.The franchise tag was initially Luke Farrell Jersey conceived as a method to allow teams to retain marquee players, where it would act as a precursor to a long-term contract. Instead of being reserved for marquee players, the franchise tag has become a tool over time that restricts a team's best free agent in a given year from entering the open market. The concept wasn't originally created with kickers like Gould in mind.The designation is also a powerful management tool that hinders players from getting fair market value and can depre s salaries. For example, it's conceivable outside linebacker could have become the 's highest-paid player in 2016 if he had been on the open market, like five-time All-Pro defensive tackle was the year before, instead of being the Broncos' franchise player. Miller was coming off a 2015 season in which he earned first team All-Pro honors and was named 50 MVP. He signed a six-year, $114.5 million contract with $70 million of overall guarantees making him the NFL's highest-paid non-quarterback after acrimonious negotiations. The benchmarks Miller may have had a good chance of beating would have been quarterback $22,133,333 average per year and Suh's $59.955 million fully guaranteed at signing from the . In an ideal world, the franchise and transition designations would be abolished. That isn't going to happen in the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The NFLPA will have bigger priorities than the designation system in negotiations to replace the current CBA, which expires in 2021. Taylor Hearn Jersey Only a handful of players are directly impacted by a designation annually. Teams have become more judicious with tags as the costs have increased. An average of seven players per year have been given designations over the last five years; the breakdown is six franchise and one transition designation. The owners won't have incentive to seek changes, absent a compelling reason, although there are several modifications that should be made to the tag system.Redefine positionsEleven different positions currently exist under the designation concept. These do not adequately reflect how football has evolved since the tags system's inception in 1993. Joe Palumbo Jersey The NFL's predominant personnel grouping now utilizes five or more defensive backs, where players that are defensive ends in a 4-3 scheme and outside linebackers in a 3-4 alignment are pa s rushers. The two positions are treated differently for tag purposes, despite e sentially having the same function on the football field. The defensive end franchise number is projected to be approximately $1.7 million more than the linebacker figure. This means Clowney will potentially be penalized financially compared to Clark.Clowney is expected to file a grievance to be cla sified as a defensive end if designated as a linebacker. For tag purposes, a player's position is determined by where he participated in the most plays during the prior season. A grievance wouldn't be nece sary with edge rusher and interior line as positions rather than defensive end and defensive tackle, since Clowney and Clark would automatically have the same number. The interior line position would encompa s 3-4 defensive ends that move inside on pa sing downs. Linebackers would no longer include players primarily rushing the pa ser, who have almost exclusively been the recipients of the designation. It's considered a financial windfall for coverage or all-around linebackers. Offensive line should be split to reflect the three main positions (center, guard and tackle). Left tackles are the only offensive linemen that typically receive designations because the system doesn't account for the salary differences among the positions. A guard or center hasn't been franchised since the and used the designation on and , respectively, in 2011.Two-designation limitThe 2006 CBA ensured that players at all positions, with the po sible exception of quarterback, wouldn't be franchised more than twice because a third and final franchise tag on a player is the greater of the highest franchise number at any position (usually quarterback) or 144 percent of the player's prior season's salary. The 144 percent and highest franchise number provision should be removed with a strict limit of two designations for a player, whether franchise or transition. The reportedly considered restricting running back for a third-straight year with a transition tag after making him a franchise player in 2017 and 2018. Bell will finally get a chance to enter the open market when free agency begins on March 13. Theoretically, a team could place a transition designation on a player as many times as it wanted with a 20-percent increase over the Nick Solak Jersey prior year's salary for each use after exhausting the franchise tag. The current rules don't addre s a usage limitation for the transition designation.Elimination of July 15 deadline for multi-year contractsPrior to the 2006 CBA, there was a 30-day period immediately after the designation deadline to agree to a long-term deal with a franchise player before what e sentially amounted to a four-month signing moratorium began. During this four-month period, if a franchise player signed long-term, his designation lasted for the duration of the contract. Teams were prevented from franchising another player while the deal remained in existence. The restriction didn't apply for long-term deals signed after July 14.The 2006 CBA eliminated the rules which led to the signing moratorium but created a July 15 deadline for long-term deals. It's Jon Niese Jersey almost become standard operating procedure for players who don't sign a long-term deal by this arbitrary deadline to mi s part of training camp to either protest their franchise tag or as an attempt to minimize the risk of injury before regular-season play begins. Bell boycotted the 2018 season instead of playing under a franchise tag for a second-straight year. He was first franchise player to sit out a full season since Chiefs defensive end in 1998. The best of the past and current CBA rules on franchise tag signings can be achieved by abolishing the July 15 negotiating deadline. Without the signing prohibition, the Steelers would have had the ability to continue negotiating with Bell to bring him back into the fold for years to come. A trade would have been a more viable op