Cam Heyward blasts "stupid" franchise tag

When the NFL and NFL Players Association finalized a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement in 1993, which resolved the antitrust lawsuit that followed the 1987 strike, the term “franchise tag” entered the pro football lexicon.

Thirty-three years later, it remains unpopular.

On Wednesday, Steelers defensive lineman and NFLPA executive committee member Cam Heyward summed it up in one word.

“Stupid,” Heyward said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.

“It hampers players,” Heyward added. “Why should any team be able to take advantage of a player for one year? It’s used in negotiations, and I think between the player options, the franchise tags, the way they control rookies, I think it’s kind of backwards. . . . If a player is at the top of his position, he should be paid that way.”

It used to be that way. For years, the NFL calculated the non-exclusive tag based on the five highest-paid players at the position (based on cap number) in the prior year. In 2011, the formula shifted to a five-year average of the cap percentage consumed by the five highest-paid players at each position.

The new approach has created some bizarre results, with the tag not coming close to reflecting the market. Cowboys receiver George Pickens, for example, will make $27.298 million under the tag in 2026, even though the market has moved past $42 million.

For Heyward’s teammate, cornerback Joey Porter Jr., the 2026 tag of $21.61 million lands more than $12 million behind the current market rate of $33.75 million.

The number will be higher next year, if/when the Steelers tag Porter. But it will still land well below the market.

And it’s not changing, without bargaining. What will the NFLPA give up to get rid of the tag? Even then, the NFL may view it as non-negotiable. Would the players strike over that? Probably not.

The tag has huge value for teams. Beyond giving them the ability to squat on an elite player without having to compete on the open market to keep him, the inability of the best players to get to the market keeps the market from increasing the way it would. Which prevents a rising tide from lifting all other boats.