The 2026 NFL offseason is officially in full swing. The scouting combine is underway, teams can re-sign or extend their own free agents, and the window to apply either franchise or transition tags on players remains open through Tuesday, March 3.
You can check out Sports Illustrated’s full explainer on the tags here, but to summarize, clubs can assign one player per offseason either a “franchise” or “transition” tag—which essentially gives the player a one-year, fully guaranteed deal for the upcoming season while giving both sides extra time to work out a long-term contract extension.
