Tennessee Titans’ safety Michael Griffin, Cincinnati Bengals’ kicker Mike Nugent on franchise tag-NFL News
More players in the National Football League (NFL) have been assigned the franchise tag as the one-week tagging tenure closes in on its deadline of Monday, March 05, 2012.
As of the latest, some reports have quoted anonymous sources disclosing Tennessee Titans’ plans of assigning the franchise tag to safety, Michael Griffin.
Even though there is no independent confirmation of the reports, the player is expecting a decision by today (Monday) if he is going to be locked in for another year.
Griffin was the first-round draft pick for Titans in 2007 and has consistently played for the side since then, not missing even a single game.
His current deal is running out and if not retained by the team, he will become an unrestricted free agent, making himself available for signing by another team of the league.
The player’s last year record includes two interceptions. He also had a forced fumble and 75 tackles to his credit. His career record consists of 17 interceptions.
With confirmation of the tagging reports from the team in pending, it is not clear either if the player will be interested in seeking a long-term commitment from the management.
It could be possible that Titans work out a long-term deal for the safety sometime later this year and want to have the tag-time as a space to weigh their options.
Amid the mum kept by Titans, it is difficult to ascertain the tag price for the player, which shall match the prevalent market rate for a safety.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Bengals have officially confirmed the plans of applying franchise tag to kicker, Mike Nugent, who is nearing end of his contract and facing free agency.
Nugent was inducted into New York Jets in 2005 as a draft pick and spent four years with the franchise before arriving in Cincinnati in 2010. He had an impressive run while playing for Jets and gave an equally good performance with Bengals.
In the 2011 National Football League (NFL) season, he made 33 out of the 38 field goal attempts, which is a record for 86.8 percentage average in the professional league.
As a result of the tagging arrangement, the player is expected to earn $2.6 million, which is the average value for a kicker in the market during the 2012 season.
There is also no confirmation from the management if they will be looking to retain the kicker in the longer run.
Nugent himself has also not commented on the development and it remains unclear if he would like a rather long-term commitment or is satisfied over the tag application option.
Today (Monday), March 05, 2012, is the final day of the week-long franchise tag time and a number of teams have come up with their options of retaining players for a year, as in the meantime they work on alternatives.
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