No, the Seahawks won’t franchise tag Leonard Williams

Seattle paid a hefty price to acquire the impact defensive lineman at the trade deadline, but the cap hit associated with using the franchise tag on Williams would be too costly.

The 2024 NFL Combine is just around the corner, and draft season is beginning to grab the attention of NFL fans and observers. However, the new NFL league year will start prior to the draft, and with the start of the new league year comes free agency. With free agency comes hope, dreams and speculation about the new names and faces that could be added to a roster, as well worries about the names that teams could see depart.

And, when it comes to players departing their old team, there is a powerful tool teams have at their disposal to prevent those key players from leaving. That tool is, of course, the franchise tag, and Tuesday marks the first day that teams across the league are able to apply either the franchise or transition tender tags to pending free agents, with the ability to use these tags through 4:00 pm New York time on Tuesday, March 5.

For the Seattle Seahawks, one of the big names that has been much discussed as a potential extension candidate prior to the start of free agency in March is defensive tackle Leonard Williams. Williams was, of course, acquired from the New York Giants at the trade deadline in 2023 in exchange for second and fifth round picks, and then in ten games for the Hawks recorded 41 tackles, 9 TFL, 11 quarterback hits and 4.0 sacks.

His performance during his short stint with Seattle has made him one of the names that many fans would love to see stick around, and thus there could potentially be some inkling that the team could maybe apply the franchise or transition tag to keep Williams with the Hawks. So, in order to nip any such discussion in the bud prior to it starting, there’s a very simple reason why the Seahawks will not be using either the franchise or transition tag on Williams, and that is the cost.

If one were to look at the tender projections from a site such as OverTheCap.com, the following tenders would be found for 2024 for defensive tackles:

• Franchise Tag: $20,943,000
• Transition Tag: $15,798,000

Those certainly aren’t horrific numbers compared to what they could be, however, those aren’t the numbers that would be applicable to Williams. Back in 2020 the Giants applied the franchise tag to prevent Williams from reaching free agency, and he played out the season on the tag. Then, in 2021 Dave Gettleman applied the franchise tag a second time, before reaching agreement on a three-year, $63M contract the following month. What that history means is that if the Seahawks were to apply the franchise tag to Williams, it would be the third time in his career that he has been designated a franchise player, and for the details on the cost of that it is necessary to turn to Article 10, Section 2(b) for the relevant calculation (Author’s note: Bolding added to relevant portions for ease of understanding):

(b) Any Club that designates a player as a Franchise Player for the third time shall, on the date the third such designation is made, be deemed to have tendered the player a one-year NFL Player Contract for the greater of: (A) the average of the five largest Prior Year Salaries for players at the position (within the categories set forth in Section 7(a) below) with the highest such average; (B) 120% of the average of the five largest Prior Year Salaries for players at the position (within the categories set forth in Section 7(a) below) at which the player participated in the most plays during the prior League Year; or (C) 144% of his Prior Year Salary.

That then leads to the question of what the Prior Year Salary for Williams is for these purposes, and that answer is the original cap hit he carried when signing the three year contract in 2021, the details of which are laid out in the following Tweet from Field Yates of ESPN.

Thus, dividing the signing bonus by three yields $7.5M as the pro rated portion allocable to 2023 in addition to the base salary of $18M, meaning the total salary for the franchise tag calculation for Williams is $25.5M. From there, the math is simple.

• Franchise Tag: $25.5M * 1.44 = $36.72M

And that $36.72M price tag is why the franchise tag is not even a realistic option for Williams with the Seahawks currently projected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $5M over the projected salary cap of $242M in 2024. Even if the salary cap were to come in well above $242M, John Schneider would need to clear enough cap space prior to the start of the league year on March 13 to fit in the entirety of that $36.72M cap hit.

Now, for those who are curious about the transition tag, that answer is similar, so here is Article 10, Section 4(a) with the transition tag amount calculations (Author’s note: Bolding added to relevant portions for ease of reading.)

(a) Any Club that designates a Transition Player shall be deemed on the first day of the League Year following the expiration of the player’s last contract to have automatically tendered the player a one year NFL Player Contract for (A) the Cap Percentage Average of the ten largest Prior Year Salaries for players at the position (within the categories set forth in Section 7(a) below) at which the Transition Player participated in the most plays during the prior League Year, which Average shall be calculated using the methodology as in Section 2(a)(i)(A) above; or (B) 120% of his Prior Year Salary, whichever is greater.

Obviously, 120% of $25.5M is less than 144% of $25.5M, but it still yields an unworkable cap hit.

• Transition Tag: $25.5M * 1.2 = $30.6M

So, even though the window to apply the franchise or transition tag opened Tuesday, don’t expect Seattle to make use of either tag when it comes to the biggest name on their free agent list.