Of the five recipients of franchise tags around the NFL this year, only Stephen Gostkowski immediately signed his one-year tender. He’ll have until Wednesday to negotiate a longer-term deal with the Patriots, but the focus this week is on the other four franchised players, who are still technically free agents, albeit not unrestricted ones. With the July 15 deadline for a multiyear contract looming, let’s check in on those four stars….
- Negotiations between Justin Houston and the Chiefs are expected to resume on Tuesday, one day before the deadline, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Florio suggests that guaranteed money will be the major factor in those talks, with Houston likely seeking a sizable signing bonus.
- Houston may have the best chance of the four unsigned franchise players to actually land a long-term extension this week, writes Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com. Per La Canfora, the two sides have made “significant progress” since they first started negotiating, and Kansas City would like to avoid having to franchise the star pass rusher two years in a row. La Canfora expects it to cost at least $15MM per year for the Chiefs to get something done.
- Within the same piece, La Canfora addresses Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas, noting that the two wideouts are stuck in similar situations. Although a deal for either player could be reached if one decides to settle for something in the range of $13-14MM annually, the Cowboys and Broncos are both in a good position to wait until after the season to get something done, if need be. We passed along more extensive updates on both Bryant and Thomas earlier today.
- The fourth unsigned franchise player, Jason Pierre-Paul, has virtually no chance of getting a multiyear contract this week, as we’ve heard repeatedly since his July 4th fireworks accident. However, Jordan Raanan of NJ.com suggests that if JPP is able to contribute to the Giants this season and land a decent contract elsewhere in 2016, he could eventually net New York a draft pick.