Green Bay Packers to Place Franchise Tag on Davante Adams

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, all signs have been pointing to it for a few weeks now, but the Green Bay Packers have placed the franchise tag on Davante Adams.

The franchise tag for Adams will be $20.12 million, now roughly putting Green Bay about $47 million over the cap when added to the $26.4 million deficit they already had. The Packers will have to be under the salary cap by March 16th, when the new league year begins—although that extension for Aaron Rodgers will help clear quite a bit of cap space here in 2022.

Recent reports suggest that Adams and the Green Bay Packers have engaged in contract talks recently but the two still don’t appear to be particularly close to coming to an agreement on a long-term deal.

As I’ve discussed before, and you can click here to read more, the biggest reason that the two parties haven’t agreed to a deal is that Green Bay and Adams have a different definition of who the current highest-paid receiver in football is. Adams is likely looking at DeAndre Hopkins’ two-year $27.2 million per year extension, while the Packers are looking at Julio Jones’ $22 million per year deal that he signed when with Atlanta.

However, despite these issues, there are two reasons that placing the franchise tag on Adams makes sense. One is that Adams will not hit free agency on March 16th, which gives Green Bay more time to work out a new contract. On top of that, if the two sides never do come to an agreement, then the Packers could trade Adams rather than letting him go for nothing.

With that said, as Ken Ingalls pointed out, there is some risk as well for Green Bay beyond having to clear that additional cap space. If Adams and the Packers can’t come to terms, Adams could holdout and stay away until the regular season without penalty; he could also not sign the franchise tag tender, which means the Packers couldn’t trade him, all while that $20.12 million cap hit sits on the books.

Hopefully, that isn’t the case. It’s also important to note that I just don’t see Adams playing out the 2022 season on the franchise tag. The two most likely paths are a new deal or a trade.

As I’ve said all along, I do think a deal gets done. History shows the Packers will pay big money to their own free agents, and they will hand out third contracts to potential future Hall of Famers—those are two boxes Adams checks.

Also, while anything can happen, it’s hard to imagine Rodgers returning to Green Bay without Adams on a long-term deal—but we will see.

This is the first time that the Packers have used the franchise tag since 2010 when they placed it on Ryan Pickett.