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The Indianapolis Colts are trying their best to hedge their bets when it comes to Daniel Jones, and it’s led to a situation we seldom see in the NFL: use of the Transition Tag. It’s a move no team has made since with a quarterback since 1996, so it’s understandable if you’re totally lost when the term is being thrown around.
The Colts placed a $37.8M Transition Tag on Jones, which allows teams to negotiate with the quarterback as if they were a free agent, but gives the Colts the right of first refusal on any contract. This would allow them to match the contract, similar to a restricted free agent in the NBA or NHL. The reason teams don’t use this tag is twofold — firstly, it’s considered a risky approach when it comes to dealing with a free agent (and we’ll discuss this more in a bit), but more importantly, using the transition tag means a team can’t use the Franchise Tag on that same player. You are more or less stuck with exactly what someone else will offer, or paying near-franchise tag fees for a guy. Typically, teams like to have their own freedom in these situations.
So why did the Colts use this tag? Flexibility. It saves them a small margin of salary cap space (roughly $6M) over the franchise tag, which they hope will allow them to make a bigger contract offer to WR Alex Pierce who they hope to keep.
In the past the Transition Tag would lead to some wild scenarios with teams putting Poison Pill clauses in contract offers. These were riders added to contract offers with the sole purpose of making it near-impossible for the tagging team to sign the player. This has happened two times in the mid-2000s, with the Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks getting into a transition tag battle over two key players.
- In 2006 the Minnesota Vikings signed Seahawks All-Pro offensive guard Steve Hutchinson to a a 7 year, $49M offer sheet after Seattle tagged him. However, they included a provision in the contract which effectively stated that the entirity of Hutchinson’s contract would become guaranteed money if he wasn’t the highest-paid offensive lineman on the team. The Vikings did this knowing full well that OT Walter Jones was on the Seahawks’ roster, and would result in the entire deal being guaranteed — forcing Seattle to lose Hutchinson.
- In what seemed like revenge, the Seahawks turned around and signed Vikings WR Nate Burleson to an identical 7 year, $49M offer sheet when he was tagged by Minnesota, however Seattle added their own hilarious poison pill to the deal: If Burleson played more than five games in the state of Minnesota during any season of the contract then the entire deal would become guaranteed. This made it impossible for the Vikings to make the offer, and they allowed Burleson to walk.
As a result of this back-and-forth the NFL added language into the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, which banned the use of poison pill clauses that could result in asymmetric compensation. That doesn’t mean the Colts move doesn’t carry significant risk.
There is still an outside chance someone wants to make a big-time offer to Daniel Jones, seeing him as potentially the next Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold to thrive in a new city. This effectively handcuffs the Colts’ free agency plans, because they don’t know their budget for the quarterback position. It’s unlikely that someone will hit Jones with a big offer, but it’s a risk.
Jones tore his Achilles in Week 14, making his status for the start of next season murky.
Now we wait to see how this will play out. It’s entirely likely the Colts will either reach a long-term deal with Jones or simply pay him the $37.8M this season, but there’s always wiggle room for something weird to happen. Never doubt the NFL’s ability to get weird.