Franchise Tag Should Be Available If Chiefs Need It

If the Kansas City Chiefs need the franchise tag for Tamba Hali, it should be available to them.

The franchise tag is a bit of a confusing concept as we enter the uncertainty that is the 2011 football season. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the owners and players expires beginning March 4. The current CBA also states that teams may use the franchise tag starting 22 days before the start of the new league year and ending eight days before the start of the new league year.

The problem of course is that you're utilizing the franchise tag during the current agreement but it will be applied in the next agreement, which may or may not include the franchise tag or a concept like it (though it most likely will) There's also some language in the current CBA that the league and union could interpret differently regarding the application of the franchise tag in the last year of the deal. Adding to the confusion was a report from ESPN's Sal Paolantonio earlier this month that the league advised teams not to use the franchise tag until further notice.

On Thursday, the NFL hosted a group of reporters, including Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk, who reports the league expects franchise tag to be available in February as it has in previous season.

Tamba Hali is the biggest name of all the Chiefs without a contract heading into 2011. And with a recent report that the Chiefs and Hali's side aren't close on negotiations, along with the assumption that the Chiefs want him back, Hali seems to be the best candidate for the franchise tag.

So if they want to use it, the franchise tag should be there.