Seahawks officially stand pat on Franchise Tag deadline

The Seahawks did not use their franchise tag Monday, and as the 1:00PM PST deadline came and went, we saw eight teams slap a tag on impending free agents. This number was a big drop from the NFL-record 21 franchise players last season.

The Bills tagged S Jarius Byrd, the Colts tagged P Pat McAfee, the Broncos tagged Ryan Clady, and the Chiefs tagged OT Brandon Albert. Interestingly enough, four potential targets for the Seahawks in free agency were also tagged: the Bengals held on to DE Michael Johnson for another year, the Dolphins tagged DT Randy Starks, the Bears tagged DT Henry Melton, and the Cowboys tagged DE/LB Anthony Spencer.

Spencer was one player that I thought the Seahawks might take a run at if possible, but was tagged for the 2nd straight season. Melton, Starks, and Johnson were also high-profile defensive linemen that I could have seen the Seahawks pursuing if on the open market, but obviously their respective teams deemed them too valuable to let them get that far.

Notable untagged players that will now hit the open market include T Phil Loadholt, S Dashon Goldson, WR Danny Amendola, TE Jared Cook, and WR Greg Jennings.