With five days remaining until the window for applying the franchise tag closes, no player has been on the receiving end of a pair of multi-million-dollar handcuffs.
It’s inevitable that Ravens running back Ray Rice will receive the franchise tender. A league source tells PFT that Rice’s camp specifically anticipates getting the tag on Friday.
The thinking is that the Ravens won’t want to deal with the matter over the weekend, and that they don’t want to wait until the final day, in order to avoid any type of a last-minute screw-up.
Another benefit could come from relative lack of media coverage that comes from things that happen on a Friday afternoon. To the extent that Rice would react negatively to being restricted by the one-year contract, the controversy would generate less overall publicity, since the situation will melt into the weekend and emerge with a much duller edge come Monday.
For those reasons, Friday afternoon could be the target for the bulk of the franchise tags to fly. Which means that you’ll need to be mashing the F5 button while otherwise pretending to work as the train glides lazily into the station on another week of marginal productivity.