The way the "franchise tag" gets used really pisses me off. It was supposed to be somewhat of an honor, and something teams used to make sure they didn't lose their Joe Montana, Brett Favre, etc. type player.

Instead it is just a tricky little tool that gets used in sometimes surprising ways when some high, but not truly FRANCHISE player is about to be a free agent. It sucks.

I'd like to see the Franchise tag be something more interesting. Like, you tag someone with it, and for the next 3-5 years only HALF of their salary counts toward the cap. If the player is injured and unable to play for the entire year, you can change your tag to someone else.