by Chris Burke
The Patriots wasted no time making sure Matt Cassel couldn't walk away from New England, slapping the franchise tag on him on the first day possible. The window for NFL teams to apply a franchise or transition tag to a pending free agent runs Feb. 5-19 -- Cassel got the ball rolling, but he won't be the only NFL impact guy forced to stick in, or be traded out of, his current surroundings.
A franchise tag locks a pending free agent into a one-year contract for a pre-determined salary (Cassel will earn $14.65 million next season). A transition tag, on the other hand, allows a team to match any contract offer made to a particular player by another team. A quick look at some of the big names that might be subjected to one of the two comes after the jump.
Playing Tag: Cassel First of Several Stars Who May Be Franchised originally appeared on NFL FanHouse on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 21:43:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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