Patriots will reportedly place transition tag on Kyle Dugger; Mike Onwenu will become a free agent
The Patriots have the right to match Dugger's offers, but won't receive compensation if he leaves.
The Patriots will place a transition tag on safety Kyle Dugger, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.
A transition tag is a one-year offer worth the average of the top-10 salaries of the player’s position. The number for Dugger’s position is $13.8 million, according to Rapoport.
Placing the transition tag on Dugger allows the Patriots the right of first refusal to match any offer from other teams.
“I would say last year going into the season there were some questions about, ‘can he communicate?’ He squashed all of that,” Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said last week, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “He did a fantastic job in his new role, without having Devin [McCourty] there. So you definitely want those pieces to stay.”
The Patriots will not receive compensation if they choose not to match an offer that Dugger accepts.
Teams are entitled to receive compensation when they use a non-exclusive franchise tag on a player and the player accepts an offer elsewhere. Teams who use an exclusive franchise tag have the sole right to bargain with that particular player.
Both exclusive and non-exclusive franchise-tagged players command a higher salary than transition tag players. It’s an average of the top-5 salaries per position or 120 percent of the player’s previous salary, whichever is greater.
The franchise tag number for Dugger’s position would have been $16 million.
Since teams can only tag one player per year, offensive lineman Mike Onwenu will become a free agent.
Dugger posted a career-high 109 tackles in 2023, along with a pair of interceptions and a forced fumble.
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