The Franchise Tag Unlikely To Be An Option For The 49ers

Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area writes that the 49ers are unlikely to use their franchise tag on any of their impending free agents in the coming weeks.

Maiocco mentions that the 49ers would like to keep WR Anquan Boldin, S Donte Whitner and CB Tarell Brown, but doesn’t see the franchise tag as a realistic option for them.

NFL teams can use their franchise tag next week, but considering San Francisco’s cap situation, it seems more reasonable that they would try to sign some of their free agents to contract extension instead of allocating a large sum to just one player.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk points out that even though the franchise tag could make sense for K Phil Dawson, it’s not a realistic option based on the fact that tagging Dawson would require them to pay the quarterback franchise tender because he’s already been tagged two of the past three seasons.

The 49ers are projected to have around $5.5 million or so in cap space as of now, but I’m sure they will look for ways to increase that figure in the coming weeks.