Redskins Officially Place “Non-Exclusive” Franchise Tag On OLB Brian Orakpo

BREAKING: Team has announced franchise tag has been placed on LB @rak98 – more details to come on http://t.co/jdM7y5Ys0H.

— Washington Redskins (@Redskins) March 3, 2014

More details regarding Orakpo being franchised: 

• Mark Maske reports that the Redskins used the “non-exclusive” franchise tag on Orakpo.
• Ian Rapoport reports that Orakpo has “no intention” of signing his franchise tender, and it “may be a while” before he does.
• Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk mentions that Orakpo could argue that he should be compensated like a defensive end, which is what Terrell Suggs argued some years ago.
  • OLBs will make $11.455 million while DEs would get $13.116 million.

The franchise tag will run Washington $11.455 million fully guaranteed for the 2014 season. They can, of course, continue to work on an extension in the coming months that would lower this figure.

However, the “non-exclusive” tag will allow other teams to make offers to Orakpo, but the Redskins will have the right of first refusal and the interested team would have to part with two first-round picks in the process.

The Redskins were projected to have around $29 million in available cap space before this move was made, but it would have been very difficult for them to allow him to walk and only receive a third-round compensatory pick in 2015.

Even after applying the tag to Orakpo, Washington should still have over $18 million in available cap space, according to OverTheCap.com’s Salary Cap Calculator.

Orakpo finished the 2013 season with 10 sacks and has 39.5 career sacks in just 64 games for the Redskins defense and is clearly one of the best edge rushers set to be an unrestricted free agent. He would have no shortage of suitors if he were to become available.

We have Orakpo listed as the No. 4 player in our Top 50 – 2014 Free Agents list.