I wrote yesterday that it made sense to place the franchise tag on NT Ryan Pickett, and today the Green Bay Packers made the obvious move official. Tom Silverstein wrote at JSOnline.com that this "may cause trouble" but several other NFL teams are going through the same thing. Not all of the defensive tackles who have received the franchise tag are going to sign long-term contracts, but it does appear that Patriots NT Vince Wilfork will sign first and set the market price. $7 million per season on a long-term contract is too much for Pickett, but as long as this works in their budget for 2010, there is no long-term risk with this move. I've been expecting it for the past couple weeks, if they tagged DT Corey Williams two years ago, why not tag Pickett?
It does seem like all the franchise tag moves involve defensive tackles and field goal kickers. Who expected that?
UPDATE: It seems like that for a reason. Here's the complete list of franchise and transition tags so far, and it's 5 defensive tackles and 2 kickers. Richard Seymour is listed as a DE, but at 310 lbs. he's a tackle on any 4-3 team.