{"id":784883,"date":"2026-03-01T18:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/784883\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T18:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T18:21:14","slug":"reportedly-far-apart-on-contract-talks-colts-using-transition-tag-on-qb-daniel-jones-remains-an-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/784883\/","title":{"rendered":"Reportedly far apart on contract talks, Colts using transition tag on QB Daniel Jones remains an option"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Indianapolis Colts<\/a> and pending free agent starting quarterback Daniel Jones<\/a> reportedly still \u2018not close\u2019 in ongoing contract negotiations , ESPN\u2019s Dan Graziano indicated that the transition tag could be an option for the Horseshoe before the league\u2019s tag deadline of March 3rd at 4 PM EST<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Colts can\u2019t get a deal done with Jones by Tuesday\u2019s tag deadline, it sounds like they\u2019ll put the transition tag on him,\u201d writes Graziano.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means Pierce could hit free agency and another team could sign Jones to an offer sheet (and the Colts wouldn\u2019t get draft pick compensation if he were to sign elsewhere). I think the Colts push to get a long-term deal done with Jones to avoid those possibilities, but as of Saturday morning, it doesn\u2019t sound close.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that an NFL club can only use either the franchise tag or the transition tag once per offseason, so the Colts have one tag at their disposal to potentially use between the priority internal free agent duo of Jones and lead wideout Alec Pierce, who should also have a number of interested suitors.<\/p>\n

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Via Colts.com<\/a>, in contrast to the franchise tag, the transition tag operates as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the non-exclusive franchise tag, players can negotiate offer sheets with other teams while on the transition tag. There are two key differences: First, the salary of the transition tag is determined by the average of the top 10 salaries at a player\u2019s position over the last five years; second, if a team declines to match an offer sheet, it does not receive compensation in return. It\u2019s basically a right of first refusal mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Jones ahead of this year\u2019s free agency, the transition tag would be a projected $43.9 million.<\/p>\n

If I were the Colts, allowing breakout wideout Alec Pierce<\/a>, who\u2019s emerged as one of the league\u2019s elite deep threats at 25-years-old\u2014having led the NFL in highest average yards per reception for consecutive seasons, hit free agency without a franchise tag applied, would make me very weary of my ability to safely retain him.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying they couldn\u2019t in that scenario, but it could prove to be a lot more unpredictable and challenging.<\/p>\n

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The early waves of free agency can be a rabid frenzy, especially when looking at even former Indy defensive lineman\u2019s Dayo Odeyingbo<\/a>\u2019s inflated market during last year\u2019s initial free agency period. Odeyingbo quickly signed with the Chicago Bears on a 3-year, $48 million deal. It\u2019s possible that the Colts could ultimately get priced out on Pierce, if they\u2019re not overly careful here.<\/p>\n

It makes more sense to me to try to get a deal done with Jones as soon as possible to give the Colts the ability to apply the franchise tag on Pierce at the last minute, if necessary.<\/p>\n

If I were the Colts, I\u2019d be more concerned about losing Pierce than Jones outright, because while Jones should command the higher average annual value on his next contract by virtue of playing the league\u2019s highest paid position at starting quarterback, Pierce projects to have more interested suitors all together\u2014as he\u2019s been connected to almost every team in need of a potential wide receiver upgrade this early offseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Indianapolis Colts and pending free agent starting quarterback Daniel Jones reportedly still \u2018not close\u2019 in ongoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[4994,391,2005,4153,2772,593,7,32472,4609,253,2004,392,2381,6,106638],"class_list":{"0":"post-784883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-alec-pierce","9":"tag-chicago-bears","10":"tag-colts","11":"tag-dan-graziano","12":"tag-daniel-jones","13":"tag-dayo-odeyingbo","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-franchise-tag","16":"tag-free-agency","17":"tag-houston-texans","18":"tag-indianapolis","19":"tag-indianapolis-colts","20":"tag-indianapoliscolts","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-transition-tag"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116155310865935996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}