The New York Giants can finally apply the franchise tag to Landon Collins. The window of time where the team can do it has just opened, and will stretch into next month. Right now, it’s looking more and more like Collins is going to be the player to receive the tag this year, due to the organization and the player not coming to an agreement about a long-term deal.
Of course, that deal would be the preferable outcome, but after not much progress was made in the earlier parts of the offseason, it’s been reported by Josina Anderson that the Giants and Collins are not in contract negotiations right now.
I'm told the #Giants and S Landon Collins are not currently in active negotiations on a contract extension, per sources.
Collins, leads all DBs in tackles since entering the NFL in 2015 (428) and is 1 out of 4 safeties to make 3 Pro Bowls in the last 4 seasons.
— JosinaAnderson (@JosinaAnderson) February 19, 2019
There’s no way that the Giants are letting Collins walk away. Collins is set to become an unrestricted free agent this year, but with such a large role in the Giants secondary, letting Collins move to another team for free has never been an option that’s on the table. Because of that key role, it’s seemed almost a sure thing for the past weeks that the Giants are going to franchise tag Collins at the first chance.
No such move has happened just yet, though. The Giants have until March 5th to apply the franchise tag, but even after the window for it opened on Tuesday, no such move has been made yet. Whether or not that means the team is still considering an attempt at getting a long-term deal secured or not is unsure, but unless that happens, fans can pretty much be sure that the franchise tag will be given to Collins sometime this month.