The Seattle Seahawks did not place their franchise tag on either running back Chris Carson or cornerback Shaquill Griffin on Tuesday.
Since general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll arrived in 2010, the Seahawks have only used the franchise tag twice. They did so with kicker Olindo Mare in 2010 and with defensive end Frank Clark in 2019, though they traded Clark to the Kansas City Chiefs the week of that year's NFL draft.
The Seahawks did not attempt to extend Carson or Griffin last offseason even though Carson had just topped 1,100 rushing yards for the second straight season and Griffin had been named to the Pro Bowl as an alternate. The reason, a source told ESPN, was that the Seahawks were going "all-in" on 2020, which meant adding other players with cash and cap space they would have had to set aside for those extensions.
OverTheCap.com projected the franchise tag for running backs to cost just over $8 million. OTC projects the franchise tag for cornerbacks to cost roughly $14.9 million. That was apparently too rich for the Seahawks even with the $14.1 million in cap space they created Monday by releasing defensive end Carlos Dunlap.
OTC and Roster Management System list the Seahawks as having roughly $18.6-$21 million in cap space after Dunlap's release.
Carson, 26, is coming off a season in which he totaled 968 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns, but an early career trend continued as he missed four games with a foot injury.
Carson has been one of the league's most productive running backs when healthy, but he has missed 19 of a possible 64 regular-season games since entering the league as a seventh-round pick out of Oklahoma State in 2017.
He rushed for 1,151 yards in 2018 and then a career-best 1,230 in 2019, becoming the first Seahawks player since Marshawn Lynch in 2013 and '14 to top the 1,000-yard rushing mark in consecutive seasons. Carson played in all but three regular-season games in that two-year stretch, and his 2,381 combined rushing yards in those two seasons was fifth best among NFL running backs while his 16 rushing touchdowns tied for 10th.
Since 2017, Carson's 4.57 yards-per-carry average ranks 15th among running backs with at least 300 carries. He averaged a career-best 4.83 YPC in 2020, rushing for 681 yards and five touchdowns on 141 carries and adding a career-high four receiving TDs.
As a rookie in 2017, Carson beat out Eddie Lacy and incumbent starter Thomas Rawls for the starting job heading into the season, but he missed the final 12 games with leg and ankle injuries. He missed two games in 2018 with a hip injury, then finished the 2019 season on IR after fracturing his hip in Week 16.