The Eagles elected not to use their franchise tag on Pro Bowl wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, who is set to hit free agency next weekend if the Eagles don’t get him signed to a new contract.
The deadline for teams to tender their free agents the franchise tag was 4 p.m. Monday.
The legal tampering period begins Saturday, and players are free to change teams starting a week from Tuesday.
The franchise tag would have prevented Maclin from reaching free agency but would have guaranteed him a one-year salary of about $12.8 million (here's a breakdown of the pros and cons of the Eagles' remaining options).
Maclin had a career year with 85 catches for 1,318 yards and 10 touchdowns this past season and was selected to his first Pro Bowl team.
Maclin, a 2009 first-round draft pick out of Missouri, ranked ninth in the NFL in receiving yards, 12th in touchdown catches and 12th among wide outs in catches in 2014.
Because this is considered another exceptional wide receiver draft and several top receivers are expected to be available in free agency, it’s a buyer’s market, and conventional wisdom says a nearly $13 million cap hit for a very good but not top-5 wide receiver in 2015 is excessive.
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The Eagles have been negotiating with Maclin on terms of a long-term multi-year deal, and there’s no rush for either side to get a deal done before free agency starts and the market begins to establish itself.
Maclin earned $5.25 million in 2014 on a one-year deal he signed after missing all of 2013 with a knee injury. If he hits the open market, he could land a five-year deal worth somewhere in the ballpark of $8 million to $10 million per year.
The only receivers the Eagles have under contract are Riley Cooper, Jordan Matthews, Josh Huff, Quron Pratt and Will Murphy.
According to NFL salary cap research site Spotrac, the Eagles currently have only $7.10132 million in 2015 cap money allocated to wide receivers, eighth-lowest in the league.