Yesterday was the deadline for teams to make a decision when it came to making certain designations for players, and New England ended up using the transition tag on free agent safety, Kyle Dugger.
According to the NFL, the transition tag is “a one-year tender offer for the average of the top 10 salaries at the position — as opposed to the top five for the franchise tag. It guarantees the original club the right of first refusal to match any offer the player might receive from another club. The tagging team is awarded no compensation if it chooses not to match a deal.”
Patriots salary cap expert Miguel Benzan points out that the transition tag figure for a safety this year is $13.815 million, which is what Dugger is expected to receive pending another club making an offer, or New England potentially extending him.
The latter scenario doesn’t appear to necessarily be off the table, as a statement by head coach Jerod Mayo revealed that the two sides are continuing to work toward keeping Dugger in the fold for the long-term.
“Kyle is a talented player with a strong work ethic who has improved every year and been extremely productive since joining our team in 2020,” Mayo said in a statement via the team’s website. “We value players with high character and chose to use the transition designation to give both sides more time to try to reach a long-term agreement, which is our goal with Kyle.”
NFL reporter Tony Pauline also reported earlier in the week that the multi-year deal they have on the table for Dugger is worth about $13 million annually, over $500,000 than the previous deal that Dugger was apparently offered back in November.
Dugger was a big part of their defense again in 2023, with the veteran among the top players in the league in terms of the number of times the Patriots blitzed him last season.
Kyle Dugger blitzed at the 2nd-highest rate among safeties last season (8.7%, min. 500 snaps), recording a league-high 17 pressures.#ForeverNE https://t.co/NDDdOjQeVl pic.twitter.com/1JWTIMbZ8S
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) March 5, 2024
Meanwhile what that means for Michael Onwenu is unclear, since using the transition tag on Dugger removes that ability for them to tag Onwenu. Barring news of an extension between now and free agency, it appears he’ll hit the open market.
(Editor’s Note: The above appeared in a recent daily Patriots notebook column.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
