2022 NFL free agency: Tight end market thins with Mike Gesicki, Dalton Schultz, David Njoku slapped with franchise tag

Today is the deadline for teams to slap a franchise tag on a player – will it also be the day Aaron Rodgers makes his decision after the Packers presumably tag Davante Adams? – and the free-agent tight end market took a bit of hit with three at that position officially getting tagged: Miami's Mike Gesicki, Dallas' Darwin Schultz and Cleveland's David Njoku.

Before those tags, ESPN's Bill Barnwell called the tight end class of free agents maybe the deepest in league history at the position and there are certainly still some quality players out there like Tampa Bay's Rob Gronkowski, Minnesota's Tyler Conklin, Arizona's Zach Ertz, the LA Rams' Gerald Everett and Cincinnati's CJ Uzomah to name a few. Tight ends who play the 2022 season on the tag would be paid $10.931 million fully guaranteed if they don't sign a long-term deal by the July 15 deadline.

Gesicki is really a wide receiver who is listed as a tight end as he lined up in the slot for 85% of his repetitions last season.  Only Mark Andrews ran more slot routes than Gesicki in 2021 among tight ends. The 2018 second-round pick out of Penn State caught 73 passes for 780 yards (both career highs) and two scores for the Dolphins.

Schultz was a 2018 fourth-round pick out of Stanford by the Cowboys and had a breakout 2021 season with 78 catches for 808 yards and eight touchdowns and added seven catches for 89 yards in Dallas' playoff loss to the 49ers. The Cowboys couldn't afford to lose Schultz, who ran the third-most pass routes among tight ends, with the NFL career of injury-prone Blake Jarwin in jeopardy.

"He's developed into that safety valve for Dak in critical situations, similar to a trust that Tony Romo had with Jason Witten," said former Cowboy and current ESPN analyst Marcus Spears.

It was perhaps moderately surprising that the Browns tagged Njoku as the 2017 first-round pick only had 36 catches for 475 yards and four scores in 2021, clearly No. 2 on the depth chart behind Austin Hooper, who is due $9.5 million this season. Cleveland has another promising tight end in 2020 fourth-round pick Harrison Bryant.

The deadline for teams to designate franchise players is 4 p.m. ET. Adams is all but a lock to be tagged. The Chiefs used theirs on offensive tackle Orlando Brown and the Bengals theirs on safety Jessie Bates. The Bucs are tagging receiver Chris Godwin today. The Bears will not tag receiver Allen Robinson for a second straight year, so he'll be playing elsewhere in 2022.

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