One player who didn’t get a "franchise" or "transition" tag Thursday, but came close, was Buffalo LB Sam Cowart. The team worked hard on trying to cut a deal with his agent and thought seriously about "tagging" Cowart, then backed off.
The free agent market isn’t going to be strong in general, and specifically for a player like Cowart, who played in just one game in 2001 and is coming off an Achilles injury.