Punters don't get franchise tags very often.Actually punters don't ever get franchise tags. They're punters. They trot out, crank off a 45-yard punt (hopefully) then jog back to the sideline. With a surplus of punters usually being out on the street looking to work, they just aren't in that much demand.
But the Falcons are not ones to be conventional. Atlanta will become the second team to ever give its punter a franchise tag as they have announced that they are franchising Michael Koenen.
The good news is that because punters are not in high free agent demand, franchise tags for punters aren't that expensive by NFL standards. While Matt Cassell got $14 million for his franchise tag, Koenen will get only $2.48 million for his franchise tag.
Koenen was pretty god in 2008, and his versatility (he also kicks off and can be used on long field goals) makes him a pretty valuable punter. And since the Falcons didn't have anyone else worth franchising, why not slap the tag on Koenen? I guess it makes sense, even if he is a punter.
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The only way it makes even some sense is if Koenen wasitching to get out of a dome team who's favored ot get back into the play-offs, or if he was holding out for a contract far bigger than $2.5 million a year, neither of which I would think very likely.
Now, franchising Shane Lechler makes sense, not only because he's probably the best punter on the league, but also because I'm sure EVERYBODY is looking to get out of the Oakland Raiders.
Smart move since they had no one else they wanted to use it on. Koenen's not one of five best punters out there, but he certainly would have drawn some interest from a handful of other teams. But no one is going to give up a draft pick for a punter, so now the Falcons can work on giving him a long term contract without having to worry about outbidding against another team for his services.