INDIANAPOLIS — The 49ers last used their franchise tag on kicker Robbie Gould in 2019.
General manager John Lynch suggested Tuesday the 49ers are not likely to place the tag on any of their scheduled unrestricted free agents this offseason.
When asked if he anticipated using the 49ers franchise tag this offseason, Lynch answered, “We’ve obviously discussed that, but I don’t as of right now.”
Gould did not play on the franchise tag in 2019. He signed a three-year contract extension just before the opening of training camp.
The 40-year-old would cost the 49ers approximately $6.6 million in cap space to franchise. For a club short on cap space, that price seems a little too steep.
Gould is scheduled to be a free agent, and the 49ers are in the process of evaluating all the draft-eligible prospects.
“We’re not done with that,” Lynch said. “Part of the whole Robbie situation is we got to do our work here, and you want to give Robbie as much time to pivot as possible. But we have to do our evaluations here.”
San Francisco 49ers
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Jake Moody of Michigan, Jack Podlesny of Georgia, Chad Ryland of Maryland and Christopher Dunn of North Carolina State are considered to be among the top kickers in the 2023 NFL Draft.
“Robbie is still very much in the picture,” Lynch said. “He’s been tremendous for us, so we’ll see where we go on that.”