Free agency in sports is relatively simple. A player will sign a contract, play out the agreed upon set amount of years he or she is obligated with their respective team and enter free agency where they are able to sign with any team of their choosing.

However, with the NFL there is an exception to this straight forward process: the franchise tag.

The franchise tag gives teams the ability to retain one soon-to-be free agent from their team per year by offering a one-year tender at a fixed rate (no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position, or 120-percent of the player's previous salary, whichever was greater).

While the franchise tag may have been beneficial back in 1993 when it was used to ease the NFL who was then transitioning to free agency, for the better part of a decade the franchise tags primary function has been to largely limited or outright deny the rights of NFL veterans who have fulfilled their contractual agreements and wish to enter the free agency.

It is time the NFL rids itself from the franchise tag as the salary cap does what the franchise tag was made out to do which is make it impossible for all of the large-market teams to sign all of the premium players in the free agent pool.

Realistically, the only true purpose the franchise tag serves now is it enables teams to severely restrict the rights that are supposed to belong to all veteran players with expired contracts.

This dramatically favors NFL teams because they are able to take short term risks and approaches in a league where the average player last roughly three years. By taking away the opportunity to have other teams sign the player, the athlete is left with no long term security.

What maybe the worst part about this is often the elite, hall of fame caliber players are the ones who are left being penalized for their skills.

The tag has become nothing more than a negotiation ploy, where the teams and general managers have all the leverage and the players have virtually none.

Players like Von Miller and Muhammad Wilkerson, who are the two best players at their respective positions, can still negotiate long term deals with their respective teams, but they do not get to participate in free agency and thus have less leverage in contract negotiations.

The tag forces the player to negotiate their original team's terms, which usually means sacrificing millions of dollars on a long-term deal or risking their future by playing on a precarious one-year deal.

That's the dilemma Von Miller and Muhammad Wilkerson face. The two stud defenders are disgruntled because they've become the ultimate superstar victims of a system that enables teams to make victims of superstars.

Both Miller and Wilkerson played out all five years of their rookie contracts and are now rewarded for their talent and contribution by having to be publicly securitized and publicly watched as they battle amongst their own team over long-term deals.

Anyone who is even an avid fan of football can agree that Super Bowl MVP Von Miller should be the highest paid defender in football and is worth much more $14.1 million he will make under the tag. Yet, with no other team being able to offer him a contract, and the Broncos having no incentive to give him more than that, Miller must essentially be reprimanded for his contribution on the gridiron.

For both Miller and Wilkerson, who are entering their late twenties, securing a long term deal is detrimental as they are in the prime of their career and will likely see a decline in their play in three to four years.

Sure, life isn’t fair and certain people will be favored more than others, but when stars like Miller and Wilkerson can be forced to spend the majority of their careers without long-term security, while other, less heralded players like Malik Jackson and Olivier Vernon (neither of whom have been to a Pro Bowl) enjoy record breaking contracts deals that are worth a combined $170.5 million over the next six-years, something has got to change.

Even more absurd is, if the Broncos wanted to, they could franchise Miller for the next three seasons at a total cost of roughly $56 million. While that is slightly more than Vernon is slated to make with the New York Giants, the Broncos have the luxury of having no long-term commitment.

Surely no one can blame Miller and Wilkerson for voicing their displeasure of being franchise tagged. Sadly, the only leverage either of the two players have is to threaten to sit out the season where they will be subjected to numerous and hefty fines.