The NFL combine is usually where teams and agent meet up and start working deals for impending free agents. Normally, at this point you'd see several players reaching new deals with their teams to avoid free agency. But this year, that hasn't been the case and it may be that we see a record number of franchise tags for a second straight year. Dan Pompei from National Football Post says a reason may be that free agency was pushed back.
Normally teams and agents have a good idea of the market value of free agents after the combine, but that isn’t the case this year. Because free agency was delayed by two weeks, agents and teams have been reluctant to show their cards. It has resulted in very little movement in terms of players re-signing with their own teams.
Typically, March 5th has been the date that free agency has begun. However, this year it will begin on March 13th. So does this mean next week is when negotiations with impending free agents really starts to heat up? We'll have to see.