01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 24, 2006

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

As expected, the Patriots chose not to apply the franchise tag to any of their would-be free agents before yesterday's 4 p.m. deadline.

That means high-profile players like kicker Adam Vinatieri and wide receiver David Givens are that much closer to hitting the open market when free agency begins March 3. The Patriots used the franchise tag on Vinatieri last season, paying him $2.5 million. Because he's the highest-paid kicker in the league, Vinatieri would have gotten a 20 percent salary increase for 2006, bringing him past the $3-million mark. That would have made him the league's highest-paid kicker by more than $1 million.

The chance exists that the team can work out a deal with Vinatieri or Givens before March 3, although Vinatieri indicated there's been no recent communication between he and the team about a new deal.

And to add another layer to the proceedings, because of ongoing wrangling over the collective bargaining agreement, free agency might not start as scheduled on March 3. The difficulty of negotiating free-agent contracts in this season before the salary cap is lifted (if the CBA's not extended) is causing much pause for the league's teams.

The following Patriots will be unrestricted free agents as of March 3:

Tom Ashworth (T), Matt Chatham (LB), Andre Davis (WR), Tim Dwight (WR), Heath Evans (RB), Christian Fauria (TE), Doug Flutie (QB), Givens (WR), Artrell Hawkins (DB), Stephen Neal (RG), Hank Poteat (CB), Chad Scott (CB), Michael Stone (S), Ross Tucker (OL) and Vinatieri (K).

At the NFL Combine in Indianapolis last night, Belichick told reporters for the team's website, Patriots.com: "We didn't feel like (tagging Vinatieri) was the right thing to do. If we don't have a deal done with him, then he will be a free agent. We've had players in free agency before and we'll have them again. So has everybody else. That's part of the system.

"We just didn't feel it was the right situation (to franchise Vinatieri)."

Belichick alluded to the uncertainty regarding the unsettle salary cap when he said: "It's so hard to do a contract if you don't know what you are dealing with. . . . I don't think you can do much of anything. I don't know what we are working with. So until that's defined it seems like an exercise in futility. And in a way, we've tried to put more of our time and energy into football and the draft and kind of known quantities rather than trying to work on contracts in a system that you don't know what the system is."