The Buffalo Bills will be active in pursuing free agents this offseason, beginning with one of their own. General Manager Marv Levy said keeping cornerback Nate Clements is a high priority, and the Bills are prepared to use the franchise tag on him to make sure that happens. "We will make every effort to retain him," Levy said during an interview with the local media Monday. "We would like to have him back, and I know Dick Jauron has expressed the same and so have the coaches. I think he's a talented player who can get better. "[The franchise tag] is an option and [Clements] is the likely person we'd use it on. I hope that we can do a contract that goes beyond that, but sometimes you have to put the franchise tag on and then work on the contract part of it. It is definitely an option." The franchise tag represents the average of the top five salary cap figures for the position the previous season. The cost of using that designation on cornerbacks has dropped from $8.8 million last year to $5.89 million. Clements earned $2.5 million in base salary in the final year of his original five-year contract and carried a $3.4 million salary cap figure.