Now that the football season is officially over, players whose contracts are expiring are getting antsy. That's because there is a three week dead period between the end of the Super Bowl and the official start of the new year(NFL new year). Players are smelling money. All of the top guys have been in the news recently, all saying the same thing. They want to stay with their old(current) team. But, if the money isn't right, they will be forced to go elsewhere. The worst thing that can happen to any of them right now is to get the franchise tag. That will scare other teams away and hurt the player's ability to use other teams as leverage out on the open market. Say the Ravens stick the franchise tag on Ray Lewis, if another team wants to talk to him, they have to deal with the Ravens. But if Ray Lewis is allowed to go out on the open market, the Ravens have no idea who he is talking to and what that other team is offering him. Sometimes teams bid against themselves.
Why do players hate the franchise tag? It's simple. Players who are good enough to get the franchise tag, are good enough to command huge amounts of guaranteed money. A player like me or 75% of the NFL would love the franchise tag. A QB that gets the franchise tag will make 14 MILLION for that season. If that same QB were allowed to test the market, he would get a contract with guaranteed money doubling that of the franchise tag. And every other position is the same. So players don't look at it as if they have 14 Million guaranteed, they look at it as losing the ability to get 28 MILLION dollars. I know it may sound like players are greedy and should be happy with the franchise tag, but look at what happened to Bengals OT Stacey Andrews. He was 65 minutes away from getting the biggest OL deal in free agency. Sure he got his 8 MILLION dollars last year, but.....you get what I'm saying.
Can the franchise tag work? Yes. Sometimes it can satisfy the player and the team. Once a player calms down and realize there is nothing he can do about the tag, he and his agent then try to negotiate a deal to accept the tag but not get the tag the next season. Most of the time this works. Buffalo Bills DB Nate Clements did this a few years ago. He played out the year and then signed the richest deal ever for a defensive player. This past year, my former teammate Titans DT Albert Haynesworth agreed to accept the franchise tag only if the Titans wouldn't tag him the next year. Now he is a free agent. He had a career best 8.5 sacks last year and was the best player on the team with the best regular season record. He is not only going to break the bank, he is going to own it. And don't expect him to give the Titans a hometown discount either. He has all the leverage in this one.
So let the games begin. Teams will now start to negotiate with these top players and hint at franchising the player if they can't reach a deal. The agent and the player have to play the game as well and see if it's worth calling the their bluff.
John can you blog about what some of the emtions and the thought process a player goes through. Especially if they are attached to a city and there team isn't showing them the respect the deserve.
Also when you make a decision to go a team is it just about the money or are you thinking about your kids and there schools, your wife friends, etc. . .
We as fans forget that you are people just like us. And that you have a very limited amount of time to make a great deal of money, that in my job if I make a mistake maybe 3 people know it not 30 million.
I really enjoy your blog because you make football players humans instead of just machines.
Posted by: David | February 05, 2009 at 09:58 PM