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  • February 21, 2008 11:37 PM ET

The NFL should get rid of the "exclusive" franchise tag.

E4P Is Not So Mad For Max (72-17-3) vs MixinUpMedicine (7-6-0)
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(PLEASE READ MY ARGUEMENTS AND DONT COME IN HERE VOTING FROM YOUR PREVIOUS OPINION)

To borrow a quote from LYNCHisOTGY* Danny Ferry=Hero, "The only people it doesn't piss off is the organization. It pisses off fans, the other 31 teams, and even the players that they're tagging."

And that's exactly right.

The exclusive franchise tag gives that player the average salary of the top 5 players at their position that season. But this money is for only one year and its not guarenteed. So imagine if an elite player is franchised but is hurt that season. He is automatically tagged as damage goods and wont get anywhere near the payday he could have had the year before. Everybody wants some kind of job secruity and this is breeding the exact opposite.

It's almost if that NFL team is threatening them to sign a long term deal or risk ruining their career. And who wants to give their all to a team that is doing something like that.

If a player worked hard for their last big payday, they should be able to get it from the highest bidder, whoever that may be.


Personnel mgmt in the NFL is harder than in any other sport. You have 53 players to fit under the salary cap. In doing so, you run into cap difficulties from time to time because of OTHER CONTRACTS, limiting what you can sign your players for, and just cutting some other guys isn't always an option, because of the cap hit you might take.

Franchise tags help a team bridge the gap w/ their top players. It limits their exposure on salary, keeps it reasonable instead of an open market bidding war. This can be especially tough if you have some team w/ a lot of cap space, maybe they dumped salary so they could make a run at FAs.

The cap DOESN'T PREVENT another team from signing a guy. It guarantees compensation to the team w/ the tag. If someone wants to sign Jared Allen, they can, but they'd owe KC 2 1st rnd picks, a steep price, & gives the Chiefs the right to match.

And so what if the money isn't guaranteed. NO NFL CONTRACT IS. Again, you got 53 guys on a roster, and some of those guys are injured, so you have to sign more. If you're locked into long term deals, on say 35 guys, it screws up your cap when you cut a guy and HAVE to keep paying him.

Injuries next


READ THE TITLE!

There are two kinds of franchise tags. The EXCLUSIVE is the kind which im talking about. There is no compensation because no one else can sign them.

The NON-EXCLUSIVE is the kind you refered to in your third paragraph in which players can get other offers.

~If your going to accept a throwdown, know what your talking about.~

Only proven players are tagged. And these proven players should have the right to something to fall back on if they get hurt. THERE IS A SUCH THING AS GUARENTEED MONEY. Of course the whole contract isnt that way, but most players get a set amount of money that is guaranteed.


It still doesn't matter. Your case is that a guy could lose out on a bunch of money by not signing a long term deal.

THAT COULD HAPPEN AT ANYTIME. Say he signs a L-T deal, and gets hurt. First off, an injured player DOESN'T GET HIS WHOLE SALARY, he gets a reduced %. Second, if its career threatening, he may get cut or get asked to renegotiate (w/ the threat of getting cut). He'll lose all the roster bonuses and other stuff built into that multi yr deal.

If he's forced to sign the franchise deal, and gets hurt, he won't lose out on much. He'll have to sign a make good deal, loaded w/ incentives no doubt, and then if he's healthy, he can go back into the free agent market and have people bidding on him anyway. No one complains about being a free agent, an injury will just delay his time before getting the big payday.

When was the last guy to lose out on a Franchise deal? Javon Walker wasn't franchised, he was in the last yr w/ GB, and the refused to negotiate a LT deal until he was in the last yr of his current contract.

And as a fan, I NEVER GET MAD if my team can keep a top player. Franchise em all I say.

And getting a top 5 avg? That's a top 3 salary


Imagine if Peyton Manning was a free agent.(This would never happen but im saying it for the sake of my arguement). He's just coming off his record breaking season a couple years ago so he's looking for his big pay day, a long term contract with lots of guaraunteed green. Instead the Colts franchise him, and during that season he breaks his knee horribly. If he had a long term deal, he would still get all that guaraunteed stuff. Instead he's now consider a high risk free agent. Whose going to give him his 7 year/99 mil contract now?

Imagine yourself in one of these players shoes. Would you want to be making big bucks for year but have no long term secruity as a consequence?


Peyton is a horrible choice for you, cuz a knee injury wouldn't affect his market value, he doesn't run anyway. He would get $10.7M w/ a 2008 franchise tag (wikipedia), and that money is guaranteed.

Now, say his signing bonus is a modest $15M under the $99M contract you propose. His salary would average $12M (athough it would probably be much lower in yr 1, probably $6 or $7M, and would jump up in later yrs). If he got put on IR, he WOULD NOT make all of that $12M salary, he'd make maybe half that, say $6M. HE'D MAKE MORE IN SALARY UNDER THE FRANCHISE DEAL. The saying in the NFL is "you gotta play before you get paid."

He rehabs, and he'll get his long term deal later, maybe after second season, but the CAP will be higher, and so is the market, so his signing bonus will be higher too.

Your argument ASSUMES he'll get healthy again, cuz if he DOESN'T, he won't earn all that $99M anyway. He'll get cut, and lose roster bonuses, and 5 or 6 yrs of that salary. That fat $99M contract would be reduced to $15M signing and $6-8M salary yr 1. All he really loses, is the signing bonus. And he'll get a fatter signing bonus when he comes back.

Comments (27) Add A Comment

February 21, 2008  11:50 PM ET
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Good luck man.

February 21, 2008  11:54 PM ET
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I'm going to crush you. ;) Good luck too.

February 22, 2008  12:06 AM ET
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Know what your talking about man. Go look it up.

February 22, 2008  12:31 AM ET
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touchy, just a little trash talk. Big deal. When was the last team to actually PAY the 2 number one draft choices anyway? I dont see much difference in the exclusive or non-exclusive, so it just comes down to the player not getting his long-term deal. He's well compensated anyway.

February 22, 2008  06:01 AM ET
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I agree with the right side, but he has a few too many errors in his argument to get my vote. There is such a thing as "guaranteed money" in NFL contracts, and the exclusive franchise tag does prevent other teams from signing the player.

February 22, 2008  08:54 AM ET
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What Ram said ^

February 22, 2008  10:58 AM ET
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http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/156464

February 22, 2008  02:40 PM ET
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technicalities. Look, the ONLY guarantees in an NFL contract come in your SIGNING BONUS, which teams have tried to recoup in recent yrs w/ some success, and IN FRANCHISE CONTRACTS. A franchise contract IS GUARANTEED for that one season, but a LONG-TERM DEAL, which Elway claims is a much better deal for the player. IS NOT GUARANTEED.

HIS ARGUMENT IS JUST AS FLAWED. He's arguing you get more guaranteed money in a LT deal and that's not true either. You may get more money just cuz of the structure of the deal, BUT LESS OF IT WILL BE GUARANTEED.

February 22, 2008  05:15 PM ET
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My arguement is not flawed at all. Unlike you i come into this knowing what im talking about.

February 22, 2008  06:06 PM ET
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Peyton's Manning signed a 7 year/99.2 mill contract with a 34.5 million dollar signing bonus. He 14.17 million dollars anually. If he got injured he would make more money from that contract that any franchise tag.

February 22, 2008  06:10 PM ET
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could you guys vote on this

http://www.fannation.com/throwdowns/show/138978

February 22, 2008  06:11 PM ET
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Hey, sorry buddy, if I didn't read everything verbatim. I wanted to accept the TD and jumped into my argument w/out reading EVERY LAST WORD. SUE ME.

You never even answered why exclusive or non-exclusive matters. I ASKED YOU TO NAME ONE GUY WHO HAD BEEN SIGNED BY ANOTHER TEAM UNDER THE NON-EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE TAG AND FORFEITED 2 FIRST ROUND PICKS. If no one gets signed to the Non-exclusive tag, then there is no difference between the two, a franchise tag is a franchise tag.

It doesn't piss off fans, it provides salary protection to the player for that yr, and the player is paid as one of the best at his position. They forego a little upfront cash which pisses off the me first athelete who want to be shown the money, but the guy gets paid.

Look at Walter Jones, he got franchised 3 yrs in a row, and was mad, but he was able to sign a $50M contract w/ $20M in signing bonus. HE GOT PAID, he got his signing bonus, and until that, he was still paid as one of the highest paid OLinemen in the league.

February 22, 2008  06:14 PM ET
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11 of the 12 franchised tagged players are under the non exclusive tag. Hows that for no one.

February 22, 2008  06:14 PM ET
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Btw I've already highered my lawyer and were working on the case.

February 22, 2008  06:23 PM ET
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And i dont know if you know this but a knee injury is bad for any player, pocket passing qbs included. Qbs do get some of their power from their legs, and if he cant stand or plant correctly what is he worth?

February 22, 2008  06:23 PM ET
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Your numbers don't add up. 14.17 for yrs IS 99M. If he got 34.5 as a signing bonus, he'd make $9M per season, which is LESS than the franchise deal and would NOT BE GUARANTEED.

Now you're the one not reading. I said he'd make MORE in SALARY under the franchise deal. The signing bonus is seperate and gives him more TOTAL compensation, but he'd get that signing bonus later when he made a long term deal. BUT ANNUAL SALARY IS HIGHER AND GUARANTEED UNDER THE FRANCHISE TAG. Not so w/ the LT deal.

In order to compare apples to apples, you'd have know how much the signing bonus was when a Walter Jones was first getting franchised, and how much that signing bonus is when he signs his longterm deal. AND I KNOW, your signing bonus WILL ALWAYS BE HIGHER in later yrs.

You clearly have never taken a finance class. The present value of future money is discounted by the rate of return that money can earn. I guarantee that NFL salaries and bonuses are growing faster than the avg market return.

February 22, 2008  06:24 PM ET
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The NFLPA has to be the worst union in professional sports. Who were the idiots that agreed to no guaranteed salaries and the franchise tag?

February 22, 2008  06:25 PM ET
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but HAS ANYONE EVER SIGNED A NON-EXCLUSIVE GUY? If not, then they might as well ALL BE EXCLUSIVE. YOU see? No, really you don't.

February 22, 2008  06:36 PM ET
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Im not doing the math: http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=pasquarelli _len&id=1748909

 
February 22, 2008  06:38 PM ET
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And I like the non exlcusive cause it allows the smaller franchises to at least be compensated for their big name players. Sure no one does it, but its a tool for compensation if someone decides it's enough. I get it. I read things before i make arguements and sound like an idiot.

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