Taggin' Time

Monday was the first day that NFL teams could use their franchise tag designations on one of their own unsigned players. The window to do so is open until March 5th. Even though the franchise tag carries a nice little title, "franchise player", and a very nice pay day, most players hate it. The teams hate to rely on it but they love having it when they need it. The franchise tag is used when a team can't come to a contract agreement with one of their own unsigned players prior to the whirlwind of free agency. This year that begins on March 13th. They can continue neogtiating with the tagged player until mid-July. If no agreement is reached by then, it's either the franchise tag contract or a holdout. The teams have two levels of franchise tagging. Exclusive rights and non-exclusive rights. The former prevents the player from negotiating with any other team. The latter allows for the player to negotiate with other teams but the tagging team is compensated with two first round draft picks if the player signs with another team. It's a steep price so the franchise tag pretty much means that the player isn't moving any time soon. Both types of franchise tags guarantee a one-year contract based upon the highest contracts at that position in the league. The exclusive rights tag guaranteeing a larger contract than the non-exclusive. So, the tagged player is going to be very well compensated for the one year and it's all guaranteed. Even the best negotiated contracts have only portions of it guaranteed. The players usually hate the franchise tag. First of all, the one year nature of the contract provides no long term security. There's no comfort in knowing where he and his family will be for the next few years. Most importantly, the franchise tag provides no signing bonus. In a negotiated free agent contract a player receives a whole bunch of cash upon signing. Sometimes the majority of the money in the contract might be tied to that bonus. A player saddled with the franchise tag sees nothing until he starts playing the next season. Some players don't mind the franchise tag because they might have some understanding with the team that negotiations on a long-term deal will continue. There's a mutual interest in working something out and the tag is just a temporary thing.

Personally, I think that the franchise tag is a lazy way of doing business. It covers for an inability to get a deal done. Just like with the lockout last year, I'll never understand why two parties that want to work together can't come to some agreement in the given time frame. The objective of both parties is the same. Just meet in the middle. But that's just me and my pretty little view. The teams love using the threat of the tag to try and force a long-term contract out of a player. It's the last tool remaining from the owner-dominated old days to control the player. They used to control all of them, signed and unsigned. Now, they can control one. I'm actually a little surprised that the franchise tag made it into the new CBA. So, it's around for at least the next ten years. Now, let the taggin' begin.