Franchise Tag Discussion

Just to preface, this is purely meant to start a discussion. The NFL has a few different facets to their franchise tag that I think should be considered for our league.

-A player who signs his franchise tender has the contract guaranteed for the year

-The contract offered under the franchise tag is an average of the 5 top salaries (we adapt this to 4) OR 120% of his past year's contract, whichever is higher

-If a player is tagged two years in a row, the contract is another 120% of the previous year's salary

-If tagged three years in a row, the contract is 144%

-The NFL also differentiates between exclusive and non-exclusive franchise tags. You still may only tag one player per season, but you can designate him exclusive (meaning he cannot negotiate with other teams - this is more or less what we have now) or non-exclusive. If designated non-exclusive, the player is free to negotiate with other teams, but the original team can choose to either match any offer signed, or receive two 1st round picks as compensation. For our league, I think we could adapt this to a single 1st round pick lost

-Finally, there also exists a transition tag, wherein a team offers the player a one year deal worth an average of the top 10 salaries at the position (we could adapt to 8 )

The manager in me thinks all of these are pretty cool. I see no reason why a franchise contract in our league should not be fully guaranteed (i.e. blue on the spreadsheet). I think the 120% rule guards against situations that give players a pay-cut after being franchised, and the 144% rule follows logically from that, and also encourages more player movement. Adding a non-exclusive tag option, in my mind, would be the coolest addition. It would mimic an extremely limited form of restricted free agency, but also add in a huge element of strategy to the decision making process: better to apply an exclusive tag to your stud, or to decide on the risk/reward of applying the non-exclusive tag? I'm pretty lukewarm on the transition tag idea, because I always enjoy player turnover, and the free agency season in general, and being able to keep 2 potential free agents per year might water down the pool. On the other hand, I love the element of strategy it might introduce

Also, if your biggest (or only) objection is "that sounds too fucking complicated" save it, I'm aware. I'd like to hear actual feedback about repercussions if any of these were to be instituted

This sounds way too fucking complicated

I hate the transition tag, but like the idea of the non-exclusive franchise tag. Compensation would be the tricky part in my opinion.

I was just thinking the other day:"You know what this league needs? hella-more complexity

I like the ideas for the most part, but am against the transition tag. All for increasing the franchise tagged players and guaranteeing contracts etc. The non-exclusive tag could get tricky. If another team wants that player, is there a mini bidding session between those who do? Should we maybe do a 1st round pick and 3rd round pick of same yr? Just some thoughts. I like the direction here and hope something gets settled for next season.

I think with a non-exclusive tag, the player would just be 'available' during free agency as if he were any other player, but after the bidding on him concluded, the original owner would have a week to decide whether to match the offer or lose him.

Doesn't the transition tag work the same as the non-exclusive, where they are free agents, but the team can match, and their is draft pick compensation if they don't match? I don't really see it as necessary if we did a non-exclusive. That said I like the rest of the general idea, with hammering out details later.

My understanding is that there is no compensation if you lose a transition guy, because you're taking a risk by offering him a lower contract than the franchise guy. I wasn't terribly in favor of this for us in general because it shorts the free agent pool every year if a team can protect 2 expiring contracts instead of 1. If we get a couple more guys to give input I can write up a formal rule proposal for people to vote on

im too tired to really reread each post but I like the idea of a franchise tag for 1 player and a second player we can tag with a round of draft pick compensation if we dont wish to match the amount for.

I don't think I'd want two tags per team, but the option to open up players that you want to tag to the rest of the league. The Nfl can only choose 1 of those three.

If we were to use both a non-exclusive and transition tag i would recommend this for those two tags and how to make them function. If used, the player would be posted as a bid of the tag amount (described by Tom) for 1 year. If the bid is not beat by anyone in a week the player is yours, if some one out bids you, bidding continues as normal until a final bid is reached. at which point the person tagging the player originally has the option to match. if not matched the player would go to the winning bidder, but they would have to give up either like a 1st (maybe more not sure) for an non-ex. fran. tag or just recieve the plater if it was a transition.

I personally don't think this would be used much and therefore don't like it.

Where as if we only use the exclusive and non-exclusive tag options we could just allow the player to be bid on as normal. therefore potentially saving the owner some cap space. I think this risk reward option would be used more often and actually add more strategy and fun to the game.

Just wanted to elaborate on why I don't like the transition tag for this league.

Bump... I want more participation

I say we go ahead and write up a rule for the use of either an exclusive franchise tag or non-exclusive franchise tag and move it to vote.