The Franchise Tag

for real... do you think a cop goes to work wondering who he should shoot? The franchise tag is a front office tool. They don't have to use it all if they don't want to. IIRC, there have been several seasons when the Titans had no one franchised. If anything they should not have made that crummy deal with Haynesworth and used the franchise tag on him again. He's a pay by the use player to me and I don't mind the top 5 thing. Bironas just needs to be brought under contract. They just need to get that done. Scaife isn't good enough to blow a wad like that on. He's no top 5 tight end... he's o.k., but he doesn't merit franchise tag kind of money for 1 year. That's just wasteful. I wish they would franchise tag Haynesworth and trade his arse... that would be sweet. We could get a 1st, 2nd and 5th pick for him I bet. Stupid deal made last year. Pro Bowl incentives? That doushe should have made the Pro Bowl every year he's been here... Look at Roos! Now there's the kind of big man the Titans need!

 

Everybody is mentioning the tag we put on Haynesworth; I thought there was some kind of clause in this CBA that makes virtually impossible to tag a player two years in a row anyways? I'm not sure what the stipulations were (surely a lot more money) but I remember hearing that somewhere. Any CBA gurus here know the answer?

 

Not positive, but I think it's up to any agreements between the franchise and the player. Like when we franchised AH, there were clauses he had to reach in order for us to agree not to franchise him again. The clauses were easy so AH reached them quickly.

Technically, I don't think we had to include those clauses and there is nothing AH could've done about... except sit out training camp and part of the season which I think was the fear.



I do think without any clauses that a franchise can use the "tag" multiple times on the same person.

 

The Titans already said they were going to let Scaife test the market so the realistic choice would be Bironis. The tag for kickers is right around $2.5 mil so i'm sure the Titans will probably tag him and try to work something out throughout the season. But knowing the Titans their probably going to go down to the wire to work something out like always.

 

Geez-o-mighty. None of these guys are worth the tag. I would be seriously 'WTF' over Bironas not being signed long-term, but I figure they were trying to get the big deals locked up first - the tackles, Finny, AH, hopefully. Otherwise, it's ridiculous it's taking so long.

One thing that occurs to me is that some teams are going to really like Scaife, and he could make a nice payday for himself. The tag amount for a TE is over $4M, around 4.6, I believe. One option, useable really only if the Titans were okay getting nothing for Bo, or knew they had suitors lined up, would be to tag Scaife, and then take less than the two firsts for him, like a 2nd, or a third and another pick, etc. They could even work out a long-term deal, maybe along the lines of 5 yrs/$19M (avg. $3.8 per) with like $7-9M guaranteed.

I think there's two ways of thought teams can follow with Bo: if you compare him favorably, say, to Owen Daniels, and if you'd be willing to give up a 2nd or a 1st for Daniels as an RFA, then a 2nd and a 4th or 5th round pick might seem pretty sweet. Maybe even a late first. Arizona could maybe use some help, and Bo would thrive with Warner, but probably not gonna happen unless they'd be willing to screw over Boldin and keep him playing or not for $2.75M this year. The Giants, Ravens, Eagles, I guess all could use Bo to some degree.

The other way is looking around the league at this year's production at this position. Offhand, I recall some surprising names ahead of Bo, who had a decent season, but no exactly spectacular. Troupe had a very similar season once. Once. Billy Miller, former Texans TE, had close to 800 yards receiving on the Saints this year. Despite the season Dustin Keller had as a rookie, John Carlson, who dropped because of injuries, had the best rookie season in terms of yards for a TE. Vishante

Bo is #5 in receptions, and props to him for that. But he was #23 in YPC (9.7) and tied for 12th in TDs (with 2). He was 9th in yardage behind John Carlson (627) and Visanathe Shaincoe (596). For some reason, neither is listed in the TE stats on nfl.com, but I remembered they outperformed Scaife. Teams could perceive they can be just as lucky with an obscure Shiancoe type, who had 42 rec, 596 yards, 7 TDs. Teams laughed when the Vikings gave him a shot.

Anyway, all that's to say I think the Titans probably could finagle a sign and trade to get some value for Bo and use that pick in an effort to get a WR or other playmaker. I think it just depends if they want to take the time to do it.

So, long answer, despite the fact no player is really worth using the tag on, I might lean toward franchising Bo and getting Bironas' deal done so I would have the flexibility leading up to the draft to trade Scaife if necessary, and meanwhile, I'd work on a somewhat long-term deal with Bo (probably only a four-year; doubt he'd sign a three, and if I were the Titans, I wouldn't want to commit to five).

I would position it like this to Scaife: "We're still up in the air about which direction we're headed, but we are committed to getting you your money either way. We're going to start by using the tag on you. Then we'll see if we can work out a long-term deal. Along the way, we're going to listen to trade offers and make some inquiries of our own. Realize there's a chance we may trade you to another team if we feel it's in our mutual best interests, but at the very least you would be well paid for a year, and hopefully for the forseeable future."

 

Why would be put the tag on flipper when he would be eager to sign a 1 year deal for the vet min?

 

You can only tag someone a maximum of 3 times in a row (like Seattle did to Walter Jones)...and that is only if you don't agree to not do it in the future like we did with Al to get them to sign.

 

We can't keep franchising Albert because of our agreement with him (which we made so that he would get his butt into camp), but the main reason that people don't get franchised multiple times is because it's incredibly expensive. The player gets either the average of the top 5 players at their position OR 120% of their salary from the prior year, whichever is MORE, so if they've been franchised one year, they're making a lot more the second year, and even more the third year. There are a few more minor tweaks in doing it multiple times, but those are the main disincentives.