Franchise Tag - Looks Expensive At All Positions

[Night Train]

2007 Franchise tags by position
<TABLE width="50%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=header2>Position</TD><TD class=header2>
2007 Franchise tender
</TD></TR><TR><TD>QB</TD><TD>
$12.6M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>RB</TD><TD>
$6.9M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>WR</TD><TD>
$7.6M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>TE</TD><TD>
$4.3M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>OL</TD><TD>
$9.5M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>DE</TD><TD>
$8.3M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>DT</TD><TD>
$6.7M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>LB</TD><TD>
$7.2M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>CB</TD><TD>
$7.7M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>S</TD><TD>
$4.4M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>K/P</TD><TD>
$2M
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I looked at the FA market come March and didn't see too much quality. My assumption was that many teams would simply exercise the Franchise tag, rather than scramble to find a replacement for a quality FA to be. Seemed most teams had plenty of cap room. So use it to keep your own FA's.

Now that I look at the above figures, I'm not so sure that will happen. Those numbers are beyond absured.

I still don't view that as good news for FA. The large market teams will simply overpay for average to above average talent, leaving table scraps and bargain shopping for the rest.

I'll let FA play out but it shows you have to make your draft picks count more than ever. That's the last even playing field left.

[Mitchy moo]

true dat NT, True dat.

[feelthepain]

That's why you need an owner who'll step up and offer a big signing bonus, so the Bills can compete with the bigger markets. By not doing that, which is RW's history, it tells players the Bills aren't serious about building a winner and it makes it tough to get big name FA's.

[Night Train]

That's why you need an owner who'll step up and offer a big signing bonus, so the Bills can compete with the bigger markets. By not doing that, which is RW's history, it tells players the Bills aren't serious about building a winner and it makes it tough to get big name FA's.

I don't see the Pats or Steelers doing it either. Remind me how they've done over the last several years.

Snyder has thrown $$ at everything that moves in FA. Where has it gotten him ? The same with Jerry Jones the last several years.

There is a difference between paying and overpaying.

[Saratoga Slim]

I don't see the Pats or Steelers doing it either. Remind me how they've done over the last several years.

Snyder has thrown $$ at everything that moves in FA. Where has it gotten him ? The same with Jerry Jones the last several years.

There is a difference between paying and overpaying.

So true.

[feelthepain]

I don't see the Pats or Steelers doing it either. Remind me how they've done over the last several years.

Snyder has thrown $$ at everything that moves in FA. Where has it gotten him ? The same with Jerry Jones the last several years.

There is a difference between paying and overpaying.


There is also a difference in talent and no talent.

[Night Train]

There is also a difference in talent and no talent.

Teams that draft wisely and have a sharp/stable front office,win. Lately, the Bills have drafted some good players but have suffered too many misses on draft day. Plus the Bills old GM hired weak coaches.

Free Agency has been a big failure with the higher priced players. Rarely are they worth it. They may sell tickets initially but can't produce as expected on the field.

[ICE74129]

I will say this, If chicago taggs briggs I would pay the 7.2 mill in this years cap to get him easy, BUT not the two first rounders chicago will demand

[Jeff1220]

There is also a difference in talent and no talent.

Being a Fin fan, you should have no problem identifying the latter.

[feelthepain]

Teams that draft wisely and have a sharp/stable front office,win. Lately, the Bills have drafted some good players but have suffered too many misses on draft day. Plus the Bills old GM hired weak coaches.

Free Agency has been a big failure with the higher priced players. Rarely are they worth it. They may sell tickets initially but can't produce as expected on the field.


I disagree, the only time big name FA miss, is if you go after someone that's not suited for your system or by adding a big time FA to a team that needs a lot more help then one or two FA's. Look at what Drew Brees did for the Saints or TO for the Cowboys, TO was a big time upgrade over K.Johnson.

[Night Train]

I disagree, the only time big name FA miss, is if you go after someone that's not suited for your system or by adding a big time FA to a team that needs a lot more help then one or two FA's. Look at what Drew Brees did for the Saints or TO for the Cowboys, TO was a big time upgrade over K.Johnson.

Brees was a fantastic aquisition but a huge gamble at the time, due to his shoulder injury.

It's debatable whether T.O. was a good aquisition. The Cowboys were in the drivers seat for a playoff spot and blew it. Owens dropped a lot of balls and started his crap all over again.

[feelthepain]

Brees was a fantastic aquisition but a huge gamble at the time, due to his shoulder injury.

It's debatable whether T.O. was a good aquisition. The Cowboys were in the drivers seat for a playoff spot and blew it. Owens dropped a lot of balls and started his crap all over again.

But TO also had the most TD's in the league among WR's, he had a lot of drops because of a broken finger he broke 1/3 of the way through the season that didn't fully heal. Dallas fell apart because of their D and a young inexperienced QB, but still made the playoffs and were a Tony Romo mistake away from the divisional round of the playoffs. Like I said TO was a huge upgrade over K.Johnson.

[Stewie]

2007 Franchise tags by position
<TABLE width="50%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=header2>Position</TD><TD class=header2>
2007 Franchise tender
</TD></TR><TR><TD>QB</TD><TD>
$12.6M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>RB</TD><TD>
$6.9M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>WR</TD><TD>
$7.6M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>TE</TD><TD>
$4.3M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>OL</TD><TD>
$9.5M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>DE</TD><TD>
$8.3M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>DT</TD><TD>
$6.7M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>LB</TD><TD>
$7.2M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>CB</TD><TD>
$7.7M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>S</TD><TD>
$4.4M
</TD></TR><TR><TD>K/P</TD><TD>
$2M
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

I looked at the FA market come March and didn't see too much quality. My assumption was that many teams would simply exercise the Franchise tag, rather than scramble to find a replacement for a quality FA to be. Seemed most teams had plenty of cap room. So use it to keep your own FA's.

Now that I look at the above figures, I'm not so sure that will happen. Those numbers are beyond absured.

I still don't view that as good news for FA. The large market teams will simply overpay for average to above average talent, leaving table scraps and bargain shopping for the rest.

I'll let FA play out but it shows you have to make your draft picks count more than ever. That's the last even playing field left.

On a percentage basis, I don't think those numbers are too far off.

We're in the middle of a big cap explosion. Salaries that once seemed absurd will quickly become standard.

[mikemac2001]

But TO also had the most TD's in the league among WR's, he had a lot of drops because of a broken finger he broke 1/3 of the way through the season that didn't fully heal. Dallas fell apart because of their D and a young inexperienced QB, but still made the playoffs and were a Tony Romo mistake away from the divisional round of the playoffs. Like I said TO was a huge upgrade over K.Johnson.

i saw alot of late Td's that didnt matter from TO so idk about the most TD statements. but the finger healing good point to drops but damn he had alot and it looked more like him looking to run upfield instead of catching it

[feelthepain]

i saw alot of late Td's that didnt matter from TO so idk about the most TD statements. but the finger healing good point to drops but damn he had alot and it looked more like him looking to run upfield instead of catching it

I'm sure he heard footsteps from time to time.

[jamze132]

But TO also had the most TD's in the league among WR's, he had a lot of drops because of a broken finger he broke 1/3 of the way through the season that didn't fully heal. Dallas fell apart because of their D and a young inexperienced QB, but still made the playoffs and were a Tony Romo mistake away from the divisional round of the playoffs. Like I said TO was a huge upgrade over K.Johnson.
You got that from ESPN right?

[jamze132]

I wonder if Chicago is willing to pay Lance Briggs over $7mil this season. If they are smart, they will tag him. Some team will probably offer 2 first rounders for him.

[BillsFever21]

That's why you need an owner who'll step up and offer a big signing bonus, so the Bills can compete with the bigger markets. By not doing that, which is RW's history, it tells players the Bills aren't serious about building a winner and it makes it tough to get big name FA's.

Unfortunately I agree with you.

Sometimes you might have to overpay for a player if need be to show other potential FA's that your serious about winning.

When you just go for the castoffs and the scraps and never show anybody the money they deserve(especially your own homegrown talent) then any major FA will never take you seriously.

If you need to overpay once or twice to get to that level of respectability then it helps in the long run. If you can make the playoffs and show you're a team on the rise and that's willing to win then FA's will WANT to come and play for you and not because you're the only one who took interest in them(i.e. Peerless Price of 2006)

When you always cheap out most FA's who wanna win still won't wanna sign with you if you offer them fair market value. They will sign with somebody else because they won't believe that you're commited to do whatever it takes to build a winner.

Look at a few years back. Even though it didn't pay off(due to bad coaches) we went out and showed some attractive FA's the money. That made other players respect our franchise and they believed we were serious about winning. We had players WANTING to come to Buffalo because they felt that was the place to be.

Guys like Takeo Spikes who lost for 6 straight years WANTED to come to Buffalo because we earned that respectability and he believed we were gonna do whatever it took. Too bad crappy coaching and a washed up QB ruined some of the great talent we were able to bring it but it showed attractive FA's will come to Buffalo and any team for that matter if you sell them the fact that you're serious about doing whatever it takes to win.

Do you really think somebody like Takeo Spikes who could've picked his team would've chose Buffalo had we not started to earn that respectability after losing for 5 straight years in Cinci. when he was just hungry to win.

Do you think right now after the way we've cheaped out the past 2 or 3 years that if Spikes' situation was the same right now he would WANT to come to Buffalo first after leaving Cinci. Not a chance in hell.

Another year of cheaping out and our team officially becomes thought of to the players around the NFL as the old Bengals and Cardinals. Teams that won't pay players the money they deserve and will never have any long term success.

Pretty soon the only players we will be able to get are the castoff type of players we signed last year even IF we wanna start spending some money. Look at how long it took the Bengals to change the players way of thinking when they decided to start spending some money. It's not easy to regain their belief in your organization. Especially on a team that hasn't made the playoffs in 7 years and counting.

I think Ralph Wilson was willing to open his wallet 5 years back when Donahoe came aboard. It didn't equal into playoff success so now he went back to being a cheapskate and figures if you're not gonna make the playoffs anyway then it's better to spend millions less in salaries in the process. More of a profit for the same success.

That's not the way it goes though. Just because it didn't work for a few years doesn't make it wrong to pay for good players. Building winning teams involves keeping your best homegrown talent around and paying them the money and keeping continuity within the team. That means alot when players are used to each others style of play and you know what they're gonna do in certain situations.

You just can't build and keep a winning team by always replacing players when it's time to pay them and always bringing in a cheaper version instead. It's called BUILDING a team and not constantly doing remodeling.

[feelthepain]

Unfortunately I agree with you.

Sometimes you might have to overpay for a player if need be to show other potential FA's that your serious about winning.

When you just go for the castoffs and the scraps and never show anybody the money they deserve(especially your own homegrown talent) then any major FA will never take you seriously.

If you need to overpay once or twice to get to that level of respectability then it helps in the long run. If you can make the playoffs and show you're a team on the rise and that's willing to win then FA's will WANT to come and play for you and not because you're the only one who took interest in them(i.e. Peerless Price of 2006)

When you always cheap out most FA's who wanna win still won't wanna sign with you if you offer them fair market value. They will sign with somebody else because they won't believe that you're commited to do whatever it takes to build a winner.

Look at a few years back. Even though it didn't pay off(due to bad coaches) we went out and showed some attractive FA's the money. That made other players respect our franchise and they believed we were serious about winning. We had players WANTING to come to Buffalo because they felt that was the place to be.

Guys like Takeo Spikes who lost for 6 straight years WANTED to come to Buffalo because we earned that respectability and he believed we were gonna do whatever it too. Too bad crappy coaching and a washed up QB ruined some of the great talent we were able to bring it but it showed attractive FA's will come to Buffalo and any team for that matter if you sell them the fact that you're serious about doing whatever it takes to win.

Do you really think somebody like Takeo Spikes who could've picked his team would've chose Buffalo had we not started to earn that respectability after losing for 5 straight years in Cinci. when he was just hungry to win.

Do you think right now after the way we've cheaped out the past 2 or 3 years that if Spikes' situation was the same right now he would WANT to come to Buffalo first after leaving Cinci. Not a chance in hell.

Another year of cheaping out and our team officially becomes thought of to the players around the NFL as the old Bengals and Cardinals. Teams that won't pay players the money they deserve and will never have any long term success.

Pretty soon the only players we will be able to get our the castoff type of players we signed last year even IF we wanna start spending some money. Look at how long it took the Bengals to change the players way of thinking when they decided to start spending some money. It's not easy to regain their belief in your organization. Especially on a team that hasn't made the playoffs in 7 years and counting.

I think Ralph Wilson was willing to open his wallet 5 years back when Donahoe came aboard. It didn't equal into playoff success so now he went back to being a cheapskate and figures if you're not gonna make the playoffs anyway then it's better to spend millions less in salaries in the process. More of a profit for the same success.

That's not the way it goes though. Just because it didn't work for a few years doesn't make it wrong to pay for good players. Building winning teams involves keeping your best homegrown talent around and paying them the money and keeping continuity within the team. That means alot when players are used to each others style of play and you know what they're gonna do in certain situations.

You just can't build and keep a winning team by always replacing players when it's time to pay them and always bringing in a cheaper version instead. It's called BUILDING a team and not constantly doing remodeling.

Good post.

[ublinkwescore]

Wow, OL is more expensive than CB???

I don't think there will be very many franchised OLmen.

[camelcowboy]

Wow, OL is more expensive than CB???

I don't think there will be very many franchised OLmen.

All those fat contracts for LT inflate the salaries a tad.