Franchise signing issue

[RyanM]

I don't have an issue if a Marshall Yanda trade has been agreed to in AFFL, but to believe he's going to sign a contract BELOW the franchise tender level and WITHOUT a signing bonus is absurd. The contract isn't agreed to yet, but nothing below the franchise signing options on these players should be allowed IMO.

[Onyxgem]

It has always been an annual salary equal to 75% of the franchise number. I just saw it to, was surprised no SB required, maybe that is just for 3 years and below?

[Ben C.]

Yeah, it's always been a contract for a franchise player must have 75% of the annual salary of the tag number.

Signing bonus requirements are related to the length of the contract. 3 years or less require no SB.

[Goodell]

I'll have to look at the script there. It should be as stated on the bid page: Franchise player bids must also be at least 75% of the NFL-determined annual salary for franchise players in the top 5 of their positions plus the balance in signing bonus.

Understand some confusion, and sorry for that as I continue to work on stronger rules documentation ahead. I'll have to look at the script on that. To me, doesn't seem to be catching the balance in SB as intended.

[Ben C.]

What do you mean by "plus the balance in signing bonus?"

[Goodell]

Instead of having salary on franchise tag bids have to equal the franchise tag amount 100%, teams can bid a salary amount that is less than the franchise tag amount of salary so long as they make up for it with SB guarantees.

For example, if a tag value was 10M teams don't have to bid 10M in salary (plus whatever else in SB they want or would be required if a longer deal). They can bid 7.5M in salary, but as evidence in this thread signing players on the cheap for less than tag amount is frustrating to many. We allow a lower than tag salary, but it should have also required a SB that brought it to a franchise tag amount on a per year against the cap basis.

So if a 3-year deal being bid on a player at a position with 10M franchise tag value, they could bid 7.5M (meeting the 75% salary requirement) but that's 2.5M less on a year than tag value so would need SB to make up that balance. In this case, 7.5M salary + 7.5M in SB for a 3-year bid (7.5/3 = 2.5/yr) brings the overall bid to 10M against the cap each year equal to the franchise tag value of the player.

[Ben C.]

Instead of having salary on franchise tag bids have to equal the franchise tag amount 100%, teams can bid a salary amount that is less than the franchise tag amount of salary so long as they make up for it with SB guarantees.

For example, if a tag value was 10M teams don't have to bid 10M in salary (plus whatever else in SB they want or would be required if a longer deal). They can bid 7.5M in salary, but as evidence in this thread signing players on the cheap for less than tag amount is frustrating to many. We allow a lower than tag salary, but it should have also required a SB that brought it to a franchise tag amount on a per year against the cap basis.

So if a 3-year deal being bid on a player at a position with 10M franchise tag value, they could bid 7.5M (meeting the 75% salary requirement) but that's 2.5M less on a year than tag value so would need SB to make up that balance. In this case, 7.5M salary + 7.5M in SB for a 3-year bid (7.5/3 = 2.5/yr) brings the overall bid to 10M against the cap each year equal to the franchise tag value of the player.

In that case, there is an incorrect bid on Geno Atkins in the CFFL also.

Has this always been the way we've done things?

[Goodell]

Has this always been the way we've done things?

Not at the start. Believe we started doing that when people were pushing to allow bids with more guaranteed SB money instead. Found this reference in 2012 talking about the 75% rule, and a couple other places the topic was discussed over the years.

http://www.fangm.com/sportstalk/viewtop ... =701#p7770

I believe the script was working before to limit those bids on franchise players where the overall cap/yr had to at least be the franchise tag amount. I did do a little updating to that script this week trying to block people from even being able to bid if they didn't have compensation because I didn't want to have to keep dealing with that after the fact and just block anyone from even trying to bid if they didn't have the needed compensation. I'll see if something in that stopped it from working but remember seeing code in there related to those calculations based upon 75% and the balance cap/yr in SB required or should give an error back.

I think franchise tagging in general needs a little cleaning up, clarifying, and simplifying ahead. Was thinking about that as I work on rules document. If/when a new league(s) this summer may test out a couple ways of simplifying that and tweaking FA a little to see if positive changes for all ahead.

[Goodell]

The mentioned impacted bids were removed. I believe I have the script adjusted correctly now. It was a case where certain bids were slipping through the logic there and I had to close those cracks, but let me know if a problem noticed there with franchise tag bids being allowed to go through that don't meet the cap/yr equal to tag value.