2011 Free Agency

[Goodell]

As mentioned, so far we are only doing the college draft this off-season and waiting on the NFL labor situation to be resolved in terms of free agency, restricted free agency rules, franchise tags, salary caps, etc. and the NFL to start their new league year and begin their own free agency before we begin ours. As such, we don't know what our salary cap will be next year either (just like NFL teams) and don't know when free agency will start just yet.

However, here is a list of players without contract next year:
http://www.fangm.com/football/freeagentlist.php

It can be found now on the free agency page also.

Team rosters haven't been updated for 2011 yet because anything that quotes the amount of cap space under the cap would be a lie at this point since we have no idea what the 2011 salary cap will be just yet. So just look at the 2011 column and anyone without contract for 2011 is someone who very possibly could hit the market. There could be restricted free agency and franchise tags limiting their movement, but that's all to be determined still.

We could have just put everything on hold until the NFL situation was figured out but the majority voted to go ahead with the draft just as the NFL did, even though the rest of the off-season was on hold and upcoming rules uncertain until agreements reached or judges force the lockout to end and a new league year to begin with transactions starting up again. Hopefully that's sooner than later, but we'll see.

[sportznut]

The NFL already used franchise tags in this off season.

I don't know about transition tags, and all RFA decisions could be reversed at this point anyways, so no real reason to jump the gun there, but they did have franchise tags at the very least.

Although I think that with the draft happening before the franchise tags that teams bidding on franchise players this year should be required to have the picks for 2012 before bidding on those players. Just my .02

[sportznut]

This is the story I posted in February.

It says both franchise and transition tags could be used.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... s-nfl-says

[Goodell]

This is the story I posted in February.

It says both franchise and transition tags could be used.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... s-nfl-says

That happened then but there is no guarantee that those decisions made prior to a new labor agreement are going to stand, though, under a new system that has yet to be formalized. Until free agency, those tags don't mean anything, and without knowing what a salary cap might be it makes it any decisions about that rather uninformed not knowing how that impacts a cap.

The NFL had no cap last year within the environment those decisions were made. We HAVE to have a cap because it's not real money. Real teams (who weren't for sure those decisions would stand) would have made those choices then based upon their own personal finances, not how it impacts their cap since there was no cap for them. Here, though, teams would need to know how those decisions would impact their cap, and that is unknown at the moment and would be odd and unneccessary to force those decisions before knowing team finance limits IMO. But I'm always open to feedback, just see a big difference there as it pertains to us and not much urgency to enforce a system from free agency last year that could very well change upon a new agreement or judge decision this off-season.

The NFL certainly believed then that teams have the right to do that, but that's meaningless if a judge disagrees or collective bargaining comes to a different resolution. And it won't ever even come up until there's free agency for those restrictions to be applied. The league believed a lot of things they could do, but recently a lot of judges disagreed.

[sportznut]

I see what you're saying and at the end of the day you might be right, but I personally think a new labor agreement isn't going to affect current franchise/transition tags. It seems that restricted free agency is definitely one thing on the table.

I don't see an issue with waiting, but I'm not going to be a happy camper if I can't use those tags on my players this offseason.

I fully understand your stance on it though.

[Goodell]

I see what you're saying and at the end of the day you might be right, but I personally think a new labor agreement isn't going to affect current franchise/transition tags. It seems that restricted free agency is definitely one thing on the table.

I don't see an issue with waiting, but I'm not going to be a happy camper if I can't use those tags on my players this offseason.

I fully understand your stance on it though.

For us, if the NFL remains using Franchise tags so would we. If some judge says they can no longer restrict player professional freedom that way when no longer under contract and franchise tags go away (which the player might also try to make happen in negotiations) then we likely woulnd't retain those here if they disappeared from reality. But if the world went without franchise tags one day (and like you say probably not) then we'd likely try to furter address player extensions.

[Goodell]

I am going on vacation from tomorrow thru 5/31, so nothing will happen with free agency or trades or anything until after then. Nothing would happen anyway yet until there is more clarity on the NFL labor situation. Hopefully there will be some decisions in early June (6/3 could be very important) upcoming that get things further clarified and we can start discussing the rest of the off-season then. Aloha!

[sportznut]

I am going on vacation from tomorrow thru 5/31, so nothing will happen with free agency or trades or anything until after then. Nothing would happen anyway yet until there is more clarity on the NFL labor situation. Hopefully there will be some decisions in early June (6/3 could be very important) upcoming that get things further clarified and we can start discussing the rest of the off-season then. Aloha!

Have a safe trip. Hawaii is gorgeous.

[Nathan S.]

I see you changed the FA page now so it shows all the players. Is there anyway you can make it so if you click on the player it goes to his height/weight page like it does if you click on a player on a teams roster.

[Goodell]

I see you changed the FA page now so it shows all the players. Is there anyway you can make it so if you click on the player it goes to his height/weight page like it does if you click on a player on a teams roster.

Possibly, though, when FA turn on clicking on their names goes to the page to bid on them. That's where it goes now, but just an error saying not quite ready to place bids just yet.