Quote:Only guaranteed the avg top 5 salary for ONE year if you franchise said player. 

 

But why would we do that if we think he's average, and that thought has been confirmed by the market? 

 

Also, I looked up the franchise tag rules:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franchise_tag

 

There's no trade advantage to franchising a player.  It's a tool used to keep your best players from negotiating with other teams for a better deal by offering them the market value of the top 5 players at his position.  Now, the team can rescind the tag, but then the player can walk anyway because he's not franchised.

 

He's not worth the franchise tag, the rest of the NFL knows it, and he would just walk with no compensation given to the Jags.

 

The more you examine this trade, I'm afraid, the better it looks.  Really, for both teams.

 

Edit:  on top of that, he could sign the franchise tender immediately, and then the Jags are on the hook for his overpaid salary for a year.  And we still get nothing in return.

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