Most people know that in all likelihood there will be no salary cap next year. A quirk of this rule is that players will require 6 years, not 4, of service to be unrestricted free agents as opposed to restricted free agents. This is the reason why Braylon and Leon will probably be RFA next year. However, something that almost no one has mentioned and that Schefter spoke about in one of his recent chats on espn.com is that 0if there is no cap, the teams that finish in the top 8 (the winners this weekend plus the 4 teams with byes) will not be able to sign free agents until they lose a player to free agency. Just something to think about.
Eff that. Appreciate the article but any player or fan should want nothing to do with that. It should be the last thing on everyone's mind.
I agree that we shouldn't be focusing on it. I certainly am not and hope that we destroy the Bengals this weekend. I didn't mean that it is something to keep in mind this weekend. I just thought it was an interested factoid that most people don't know.
Maybe I am bias, but this team does not need another big player to be a Super Bowl team in 2010. Getting Washington and Jenkins back in 2010 could be the big boost the team needs to be championship caliber. That and experience, which they are getting right now.
This is why it would be a very wise move on Tanny's part to keep looking for as many tradebacks as possible to amass the largest possible amount of draft picks.
Mmm... this rule sucks! I was hoping we could get a decent veteran slot WR or a back-up at ILB in free agency but if this is the case I think we are screwed.
What do they mean by "if they lose one". Can we just drop a player and sign another Free Agent, or does that player have to be picked up by another team after we've matched an offer? That's the part I'm fuzzy on. There may be a loophole.
This makes no sense though. Does it mean ANY Free Agent? Like the Jets can't even bring in a backup O-lineman? That can't be right.
I think that's what it means... Our FAs this year are (in the no new CBA scenario): Unrestricted: James Dearth Wayne Hunter Tony Richardson Jay Feely Marques Douglas Howard Green Larry Izzo Ben Hartsock Ryan Fowler Restricted: Kellen Clemens Eric Smith Brad Smith Leon Washington Drew Coleman Robert Turner James Ihedigbo Marques Murrell David Clowney Braylon Edwards
I don't know if it means we can resign our own UFAs but not other teams' unless we get one of ours signed away. I think this could really impact depth more than anything else.
But many players who were supposedly going to become UFA will be RFA (like Leon and Braylon for us) so there won't be that many unrestricted FAs anyways... it's going to be an odd off-season.
This really doesn't make any sense. You would think someone would have explained it thoroughly by now.
I think I remember reading somewhere that they would have to limit their spending to how much said departing free agent gets, but I cannot remember. Either way, the owners and the players' union appear to be setting themselves up for one major drop in profits and salaries.
