Ravens won't let Suggs test market

[ravenmad71]

Newsome says team will franchise LB if they can't reach long-term deal
By Jamison Hensley | Sun reporter
2:53 PM EST, February 11, 2008

The Ravens aren't going to let linebacker Terrell Suggs hit the open market when free agency begins at the end of the month.

"We will be using the franchise tag on Terrell if we don't have a long-term deal in place between now and then," general manager Ozzie Newsome said today.

Despite having a career-low five sacks last season, Suggs would be one of the most sought-after free agents this year.

By using the tag on Suggs, the Ravens will give him a one-year contract worth $8.065 million, the average of the five highest-paid linebackers in the NFL.

If another team makes an offer to Suggs, the Ravens can either match it or receive two first-round picks as compensation (which is unlikely to happen).

The deadline to assign the franchise tag is Feb. 21.

Suggs' agent, Gary Wichard, did not immediately return phone calls.

jamison.hensley@baltsun.com

[HoustonRaven]

Good! Kudos to Ozzie for getting out in front. This will make it harder for Suggs to demand something that isnt workable.

[highwater]

I think this is a good idea, although I admit I'm a little surprised. The FO has been reluctant to use the franchise tag in the past. Although they did use it on Cmac once, it seemed like an organizational philosophy to avoid it.

[pyite32]

My understanding is that they use the Franchise tag when they still believe they can work out a long term deal. They don't like to use it just to hang on to someone for one more year. (IE CMac vs. AD)

[B-more Ravor]

They've only used the franchise tag 3 times - once on Wally Williams and twice on CMac. I don't know that they really are against using it, as much as they simply haven't often been in the position to need to use it. They wanted to keep Williams, who wanted to leave, and CMac had his maturity issues that led them to not want to give him a sizeable bonus.

Otherwise, they have always been able to lock up the guys that they would have otherwise needed to use the tag on before having to franchise them.

With AD, they simply weren't going to give him the $20M in bonus money that he was going to command and weren't willing to restructure deals to do so.

[flraven]

Good post B-more.

If they do franchise Suggs, I'd hope they'd get a deal in place that replaces the franchise tag money, since that isn't very cap-friendly.

[RavensNTerps]

stupid...unless we trade him for a high round pick or chad johnson.

[jonboy79]

Correct me if I'm worng, but is there also not a transition tag, where the salary is less, and a competing offer would only relinquish a single first? I think it may play to our benefit if someone did offer something lowball, as we could sign him. If someone really backs the brinks truck up, or throws a poison pill, a First isn't such bad compensation... we could use the picks to rebuild. And lastly if he ends up playing with the tag, we could use every bit of space possible.

[UKRavenStockers]

I don't think the Transition tag yields any compensation (Spikes from Cincy to Buffalo was a transition tag), franchise tag yields one first and exclusive franchise tag (which I think the Colts once used on Manning) yields two first round draft choices.

I think that's how it works, but could be wrong.

[psuasskicker]

http://football.about.com/cs/football101/a/franchisetransi.htm


A transition player designation gives the club a first-refusal right to match within seven days an offer sheet given to the player by another club after his contract expires. If the club matches, it retains the player. If it does not match, it receives no compensation. Transition players can be signed from March 3 through July 22."

- C -

[RavenScallywag]

I don't think the Transition tag yields any compensation (Spikes from Cincy to Buffalo was a transition tag), franchise tag yields one first and exclusive franchise tag (which I think the Colts once used on Manning) yields two first round draft choices.

I think that's how it works, but could be wrong.

ALL Franchise tags yield two first rounds...Exclusive means no one can negotiate with the player, and as such, the player receives the top 5 in terms of THAT YEAR's position salary. Non-exclusive will allow negotiations, but the original team is only on the hook for the average of the top 5 salaries from the PREVIOUS year.

[UKRavenStockers]

ALL Franchise tags yield two first rounds...Exclusive means no one can negotiate with the player, and as such, the player receives the top 5 in terms of THAT YEAR's position salary. Non-exclusive will allow negotiations, but the original team is only on the hook for the average of the top 5 salaries from the PREVIOUS year.

Ah, thanks for the clear up sir. Be interesting to see ho much the exclusive tag adds to it. I noticed in a link I posted last week that the franchise tag can go up as much as 25% in one season.

[jonboy79]

I knew there was two numbers... obviously the tranition tag doesn't work, but there is no value in the non-exclusive either.

[Dade]

ALL Franchise tags yield two first rounds...Exclusive means no one can negotiate with the player, and as such, the player receives the top 5 in terms of THAT YEAR's position salary. Non-exclusive will allow negotiations, but the original team is only on the hook for the average of the top 5 salaries from the PREVIOUS year.

No, only non-exclusive tags yield two first round draft picks. A non-exclusive franchise player may negotiate with other NFL teams, but if he signs an offer sheet from another team, the original team has a right to match the terms of that offer, or if it does not match the offer and thus loses the player, to receive two first-round draft picks as compensation.

I would rather see the Ravens give him the non exclusive tag. If we lose him, we've proven we can draft well on the defensive side of the ball to replace him. I just want us to have as many first round picks as possible to use in negotiations to move up or down or to use in trades.