Not understanding Franchise Tag

[speedtrucker]

the other key aspect in Madden is for those of us that took over a team that is in financial h-e-l-l and constantly in the red.

I took over as GM of the Rams, was about 3-6 mil in the red and the CPU auto-generated a schedule that started with 5 road games, bye week, home game, road game. so my first 8 weeks of the season resulted in only 1 week where I had money actually being generated.

We were bad, we were 20mil in the red by the end of the season and that meant that despite the 50mil in cap space I could not renegotiate a single FA contract and everyone was going to walk. except that I could tag 1 player and keep him. well I kept my star CB jenkins from walking with the Franchise Tag. still in the red and in the process of relocating to LA, after that I'm retiring as GM and just going to coach the Rams so I don't have to worry about Madden's inability to handle schedules or income. then I won't really have to worry about the Franchise Tag.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

Guys that aren't good enough to justify the franchise tag

If they weren't good enough to be tagged, they wouldn't be a threat to be tagged. If they were good enough to be tagged, they wouldn't accept less than that on a one year deal. That's the "gamey" aspect. For example, if you offer Calvin Johnson 1 year $10 million but the tag is $13 or w/e, why would he accept that IRL? Either he could be tagged for more guaranteed money, or he could sign a long term deal for more security.

That's the gamey element - signing AI players to deals their RL counterparts wouldn't accept.

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by IlluminatusUIUC

If they weren't good enough to be tagged, they wouldn't be a threat to be tagged. If they were good enough to be tagged, they wouldn't accept less than that on a one year deal. That's the "gamey" aspect. For example, if you offer Calvin Johnson 1 year $10 million but the tag is $13 or w/e, why would he accept that IRL? Either he could be tagged for more guaranteed money, or he could sign a long term deal for more security. That's the gamey element - signing AI players to deals their RL counterparts wouldn't accept.

Oh I agree completely. Its why I don't use that tactic (not sure if you misunderstood me or are just expanding on my criticism).

[RAVENOUS]

I think the IRL reasons for tagging a player have already been pretty well stated. In the Madden universe, I used it for one purpose, and one purpose only, which was to sign a player I planned to immediately trade for (a) draft pick(s).

Granted, I haven't played Madden since '12, because as dumb as the game is, they managed to make it even dumber by replacing Franchise mode with CCM. This may have changed, but in '12 and versions before, if you traded a player, his salary bonus caused cap hits against your team for however many years were left on his contract (if you traded a player with $12M in bonuses and 3 years left on his contract, it cost you $4M in dead money per year for the next 3 years). The franchise tag forces a player to sign with a bonus of $0, thus you could trade him and not suffer any cap hit.

Contrary to what some people have said earlier in this thread, the bonus ("guaranteed money") does matter when negotiating contracts, at least it did pre-CCM. Usually for a high 80s or better rated player, you had to offer a max value contract to get him to sign for 1 year with no bonus, which decreased his trade value, so just franchising him would allow you to trade for a slightly better draft pick.

[jasonturner]

that is nice ,newjerseysky.cc