It's a practice that's much less prominent in football than it is in baseball but it's not bad business for either the team or the client. Players hate the franchise tag because there's no longterm security. Most of them would take less money annually for that security. Especially in a sport like football where injury is so prominent.
No one. I never said they did. KB21 made my point for me. Sign too early and you're underpaid when you become a star. Plus lose some market value at the end because of age. Its moot anyway because the CBA blocks this anyway.
Exactly and if they have a replacement for Starks then they can erase him from the cap next year since it is a one year tender allowing more room for the Wallace Wallup.
It's a bit premature, but it also appears that 2014 may be a ****ty year for free agency: http://nfltraderumors.co/2014-nfl-free-agents/ It looks significantly less appealing than this off-season, in part because a fair amount of the highlighted names are available this year or are too blue-chip to likely be on the market. If that's the case, the Dolphins seem to be better off going for a 2012-style off-season where they lock down Reshad Jones and mostly look for bargains and fill-ins.
and his name is Star Lotulelei, NT/DT/DE Utah My wish will come true after all. Top5 prospect in draft falls, because of "heart condition" that scares enough teams in the top 10, right into our laps. No need for a receiver that high with our FA signing. Ahh, it is all coming together. I foresee very little increases in the salary cap. Would not be surprised with a $2m increase each year for a few years; perhaps even less next year ($1m). Next year $125m - $94,960,554 = $30,039,446 $30.039m is a very healthy number and we can thank the CBA and rookie salary adjustments as we are in a similar position to SF, SEA, WAS with a young QB not getting paid much so the money gets allocated to other places. Something that seemingly has not sunk in to many "analysts" who are coming out of the woodwork today saying we overpaid here and there (we did to a degree...but I call it a necessary overpayment) and spelling our doom.
If I am not mistaken, those are already in effect as of December 2011 and run into 2022, hence why some team values ballooned into the $1.__ billion range recently per Forbes valuations. Edit: Only thing I can think of is if the current contract expires in 2013. Perhaps that is what you are implying.
I dunno know if you can call it breaking the bank if you give your proven QB a big contract. There is no more vital piece in the puzzle than QB.