Franchise & Transition Tags

[Mark Vader]

Does anyone know if the Bills have their franchise tag or their 2 transition tags too use this year? I'm not saying they should use them, I was just curious to know if they had them. If anyone here knows, please let me know.

[clumping platelets]

Bills do have a framchise tag. I do not know if they can use a transition tag.

[Mark Vader]

Thanks clumping. I think the Bills should hold on to that franchise tag and use it on Nate for next year. That is of course if they can not make a deal before his contract is up.

 

Now I just want to know about those transition tags.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Bills do have a framchise tag. I do not know if they can use a transition tag.

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My understanding (and like many things regarding the cap what a layman and even a professional understands one day can turn out not to apply the next day because either the understanding was incorrect or the NFL and NFLPA simply agreed to change the rules but i think there is recent confirmation of what I'm about to say so if you can take it to the bank but you better cash the check quick) is that the transition tags were a temporary measure and once used they are gone.

 

This appears to be the case with the Bills who used a franchise tag on Peerless because they did not have a transition tag because we had used it.

 

In the case of JJ, I virtually certain the transition tag is gone and that they only have a franchise tag to use on him and I doubt they will as there are still several choices out there at LT at or or near the JJ level at LT (attempting to switch the among many the morely highly evaluated Kareem MacKenzie or slightly lower rate Stocker MacGougle to LT or use them at LT and move your own RT to LT (for example, the Bills could sign either RT to a good RT contract with a cap hit of $3 million and attempt to restructure MW to $5 million and move him to LT if JMac thinks he is up to it, alternately teams may choose to wait on JJ as several highly paid or thought of LTs may become available as cap casualties, an in addition only about 3 or maybe 4 teams like Jax, Chicago, and the 9ers have both the need and the cap room to bid on Jennings and he may simply might not be their priority to fill their need with their cap room).

 

The key for the PP tag was that Arthur Blank shot off his big mouth and essentially guranteed the Bills a market for PP who wanted to go there. Not only is AT (where JJ wants to go) unable to bid for him as they will have to struggle to merely cut players to make the cap much less bid for new cap hits, but there is simply no guranteed market and tagging JJ might simply be a punitive which lowers the level of the contract he can sigh as the Bills send him out into a market by retracting the franchise offer after the few teams that have both ability and the desire sign someone else.

 

I really doubt they tag him and as cheaper and at least as good if not better alternatives emerge on the market I doubt they will resigns him. As TD demonstrated he could do when he read the market perfectly for picking Kelsay, for reading the market and the med reports well for picking McGahee, for trading picks expertly in terms of timing to grab Denny from Pitts while they had him on the phone (even if you think Denny was a bad pick you gotta recognize that TD read the market perfectly to nail his former team to pull this off), and most recently for using the 2005 1st to pick JP when this draft offers little QB help and JP needed the seasoning anyway and now he is our starter, YD appears to have read the LT market pretty well when he lowballed JJ and I would not be surprised if JJ is wondering whether a lowball offer from the Bills is the best he will get from this market.