Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

- Written by Allie Fontana

This article kicks off a new Bruno Boys series focused on NFL Free Agency. Throughout the 2010 NFL Off-season, Bruno Boys Allie (aka BBFantasyGirl) will address a wide variety of topics ranging from breaking down the free agent players at every position to assessing free agent signings to examining how changes to free agency in an uncapped year impact the drafting and trading strategies of teams around the league. We believe that understanding free agency helps fantasy football owners make better decisions when it comes to drafting your teams and also provides insight into how the new rules governing free agency in an uncapped year will impact the NFL come August. So fasten your seatbelts Bruno Boys Nation and fantasy football fans…the 2010 NFL season promises to be a wild and crazy ride!

Despite 18 months of meetings and negotiations, NFL owners and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) were unable come up with a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) prior to the midnight March 5 deadline. This means that the league will operate under new rules in 2010 – rules that seem to favor owners far more than players.  So how did this happen?

In May 2008, owners exercised their right to opt out of the last two years of the agreement they signed in 2006. Although there were a number of reasons for their decision, the primary issue centered on how much of the gross revenues players should be paid. Under the 2006 CBA, the players receive 59.9% of the revenue – an amount that owners want to significantly reduce. They say profits are down and costs have escalated while the players want the owners to open their books to prove financial hardship.

Without a new CBA in place, the 2010 NFL season will be played without a salary cap for the first time since 1993. The threat of an uncapped year was supposed to be an incentive to owners to get a new agreement in place, while changes to the rules of free agency and a reduction in benefits were intended to motivate players. With neither side choking on its respective “poison pill” what we have instead, is a stalemate. Also looming large over the negotiations is the possibility of a lockout when the current CBA runs out in March 2011. 

No Cap Means No Ceiling and No Floor

In 2009, the salary cap had a $123 million ceiling and a $108 million floor. In a 2010 uncapped world, there is no limit on players’ salaries – either maximum or minimum. Teams can spend as much or as little as they want on their players. There are expectations that teams with deep pockets, such as the Washington Redskins, New York Jets, and Dallas Cowboys will take advantage of the uncapped year and spend big bucks in an attempt to buy a championship team. Another school of thought is that owners, in a show of solidarity, will choose to limit or curtail spending around the league. For example, rather than spend any significant money on free agency, an owner could decide to fill his roster with undrafted players or cheaper, later round draft picks.

Uncapped Year and Its Impact on Free Agency

Teams will get down to the serious business of fine tuning, overhauling or retooling their rosters when NFL free agency and the new league year gets underway on March 5. The owners’ decision to opt out of the CBA signed in 2006 changes the rules for free agency in 2010. The new rules aim to maintain a competitive balance by making fewer players eligible for free agency as well as putting limitations on the past season’s playoff teams’ ability to sign free agents. Players now need six or more accrued NFL seasons to become unrestricted free agents (UFAs) instead of the usual four seasons. This limits opportunities for the 212 fourth- and fifth-year players who played out their contracts in 2009 and were set to test the unrestricted free agency market this season. Instead these players become restricted free agents (RFAs) and are subject to a tender system that can seriously impede an RFA’s efforts to leave his old team for a more lucrative deal.

Players with three years of accrued seasons of service are also restricted free agents (RFAs) and subject to receiving (or not receiving) a qualifying offer or tender from their old teams. NFL teams can tender their restricted free agents by offering a one-year contract at any one of five tender options based on a player’s number of accrued seasons. All restricted free agents have the right to negotiate with any NFL team through the April 15, 2010 deadline. If the restricted free agent accepts an offer sheet from a new club, his old club has “right of first refusal,” a seven-day period in which it may match the offer and retain him or choose not to match the offer. The top tender would cost a new team its first- and third-round draft picks to sign the player. Additional tender options include compensation in the form of a first-round or second-round draft pick or pick from the player’s original draft round if the old club don’t match the offer. If an offer sheet is not executed, the player’s rights revert to his old club the day after negotiations must end.

Exclusive-Rights Free Agents (ERFAs) are players who have two or fewer years of NFL seasons of service and whose contracts have expired. If tendered, they have no negotiating rights with other clubs and must sign their tender with their old club or sit out the season. The new rules guiding 2010 free agency do not directly impact ERFAs.

The majority of clubs enter the 2010 off-season with more restricted free agents than unrestricted ones – and they are likely to lose fewer players to free agency than in previous years. Clubs had until March 4 to tender their restricted free agents and their exclusive rights free agents – and many teams waited until right before the deadline to tender offers to these players. For a complete list of Tender Offers for 2010 Restricted Free Agents, click here.