Re: Franchise tag in effect
Not sure why the media ever thought this was in doubt. The tag is applied a week prior to the start of FA. If they didn't tag players this year and in the wee hours before March 4th a new CBA was hammered out, or if one is hammered out down the road, it would be too late to tag a pending FA a team was intent on retaining or being compensated for in trade...
It will be interesting to see how many players are tagged under the circumstances. Polian has already stated that Manning will be tagged barring a contract agreement. For some signing that tag would probably be wise because although it might not guarantee nearly what they'd hope to see in UFA signing bonus, if 500 UFA suddenly flood the FA market under a new more restrictive cap the kind of deals they were anticipating may not materialize in 2011...