Seahawks Franchise a kicker?

Yuck.  The fact that we are placing the Franchise Tag on a fucking kicker makes me sick.  What makes me even sicker is the fact that they’re justified in doing so.  I had every intention of ripping them for using it on a kicker, but then I looked at the roster and the only other person even in the realm of deserving it would be Nate Burleson, and there’s no way I’m paying him upwards of $10 million for next year.  He probably won’t even get half of that in free agency.

For those of you not in the know, or for females attempting to further your sports knowledge as to impress your boyfriends/husbands/dudes you sleep with, let me explain what the “Franchise Tag” is and what it does:

Each year, teams have Restricted Free Agents (RFA) and Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA).  A RFA can sign an offer sheet with any team in the league, however, because he is “restricted”, his original team has the right to match that offer if they so choose.  So, lets say for the sake of this conversation that Matt Hasselbeck was a RFA (he isn’t).  Perhaps some team like Oakland searching for a veteran QB signs him to a 2 year, $20 million dollar offer sheet.  The ‘Hawks would then have the ability to match that offer because he was a RFA.  He would then be a Seahawk at 2 years, $20 million.  An UFA is just that, no restrictions.  He is free to sign for however much the market will pay him and he owes nothing to his old team.

Teams use the Franchise Tag when they are attempting to keep big name players from walking away in free agency (the team Franchised Walter Jones like 5 years in a row until they hammered out a long-term deal).  There are two types of Franchise tag; exclusive and non-exclusive.  An “exclusive” franchise player must be offered a one-year contract for the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position (or 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater).  So basically, we have to pay Mare the average of the top 5 highest paid kickers in the NFL.  That sum comes out to about $2.4 million for one year, which isn’t that bad.  It’s not exactly cheap, but it’s pretty good considering his production and ability to be less of a douche than Josh Brown.  Also, exclusive franchise players cannot negotiate with other teams.

A “non-exclusive” franchise player must be offered a one-year contract for the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position (or 120% of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater).  So, same thing, but the difference is a non-exclusive franchise player may negotiate with other NFL teams.  However, if he signs an offer sheet from another team, the original team has a right to match the terms of that offer, or if it does not match the offer and thus loses the player, is entitled to receive two first-round draft picks as compensation.  So if we made Mare a “non-exclusive” franchise player, and say, the 49ers signed him (they wouldn’t), we’d get 2 first round picks from them as compensation.  Even Tim Ruskell isn’t stupid enough to give up 2 first round picks for a kicker.

Now if you’re wondering what happened to Steve Hutchinson, Ruskell in his infinite wisdom did not Franchise him, instead opting to put the Transition Tag on him.  All this meant was that when he signed an offer sheet with Minnesota for a then ridiculous 7 years, $49 million (seems sorta like a bargain now, huh?) and we didn’t match it, the Vikings didn’t have to give us two draft picks as compensation.  Good job, Ruskell.  Have fun being unemployed you fucktard.

Basically, the Seahawks fucking suck.  Their two best players this past season were a kicker and a punter (Jon Ryan).  That’s so depressing that I want to hang myself.  Or go luging in Canada.   (eeesh, too soon?)