correct to a degree.Crouchend_Hammer wrote: ↑Tue Mar 29, 2022 5:41 pm Interesting, and that is only 'free agency' which is players out of contract I believe
Now players seem to get traded whilst still under some form of contract with their current club, with draft picks as the transfer fee
I think that one player who is out of contract can also have a "franchise tag" placed on them.
effectively I think this means that they stay at their current club, but HAVE to be paid the average highest salary to players at their position. maybe the top 4 or something like that. I might have that slightly wrong but that's the jist of it.
if they cannot agree a new contract with their current club, they get an automatic one year deal which I'm pretty sure they HAVE to agree to, which pays them this much. they can't be designated again next year, so they do in effect become a free agent then.
I think though there's also a designation which does a similar thing but it's up to the club and player to negiatate this "new" deal and the team can choose to match that figure and they cannot agree he goes to the club of his choice which offered that salary but the club he leaves from, gets a specific draft pick in liue of him. i.e. it's as if he was traded but he gets to chosse where he is traded to. again I might have this slightly wrong but I think it's somewhere correct.
then there's the DeShawn Watson type of thing where when he renewed his new contract he asked for a no trade clause to be inserted which the Texans agreed to. which effectively meant he could never be traded.
he ended up getting the best financial deal from the Browns, who might not have offered what the other "bidding" clubs agreed to in terms of draft picks, but he could refuse to waive his no trade clause to any of the other bidders in effect getting himself traded to the only club he wanted to go to.
I think