difference between exclusive & non-exclusive franchise tag (TJ has non-ex)

from What’s the difference between Exclusive & Non-Exclusive Franchise Tags?

http://russellstreetreport.com/2013/02/13/street-talk/whats-the-difference-between-exclusive-non-exclusive-franchise-tags/

note: this is from an article on Flacco

NON-EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE TAG: The non-exclusive Franchise Tag is the Tag that is used most often. It does not preclude the player from negotiating with other teams, but does allow the player’s present team to match any offer sheet or receive two first round draft picks if they decline to match.

The non-exclusive Tag is a one-year contract that is the average of the top five players at the position over the prior five years. For 2013, the non-exclusive Tag for Quarterbacks has tentatively been set at $14.6M.

While the non-exclusive Tag is certainly more risky in most circumstances, other teams have rarely bothered signing franchised players to offer sheets. Often, this is simply because either the player doesn’t want to pursue an offer sheet or because other teams simply aren’t interested in spending a lot of time hammering out a contract that likely will be matched by the player’s present team anyway.

Only once in NFL history has a franchised player actually changed teams – in 1998, the Panthers signed DT Sean Gilbert to an offer sheet that the Redskins declined to match.

The other main reason for the lack of offer sheets is the amount of compensation and money involved – (1) most teams don’t want to part with two 1st round picks and (2) if giving up two 1st round picks isn’t bad enough, it’s going to take a huge contract to dissuade the other team from matching the offer sheet. Simply put, teams are willing to sign free agents to huge contracts and teams are willing to use draft picks to acquire players, but teams are rarely interested in doing both to acquire a player.

EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE TAG: The Ravens’ other option is to use the exclusive Tag on Flacco. The exclusive Franchise Tag precludes any negotiations between Flacco and other teams, so this version of the Tag would ensure that the Ravens couldn’t lose Flacco. While this is obviously a safer course, the trade-off from that protection is a much higher Franchise tender amount.

The exclusive tag is a one-year contract that is the average of the top five QB salaries for this year, at the end of the RFA signing period (which is usually five days before the NFL draft, so this year, April 19th). At this point, the exclusive Franchise Tag is expected to be over $20M. With a very tight Cap already, that is going to be a tall assignment for the Ravens and may force the team to release several players they would otherwise prefer to keep.

However, with rumors already circulating of possible interest from other teams, it would seem that the Ravens would be wise to use the exclusive Tag in order to assure the return of their franchise QB.

There are, however, two factors that make the use of the exclusive Tag a bit more palatable. First, with several other teams facing Salary Cap problems of their own, it’s very possible that several of the quarterbacks that are presently in the top 5 salaries may end up restructuring their deals. Tom Brady (highest), Matthew Stafford (2nd) and Ben Roethlisberger (5th) all are candidates to restructure and those restructures would remove them from the top 5 highest salaries, thereby lessening the cost of the exclusive Tag. But, even this bit of good news is tempered by the fact that for the restructure to count, it must occur prior to March 4th, the deadline for applying the Franchise Tag.