By PFW staff
March 10, 2006

After three delays, the free-agent signing period will begin at 12:01 a.m. EST Saturday. At that time, free agents will be able to begin negotiating with teams.

Because the salary cap has been raised, teams will have to make less drastic cuts than they would have if the stalemate between the owners and the players had continued. And because the new guidelines are set and there's more money to spend, teams are expected to be more active in free agency, which could make for a busy opening weekend.

There is a 6 p.m. EST deadline today for teams to place any of their players on waivers for the benefit of cutting their cap costs by the start of free agency. However, teams have until midnight to renegotiate contracts with their own players to get into compliance with the new salary cap, which has been raised to $102 million as a result of the six-year extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement that was ratified by NFL owners Wednesday evening.

Restricted free agents — that is, players who have completed three accrued seasons — will have until April 21 to negotiate with other teams. Unrestricted free agents, who have at least four accrued seasons, and transition free agents will have until July 22 (or the first scheduled day of the first NFL training camp, whichever is later) to negotiate. A player gets credit for an accrued season when he is on the active/inactive roster, or the injured-reserve or physically-unable-to-perform list of a team for six or more regular-season games.

A team must make a qualifying offer to a player who qualifies for restricted free agency; otherwise, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent. A qualifying offer gives the team the right to match, within seven days, any offer sheet that the restricted free agent might sign with another club. If the team chooses not to match the offer, it may receive draft-choice compensation, depending on the level of its original qualifying offer.

A team that loses an unrestricted free agent receives no direct compensation, although it may receive a compensatory selection in the following year’s draft.

A team can assign the “franchise” or “transition” designation to one player in any given year.

A transition player must be paid the average of the top 10 salaries at his position last season or 120 percent of his previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. A transition player is free to negotiate with other clubs, but the team that owns his rights can keep him if it matches an offer sheet he receives from another club. Seattle OG Steve Hutchinson, Carolina RB DeShaun Foster and Minnesota CB Brian Williams have transition designations this year.

A franchise player must be paid a minimum of the average of the top five salaries at his position at the end of last season or 120 percent of his previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. That qualifies him as “non-exclusive” franchise player, which means he can negotiate with other clubs. If he receives an offer sheet from another club, his team has the option of matching the offer and keeping him or else receiving two first-round draft choices as compensation for losing him.

Designated as franchise players this year are New York Jets DE John Abraham, Detroit OT Jeff Backus and Buffalo CB Nate Clements.

If a team designates a franchise player and chooses to pay him a minimum of (1) the average of the top five salaries at his position at the end of last season or (2) 120 percent of his previous year’s salary or (3) the average of the top five salaries at his position as of April 21, whichever is greater, he becomes an “exclusive” franchise player, meaning he cannot negotiate with another club. The third criterion is what separates an exclusive from a non-exclusive franchise player.

A team can withdraw a franchise or transition designation from a player, which would make him an unrestricted free agent. That happened last year when the Eagles withdrew the franchise tag from DT Corey Simon, who proceeded to sign with the Colts. A team that withdraw such a designation would have to wait until the following year to use either the franchise or transition designation again.

Exclusive-rights free agents are players with fewer than three accrued seasons. They cannot negotiate or sign with any team other than their own.

Related Articles:

2006 free-agent tracker: top free agents by position

Team-by-team list of free agents

Owners settle differences, agree to six-year CBA extension
By Neil Warner, March 8, 2006

Spins: Labor peace creates win-win situation
March 9, 2006