Trading the "rights" to players

[Goodell]

ya, i dont understand why people were trying to trade players becoming ufa. it didnt make any sense, bc it has never been done in the nfl, and i doubt it ever will be. you can tag someone, but then someone needs to make an offer to take that player, and we have a new rule, dont we, where we have to disclose if we would accept less for a player

so if u tag someone as a franchise only to trade him for a second round pick, dont u need to allow everyone else to know ur gonna take less? so everyone has a fair right to go after that player, otherwise, if hes a ufa, hes free to bid on

That's in cases where a team has put in a contract bid for the player and the two teams are agreeing to some other lesser compensation. Free agency exists to give the players their fair market price, so to facilitate that if all teams know lesser compensation is needed then the player has a better chance of getting fair bid competition and a true contract value.

But a team can also just trade the "rights" to a tagged player before anybody has put in any bids on them. And for any price. That doesn't mess things up the same way because the player REMAINS on the free agency market and able to get bids from all teams still and hopefully get a fair market price out of that fair bidding, but if his rights were traded his new team would be the one deciding if they want to match or not.

I believe also that's also based in reality as referenced in this article:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/s ... id=1737954

There are some teams that, taking a cue from the Buffalo Bills' maneuver of a year ago, will use the franchise tag to retain a player's rights just so they can trade him. The Bills kept the rights to wide receiver Peerless Price via the franchise marker and then dealt him to Atlanta for a first-round draft pick. Bailey, who probably will be swapped by the 'Skins by mid-March, is such a player. And the San Francisco 49ers will consider applying the franchise tag to recalcitrant wide receiver Terrell Owens rather than allow him to exit without compensation in free agency.

But be careful acquiring the "rights" to a tagged player. You get matching and all other rights for that but they are still on the market still looking for the best contract for them so you may not end up with the player in the end even if you have their "rights" during free agency while other teams are bidding.