Franchise Fevah! Catch it!

Posted by Tom Curran: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 4:53 PM

The Oakland Raiders slapped corner Nnamdi Asomugha with the franchise tag on Wednesday. The fifth-year corner out of Cal was originally a first-round pick. Albert Haynesworth, the Titans defensive tackle who got my vote for AP's Defensive Player of the Year, also had it handed to him on Wednesday.

(Aside: I need to come up with another verb to describe application of the franchise tag. The old crutches - "slapped" "handed" "whacked" "administered" - they still work but they are just too hackneyed (I could use another word for stale other than "hackneyed" too) to keep trotting out.

Asomugha had just one pick in 2007 after making eight in 2006 but that was traceable to the fact quarterbacks avoided him like Britney ducks common sense.

So far this offseason, Colts tight end Dallas Clark, Ravens linebacker (so they say) Terrell Suggs, Bengals tackle Stacy Andrews, Panthers offensive tackle Jordan Gross, Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen have all been franchised (seven players were franchised last season as well) and there's been little rancor among those who've had it ... levied?

In fact, both Andrews of the Bengals and the Panthers' Gross basically shrugged at the news, holding out hope that something will get done long-term while remaining pretty pleased that they'll be pulling down about $7.5 million for 2008.

The only agitation among franchisees so far is between the Ravens and Suggs. They're trying to franchise him at the lower-cost linebacker rate; Suggs' camp says that since he played more snaps at defensive end last year, he should get the DE one-year salary which is about $500K richer.

Teams have until tomorrow at 4 p.m. to apply the tags.

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2 Comments

mattyd said:

TC, regarding the franchise label, you may need to look beyond a transitive verb. Try: "like the flaming plastic wrap scene from Omen III, the Raiders smothered corner Nnamdi Asomugha with the franchise tag on Wednesday."

February 20, 2008 9:32 PM

Paul Sousa said:

(Fan from your projo days

How about "Tatooed" with the franchise tag

February 21, 2008 3:10 PM