Tag: restricted free agent

Details of Brock Wright’s offer with the 49ers

Details of Brock Wright’s offer with the 49ers that the Lions restricted free agent signed

Tight end Brock Wright has signed a contract with the San Francisco 49ers as a restricted free agent. Now the Detroit Lions must decide whether to match the deal or lose Wright for no compensation.

Per Dave Birkett, Wright signed a three-year contract worth $12 million with the 49ers. That’s a significant raise from the $2.9 million RFA tender offer the Lions placed on Wright. Because the Lions used an original round tender on Wright, who joined Detroit as an undrafted free agent in 2021, they won’t get any draft pick recompense for not matching San Francisco’s offer.

Detroit now has five days to match the deal. The $4 million per year average is a pretty hefty price tag for Wright, who caught 13 passes for 91 yards and a touchdown in 2023 as Sam LaPorta’s primary backup. However, Wright is a trusted blocker and sure-handed receiver–albeit a low-volume one.

The Lions do have James Mitchell and Shane Zylstra as reserve tight ends behind LaPorta. Neither has proven to be as steady as Wright yet in their young careers. Detroit has the available cap room to absorb the higher offer for Wright if the Lions so choose.

Steelers re-sign long snapper Christian Kuntz

Christian Kuntz has been the Steelers long snapper for the past three seasons.

The Pittsburgh Steelers did not tender restricted free agent long snapper Christian Kuntz or any of their other restricted free agents. This means they can all sign wherever they choose. However, Kuntz isn’t going anywhere as he has re-signed with the Steelers. The move keeps Kuntz with the Steelers long-term and for less than what his tender would have been.

Kuntz has spent his entire three-season career with the Steelers after playing his college football at Duquesne.

This leaves defensive lineman Renell Wren, linebacker Chapelle Russell and running back Godwin Igwebuike as the three restricted free agents Pittsburgh chose not to tender. Igwebuike is the one guy we might expect to see the Steelers bring back at some point.

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Don’t bet on the Saints signing Jauan Jennings after 49ers use RFA render

It looks like Jauan Jennings will not be headed to New Orleans. If the Saints signed him, they’d have to trade a second-round pick back to San Francisco:

The New Orleans Saints shouldn’t be expected to sign San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings after the team used a restricted free agent tender on him. San Francisco announced Monday that it had placed a second-round tender on the wideout, carrying a salary of $4.89 million. The 49ers reserve the right to match any offer Jennings receives from outside organizations.

If the team elects not to match the offer extended (from a team like the Saints), the acquiring team will have to send a second-round pick to San Francisco in return for Jennings. So if New Orleans made an offer the 49ers couldn’t match, the Saints would have to give up the No. 45 overall pick in this year’s draft.

It looks like Jennings will be staying in San Francisco, and it’s clear that it is going to come with a heavy price tag for the squad that picks him up if he is to depart. That’s fitting for the sheer amount of talent he brings to the table, as Jennings would have been named the MVP of the Super Bowl if the 49ers had managed to bring down the Kansas City Chiefs in overtime, where they came up just painfully short.

Jennings’ numbers don’t necessarily reflect the quality of the tape, as he has served as a quality blocker and highly versatile prospect all around. He closed out the 2023 season with 19 receptions for 265 yards with a touchdown. Over three seasons in San Francisco, he totaled 78 catches for 963 yards with 7 touchdowns to his name,

It will be interesting to see how things shake out as the 49ers are clearly making a strong effort to keep him on their roster moving into 2024. If things don’t work out long-term with Brandon Aiyuk then retaining Jennings becomes even more important.

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Broncos won’t re-sign DL Jonathan Harris before free agency begins

The Broncos will not pick up Jonathan Harris’ restricted free agent tender, allowing him to test unrestricted free agency next week.

The Denver Broncos have re-signed two exclusive rights free agents — linebacker Jonas Griffith and wide receiver Michael Bandy — and attention now turns to the club’s restricted free agents.

The Broncos have two restricted free agents this year (defensive lineman Jonathan Harris and offensive lineman Quinn Bailey), according to OverTheCap.com. The team has made a decision on one of them.

Denver informed Harris on Wednesday that he will not receive a restricted free agent tender, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero first reported. That means the Broncos are allowing the defensive lineman to hit unrestricted free agency next week.

It’s still possible that Denver could bring Harris back in 2024. An original-round tender would have paid Harris $2.985 million this season. The league minimum for a player with three years of experience like Harris is $1.055 million. So if the lineman does not draw a lot of interest on the open market, he might be willing to return to the Broncos for less than his declined tender.

Harris, 27, signed with Denver in 2019. He has dressed for 31 games over the last five seasons, earning four starts in 2022 and five starts in 2023. He has recorded 73 tackles, six quarterback hits and one sack with the Broncos.

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Chiefs P Tommy Townsend signs restricted free agent tender

The #Chiefs retained a key member of their special teams unit on Tuesday when punter Tommy Townsend signed his restricted free agent tender

The Kansas City Chiefs retained a key member of their special teams unit by re-signing All-Pro punter Tommy Townsend to a one-year deal on Tuesday. The move comes after Townsend was tendered as a restricted free agent in March, and effectively kicks the can on a long-term contract until the 2024 offseason.

Townsend has been with the Chiefs since 2020 when he was signed by the team as an free agent following the NFL draft. He first played collegiately at the University of Tennessee before transferring to the University of Florida, where he showcased his golden leg on a weekly basis for the Gators between 2016 and 2019.

This signing isn’t likely to have much of an impact on Kansas City’s salary cap given that the team placed a low-level tender on him before the free agency period opened. Townsend can be expected to play a crucial role in the Chiefs’ effort to defend their Super Bowl title in 2023 and will retain his role as the team’s punter when the regular season commences in September.

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Chiefs do not tender restricted free agent LB Darius Harris

The #Chiefs did not tender restricted free agent LB Darius Harris, making him an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year.

The Kansas City Chiefs did not extend a qualifying offer to one of their three restricted free agents.

The team tendered restricted free agent P Tommy Townsend and re-signed restricted free agent DT Tershawn Wharton, but LB Darius Harris wasn’t tendered or re-signed. He has become an unrestricted free agent at the start of the league’s 2023 free agency period on Wednesday afternoon as a result.

A former undrafted free agent signing out of Middle Tennessee in 2019, Harris has become one of the team’s oft-relied-upon backup linebackers and special teamers. He sat out his first season in Kansas City due to an injury, but contributed in each of the past three seasons. During that span, he appeared in 28 games with six starts, recording 58 total tackles, three tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, two fumbled recoveries and two passes defended.

Brett Veach was very high on Harris coming out, but with five linebackers under contract (Nick Bolton, Willie Gay Jr., Leo Chenal, Jack Cochrane and Cole Christiansen), he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to re-sign the fifth-year player. It’s possible that Harris could still return to Kansas City, but for now, he’ll have a chance to sign with another NFL team.

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Report: The Lions will not give a tender offer OT Matt Nelson

Report: The Lions will not give a restricted free agency tender offer No. 3 OT Matt Nelson, making him an unrestricted free agent

It looks like the Lions needs on the offensive line will be a little bigger. Per Tom Pelissero of NFL.com, the Lions will not issue a contract tender offer to No. 3 tackle Matt Nelson.

Nelson is a restricted free agent, but the team would need to extend the fourth-year swing tackle a tender offer to lock in his contractual rights. If the Lions don’t offer Nelson the required tender, which would lock him in for a contract just over $2.5 million, he will become an unrestricted free agent beginning next Wednesday and free to sign with any team.

Nelson has been used almost exclusively as an extra tackle in the last three seasons. He lost some of those reps to Dan Skipper during the 2022 campaign. Skipper is an unrestricted free agent. When pressed into duty as the right tackle early in 2021, Nelson struggled.

Nelson could return to Detroit, though that seems unlikely given his lack of developmental progress. A defensive end at Iowa in college, the transition to offensive tackle appears to have stalled out beyond using him as a de facto blocking tight end.

That would leave a sizeable hole for a Lions offense that uses an extra offensive lineman more frequently than any other team except the Browns. It’s a position they used more frequently in 2022 than a fullback or a third linebacker on defense.

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ESPN names Saints’ worst free agent signing of the last 5 years

ESPN named the Saints’ worst free agent signing of the last 5 years. They’ve had some misfires, but wide receiver Cameron Meredith stands apart:

Look, the New Orleans Saints have had some misfires in free agency. The upcoming signing period is always exciting, and they’re a team that likes to make a splash and try and build a competitive roster. Sometimes they’re the ones who end up in hot water, though.

Jason David. Jairus Byrd. Brandon Browner. Adrian Peterson. Remember Champ Bailey? The Saints have taken some missteps in signing veterans from other teams. Things have improved a bit more recently, but there are still some blemishes on their record. ESPN’s NFL Nation beat reporter Katherine Terrell picked wide receiver Cameron Meredith as the Saints’ worst free agent signing of the last five years, writing:

Meredith’s big 2016 season with the Bears (66 catches for 888 yards and four touchdowns) convinced the Saints to sign him in 2018. Meredith missed the 2017 season in Chicago because of a torn ACL and spent most of his time in New Orleans injured as well, catching nine passes before he was released after one season.

Injuries are tough; sometimes players make a clean recovery and return to form, other times they struggle to even get back on the field. Meredith fell in the later case. Sustained swelling in his surgically-repaired knee kept him on the sidelines for much of his first training camp with the Saints, and he was only able to sporadically appear in the lineup during the regular season.

The Saints signed him to a two-year, $9.5 million contract as a restricted free agent after moving on from Willie Snead IV, envisioning Meredith as a nice complement to Michael Thomas and Ted Ginn Jr., but his body wouldn’t allow it. In order to wrest Meredith away from the Chicago Bears (who had the option to match their offer), New Orleans fronted $5.35 million in guaranteed money. It wasn’t their best investment.

At least Meredith made some fun memories in New Orleans — he caught a critical 11-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees in the Saints’ early-season win over the Atlanta Falcons, retaking the lead in the second half to help force the game to overtime. Brees later scored a pair of rushing touchdowns (famously throwing two Falcons defenders into the spin cycle) on his way to a much-needed win. It was the second victory in a ten-game win streak that powered the Saints to the playoffs.

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Report: Cowboys to place second-round tender on RT Terence Steele

The tender allows other teams to offer Steele a new deal, but gives Dallas the right to match it or take a 2nd-round pick as compensation. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys are placing a second-round tender worth $4.3 million on right tackle Terence Steele.

Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News first reported the development Saturday, citing a person familiar with the team’s decision.

The 25-year-old came to Dallas as an undrafted free agent out of Texas Tech in 2020. The next season, he stepped in to replace La’el Collins during his suspension and stayed there even after Collins was eligible to return, sliding to left tackle only to fill in for an injured Tyron Smith. He’s been an every-game staple at right tackle ever since (prompting the release of Collins), but Steele was then lost in Week 14 of the 2022 season to a torn ACL.

Steele, reportedly “ahead of schedule” in his rehab, is a restricted free agent this offseason.

With a second-round tender, other teams have the right to reach contract terms with Steele by April 21. The Cowboys, however, retain the right to match that offer in order to keep him in-house. If they choose to let Steele go (to a club that offers him a ridiculous deal), the Cowboys would receive a second-round draft pick as compensation.

Cowboys Wire’s Reid Hanson laid out the nuts and bolts behind this strategy earlier this week.

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What is a restricted free agent in the NFL?

NFL teams can place a first- or second-round tender (or a right of first refusal tender) on restricted free agents.

We know that an unrestricted free agent (UFA) in the NFL is a player with four accrued seasons and an expiring contract, but what are the qualifications for a restricted free agent in the NFL?

A restricted free agent (RFA) is a player with three accrued seasons and an expiring contract. Different from UFAs, RFAs are eligible to receive a first-round ($6,005,000), second-round ($4,304,000) or a right of first refusal ($2,627,000) tender that lasts for one season.

If the Denver Broncos, for example, place a first-round tender on an RFA and that player signs a bigger contract with another team, that club would have to send a first-round pick to Denver for the player. The same concept applies to a second-round tender, and the right of first refusal tender would give the team a chance to match an offer a player might receive from another club.

If the Broncos decline to place a tender on a restricted free agent, that player would become an unrestricted free agent. Denver has four players scheduled to become RFAs this spring, most notably including backup quarterback Brett Rypien.

The Broncos also have 17 players set to become UFAs on March 15.

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