The time for using the franchise tags has come and gone. And most of the teams that used the tags still don’t know exactly how much it will cost.
That’s because the base franchise tenders now flow from a calculation that ensures the tenders will match the average cap percentage consumed by the tenders in the past five years. So without knowing the current year’s salary cap, there’s no way to know the outcome of the application of the percentage.
And that continues to be the problem -- teams still don’t know the 2012 salary cap.
On Saturday, we explained that the league and the NFLPA are “scrambling” to find a way to increase the number, given the impact of benefit costs on a total salary-and-benefits pot that goes to the players. Eight days from the start of the new league year, and there’s still no answer.
We’ve got a feeling it’ll arrive via press release at roughly 5:00 p.m. on Friday.