Lance Briggs and Drew Rosenhaus have a new plan. Instead of sitting out the year as they originally threatened, they are going to exploit the collective bargaining rules and sit out only ten games. By showing up to work for the last six games of the season, Briggs gets credit for the whole year of service.
The Bears can tag him again next season but after two seasons of being tagged, rules say he has to get paid the average of the top 5 salaries in the league regardless of position if the Bears tag him for a third season. Considering the headache that he’s causing them, the chances of that happening are worse than the Lions winning the Super Bowl.
Briggs seems to have the leverage here as he’s willing to give up a chunk of change this year to minimize his injury risk so he can get the big bucks guaranteed next year. The Bears (and you better believe other owners are watching) have to tread carefully or the franchise tag becomes more of a joke than it already is. If they give into Briggs and Rosenhaus, they might be opening up a can of worms. However, if they let him sit out the ten games, they have a distraction for ten games and there is no indication that Briggs will be in game shape for their (expected) playoff run. This of course has the Redskins faithful abuzz with a possible trade for Briggs.
We don’t have anything to say,” team president Ted Phillips said Monday. We franchised him. He’s going to make a lot of money. We think he’s a good player, and we want him on our team. It’s as simple as that from our standpoint.They knew this was coming months ago. It’s not a big surprise. … It’s part of the system. It’s just a tool we have. Free agency is a tool the players have.
Yep, tools all around.
Links:
[Chicago Sun Times]: Briggs plans 10-game holdout to combat franchise ta
