RFAs in Limbo in Uncapped Year
In a normal year, middle linebackers Kirk Morrison of the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Barrett Ruud would have struck it rich this off-season in free agency.
But this is not a normal year. Both players, who would have been unrestricted free agents under a normal, capped off-season, suddenly find themselves restricted free agents. Normally, they would’ve n
eeded four years of accrued service, but in this tenuous time of no salary cap, they now need six.
Neither have it.
Ruud, 26, has led the Bucs in tackles the past three seasons. Morrison, 28, has been the Raiders leading tackler for five consecutive seasons. Needless to say, both players would have garnered major interest this past off-season had the league’s economic landscape not shifted beneath their feet.
At this juncture, neither has signed their tender offer from their current employer. Ruud was tendered at first-and-third round level at a one-year salary of $3.168 million. Morrison did not receive as much love in Oakland, only warranting a third-round level offer at $2.525 million. Unless something breaks in the coming weeks, both will have no option but to stay with their failing organizations.
Ruud is basically untouchable. No team is going to surrender a first and a third round draft choice for him. Not in this draft. He knows that, too.
“The explanation is pretty clear throughout the league,” Ruud told NFL columnist Rick Stroud. “It’s a very unlucky time to be a free agent. A free agent is not a free agent right now. You’re sort of stuck. If I had come out one year earlier in the draft, I’d be fine. There’s definitely no animosity right now…I know it’s a business, and I’d like to get something now. But I’m approaching it like a one-year-prove-it thing.”
Morrison is a bit bewildered at his both his modest tender rate and the fact that no team has floated an offer sheet his way.
“It’s hard to really kind of fathom it,” Morrison said in an ESPN interview. “You understand that, OK, here I am, putting in this hard work, feeling like I was deserving of being put on a higher pedestal, but the organization doesn’t feel that way.”
There is a reason why Morrison has not been receiving offers. Teams are playing it close to the vest. With no salary cap and the draft approaching, they are keeping their options open. The deadline for signing offer sheets is April 15th and the deadline for old teams to match is the 21st. Only problem here, is, part one isn’t happening so part two won’t, either.
What will happen? Who knows. Many assume once the draft is over, teams will assess their rosters and RFAs will either be dealt or be forced to come back into the fold for another year.
But that would leave many teams with a glut of players they may not have planned on keeping. That is why there may be some trade scenarios brewing. It may have to wait until training camp, when the free-agent sanctions on the “elite eight” are lifted.
