Advice to Franchise Players: Fire Your Agent, Sign Contract

NFL players who get the franchise tag, like Chicago's Lance Briggs, Cincinnati's Justin Smith and New England's Asante Samuel, don't have a lot of leverage. Although those players are technically free agents, it's almost impossible to get another team to offer them a contract because they'll have to give the player's current team two first-round draft picks as compensation.

However, there is some good news: In the NFL, player contracts are almost never guaranteed, but franchise player contracts are. If Briggs, Smith or Samuel signs his franchise tender, he's guaranteed the average salary of the top five players at his position no matter what else happens. So although there's not much opportunity for negotiation, there is plenty of opportunity to be well compensated.

So here's my free advice to those players, which is advice their agents won't give them: First, fire your agent. There's no need to pay an agent's fee (which is generally about 2%, or $160,000 of an $8 million annual salary) if you don't have the chance to negotiate. Then just sign the franchise tender. Sure, it's probably less money than you'd get if you were on the open market, but you're not on the open market. That's just one of the facts of life under the current NFL collective-bargaining agreement. Take the money that's on the table now and enjoy the fact that signing your name on the dotted line means you're set for life financially.