The New York Post is reporting that the Giants will designate soon-to-be unrestricted free agent defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul the team’s “non-exclusive” Franchise Player. Teams are able to designate a Franchise Player between February 16 and March 2. Other teams can begin talking to Pierre-Paul and his agent when the free agency negotiating period begins on March 7.

A Franchise tag binds a player to the team for one year if certain conditions are met. Each team may only designate one player each year as that team’s Franchise player. There are two types of Franchise tags:

An “exclusive” franchise player must be offered a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position as of a date in April of the current year in which the tag will apply, or 120 percent of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. Exclusive franchise players cannot negotiate with other teams. The player’s team has all the negotiating rights to the exclusive player.

A “non-exclusive” franchise player must be offered a one-year contract for an amount no less than the average of the top five salaries at the player’s position for the previous year, or 120 percent of the player’s previous year’s salary, whichever is greater. A non-exclusive franchise player may negotiate with other NFL teams, but if the player signs an offer sheet from another team, the original team has a right to match the terms of that offer, or if it does not match the offer and thus loses the player, is entitled to receive two first-round draft picks as compensation.

The Post is reporting that the Giants would prefer to negotiate a new deal that would pay Pierre-Paul somewhere around $11-12 million instead of the $14.6 million that it would take for Pierre-Paul to play the entire season under the Franchise tag. By using the Franchise designation on him, it will discourage other teams from attempting to sign him to an offer sheet, give the Giants two #1 draft picks if the team chose not to match the offer, and give the Giants more time to negotiate a longer-term deal.

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