The Oakland Raiders have placed the franchise tag on star veteran defensive end Richard Seymour.
The team traded for Seymour just prior to last season, sending draft picks to the New England Patriots.
The franchise tag will cost the Raiders more than $12 million in 2010. The team is hopeful to eventually reach a long-term contract extension.
Seymour finished the season with 47 tackles and four sacks, hardly the Pro Bowl-type numbers he is accustomed to recording.
The Raiders obviously didn’t want to lose him to free agency, but it’s really not smart to use the franchise tag on a player who was so unproductive.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 12:39 pm by steve
The Oakland Raiders have made veteran Sebastian Janikowski the NFL’s highest paid place-kicker.
Janikowski received a four-year contract worth $16 million, $9 million of which is guaranteed money.
The deal also effectively removes Janikowski from the free agent market, where he would have been the top kicker.
The kicker is coming off of the best season in his 10-year NFL career.
He made 26 of 29 field goal attempts while finishing sixth in the league with 17 touchbacks on 58 kickoffs.
Even more impressive was the fact that only one miss came from inside of 50 yards, and another was from a nearly impossible 66-yards out.
Friday, February 19, 2010 at 4:33 pm by steve
