How Small Details Impact Options Like Jaguars' Devin Lloyd's

Franchise tags and fifth-year options are like annoying relatives who sometimes ruin Thanksgiving dinner. They can produce some awkward conversations, similar to the one the Jaguars likely had with starting linebacker Devin Lloyd.

Last week, Jacksonville reportedly declined to exercise the fifth-year option on Lloyd’s rookie contract, most likely making him eligible for unrestricted free agency a year from now. The collective bargaining agreement requires clubs to exercise or decline fifth-year options for players drafted in the first round, but they have to do it before the player’s fourth year.

And that’s not the only awkward part. For players like Lloyd, the CBA vaguely groups players into large buckets with regard to positions, rather than separate and more closely associate them with their specific position’s market.

For example, Lloyd is an off-ball linebacker, not an edge-rusher. As a result, he gets more tackles but fewer sacks just by the nature of his position. And edge-rushers obviously get paid far more handsomely because they register more sacks.

For purposes of salaries on fifth-year options and franchise tags, however, the CBA groups all linebackers into one category. It does the same for offensive linemen, grouping all into one category rather than separating more highly paid left tackles.

“Ravens center Tyler Linderbaum is Exhibit A,” Sports Illustrated senior NFL writer Albert Breer wrote Monday. “He’s become perhaps the NFL’s best at his position, and a cornerstone in the Baltimore locker room. But because offensive line positions aren’t broken up the way defensive line or secondary positions are, Linderbaum’s option number is based on the top tackle’s contract (since those are the highest-paid linemen).”

That means Baltimore would owe Linderbaum $23.4 million on the fifth year of his deal. The league’s highest-paid center, Creed Humphrey, only averages $18 million per year. Needless to say, Baltimore declined the fifth-year option on Linderbaum’s rookie deal.

In a similar boat are the Jaguars and Lloyd, “a good player that Jacksonville would like to keep, but one whose positional designation is tied to a premium spot, with edge rushers being part of the linebacker math jacking up the price,” Breer noted.

“And that illustrates the whole issue—these aren’t fair-play mechanisms. They’re there to give teams leverage over players in contract negotiations and control over players’ rights deeper into their careers.”