How does "Franchise tags" work?
 

We franchised Bailey and now he belongs to Denver...what is our compensation for that? How does that work?

What it boils down to is that putting the "franchise" tag on Bailey meant that we maintained the ability to determine what would happen to him. The fact that he would have been a big cap hit if we kept him helped to narrow down the possibilities. When you realize that no one is going to give you two 1st round picks for him, you have to look for other ways of getting him traded if you don't want to take the 6.8mil cap hit.

--Phin