Plenty of guys with four and five years of service whose contracts will expire whenever the current league years ends have received restricted free agency tenders.
Raiders quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, with five accrued seasons and an expiring contract, could have been slapped with an RFA tender. Gradkowski told Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune that he wasn’t.
“No, nothing,” Gradkowski said in response to the question of whether he received a tender.
The Raiders bounced back and forth between Jason Campbell and Bruce Gradkowski in 2010. Gradkowski was 1-3 in four starts. Campbell, the presumed starter for 2011, was 7-5.
The Raiders could still sign Gradkowski once the 2011 league year begins, but he’ll be free to leave if he so chooses.
Then again, there’s a good chance that all of the players with four or five years of experience who have received RFA tenders also will be unrestricted free agents, since the new labor deal (if there is one) presumably will reset the minimum threshold for unrestricted free agency from six years to four. So if any team really wanted to keep a four-or-five-year guy for 2011, the team should have used the franchise tag, or the team should have signed him to a long-term contract.
