The Dallas Cowboys offered restricted tenders to four players on Wednesday, offensive lineman Doug Free, safety Alan Ball and defensive ends Stephen Bowen and Jason Hatcher.
Of the four players, Free received the highest tender, which financially comes out to roughly three and a half million. More importantly, though, the tender would force an opposing team to surrender a first and third round pick to sign Free if Dallas opted against matching the opposing team's offer.
Hatcher and Bowen both received second-round tenders while Ball received a seventh-round tender.
Still, this could very well all be meaningless in a few months. It is unknown how restricted free agency will work under the new collective bargaining agreement - which may not even be reached until late in the summer, if at all. Dave Halprin over at Blogging the Boys had this to say:
The problem is the offers may be meaningless depending on the outcome of the labor negotiations that are currently on-going. Under the old system of free agency Free would be an unrestricted free agent because he has four years of service in the league. But in the uncapped year of 2010, this requirement for unrestricted status was modified to six years of service, meaning Free would be restricted.
To discuss Dallas' moves today, head over to Blogging the Boys.
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