How should LA Rams handle their RFA and ERFA players this offseason?

Restricted Free Agent

Finally, there is the category of Restricted Free Agent (RFA). They are players who fall between the other two categories and are players with three accrued seasons. They are a unique sub-category, as they can negotiate contracts with any other NFL teams

BUT

Their original team can ensure that they have additional rights to the player’s ability to sign elsewhere. Those rights depend upon the original NFL team submitting a qualifying tender offer to their respective RFA player. A qualifying tender offer is required to be filed before March 17, 2021, at 1:00 pm PT in order to protect the original team’s rights.

Those offers can take one of three levels:

A First-Round Tender – currently estimated by Over The Cap at $4.766 million for one-year

A Second-Round Tender – currently estimated by Over The Cap at $3.384 million for one-year

A Right of First Refusal Tender – currently estimated by Over The Cap at $2.133 million for one-year

Unlike the cost of using either a tag, the cost of Tender offers does not vary based on the position played. The submission of a qualifying Tender offer triggers the following:

Teams commit to a one-year deal that the player can sign. As long as it is submitted by the league deadline, any of the three tenders gives the team the right to match any offer sheet for that player. Once an offer sheet is filed by a team, the original team has seven days to match the offer, or the player is free to sign with the new team.