I think it's very unlikely that we would franchise him
www.askthecommish.com has some great info on the cap, free agency, etc.
Here's a blurb about the franchise tag
Quote:
Each team can name one Franchise Player and one Transition Player. Or, the team may elect to designate two Transition Players in lieu of naming a Franchise Player. When the team places either tag on a player, they have effectively offered the player a one year contract at a predetermined annual wage.
For Franchise Players, that wage is the average of the top 5 players at the player's position. For the Transition Tag, that wage is the average of the top 10 players at the player's position. The player is still free to negotiate with other teams. However, if the player signs with another team, then that team must fork over two first round draft picks to the prior team. As you can guess, not too many teams are eager to part with such lofty compensation. For Transition Players, the prior team maintains the Right of First Refusal, which in essence means that a Transition Player is really a RFA.
Why do teams so rarely use either the Franchise Tag of the Transition tag?
There are a couple of reasons. First and foremost is the Salary Cap. When a team designates a player with either tag, the predetermined annual wage we cited above immediately hits the team's salary cap. For example, last year when the Bengals elected to name Takeo Spikes their Transition Player, he was guaranteed an annual salary of $4.8M (the average of the top 10 NFL LBs' 2002 salaries), and this amount immediately hit the Bengals 2003 Salary Cap. Also at work is a notion of professional courtesy. Many NFL players look upon the Franchise or Transition tag with an unfavorable view. As such, naming a player with one of these tags could send a bad message to other players on the team.
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Does anyone really think someone would give up 2 first round picks for Smoot??