The 1993 Collective Bargaining Agreement created the concept of the franchise tag.  The CBA also introduced us to the term “transition tag.”

This lesser restriction provides only a right of first refusal, but no compensation.  The one-year tender offer is equal to the average of the ten highest-paid players at the position.

In 2006, the Seahawks used the transition tag on Steve Hutchinson — making it easier for the Vikings to swoop in and claim him with a poison-pill offer sheet that the Seahawks couldn’t afford to match.

A franchise player’s one-year salary becomes fully guaranteed if he signs the tender offer before the team revokes it.  Before 2006, there was no similar procedure for converting the transition tender into a guaranteed amount.  As a result of the March 2006 CBA revision, however, the transition tender now becomes guaranteed when accepted, making it a less attractive option for NFL teams — especially since it’s so easy to overcome a right of first refusal with a poison pill that, for example, makes the entire amount of the offer guaranteed if the player plays at least five games in the home stadium of his current team in any year of the deal.