Brent Grimes Agrees To Falcons' Franchise Tag, After Some Delay

Brent Grimes Signs Franchise Deal With Falcons Amid Asante Samuel Trade Rumors

The Atlanta Falcons have announced cornerback Brent Grimes has signed his franchise tender, and not a moment too soon. Earlier in the day, word leaked to Adam Schefter that Atlanta was in the market for Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel. Whether they actually were or were only looking to apply some pressure to Grimes remains to be seen.

Grimes had planned to skip voluntary workouts while hoping for a long-term deal, but it appears both sides have worked it out. His signing continues Atlanta's apparent plan to make minor adjustments in personnel while focusing on scheme overhauls as they try to make it past the first round of the playoffs.

Since going undrafted out of Shippensburg in 2006, Grimes has made a Pro Bowl and emerged as one of the Falcons' best players. He forms a strong tandem with safety William Moore that may be the answer for half of Atlanta's secondary for quite a while.

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Brent Grimes Won't Be Signing His Franchise Tender Yet

Atlanta Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff announced on Friday morning that the team will place the franchise tag on cornerback Brent Grimes. It's essentially a one-year contract worth over $10 million that will allow the Falcons to keep Grimes in Atlanta.

That's a lot of money, the average of the five highest paid cornerbacks over the last five years, but, according to Grimes' agent (via AJC), he has no plans to sign the franchise tender at this time.

"We have no plans to sign the tag at this time," said Ben Dogra, Grimes' agent. "We hope to be able to continue to discuss [through] all the issues at the appropriate time."

Once a player gets hit with the franchise tag, he loses a lot of leverage. The Falcons basically control his rights -- a team could give up two first round picks for a franchise-tagged player, but that won't happen -- and players usually don't like it when their movement is restricted.

So, the only leverage Grimes has right now is to not sign the tender and stay away from the offseason program. He could choose to take this all the way to training camp and sign his tender only a few days before the season, missing the entire offseason program. That's the only leverage he has here -- the threat to sit out.

For his part, Dimitroff says the two sides will continue talking with the hopes of locking him up.

"We are looking forward to continuing discussions with his representatives. We are excited about having him back for the next year, if not more. This is a good thing for us as an organization."

Until a longterm deal is struck, Grimes could be sitting out.

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Brent Grimes Hit With Franchise Tag, Atlanta Falcons Confirm

As many expected, the Atlanta Falcons have placed the franchise tag on cornerback Brent Grimes. Using the tag here means Curtis Lofton could end up hitting the open market. They were the two franchise tag candidates on Atlanta's roster. This isn't a surprise.

The franchise tag number for cornerbacks is expected to be around $10.5 million. Other teams could pry him away but the cost of signing another team's franchise tagged player is two first round picks and no one is going to do that.

Grimes, 28, has a good story. He entered the league as an undrafted free agent and even spent some time in NFL Europe before catching on with the Falcons in 2007, mostly as a practice squad guy. Just four years later, he was a full-time starter and in the Pro Bowl.

Check out the rest of the Falcons free agents here. John Abraham is one of the big names that could hit the market.

For more on the Falcons, check out SB Nation's The Falcoholic. And for more on Atlanta sports, check out SB Nation Atlanta.