What are our offseason options with Alex?

Originally posted by johnnyredneat:

Originally posted by LieutKaffee:

Is it just between (1) signing him to a big 4- or 5-year deal and (2) letting him walk? Is trading him even possible? Franchising?

/ignorance of NFL player movement.

To answer your question:

He's an unrestricted free agent. Once the season ends, we have no rights to him and can't trade him.

We could put the franchise tag on him, which puts him in an automatic one-year contract. The franchise amount for QBs is huge, obviously (it's the average salary of the top 5 players at his position), probably around $16 million. Teams almost never franchise their QBs, for many reason, and there's really no conceivable way that we do it to Alex, unless perhaps he wants an excessive amount and we are unwilling to start over with Kap next year. Bottom line: this is not going to happen.

I'd imagine that any deal we sign with Alex would be at least 4 years. He's got the leverage, the support of the locker room and coaches, he's playing well, etc. There's really no reason for either party to push for anything less than 4. This is what happens when you sign guys to one year deals - if they prove themselves, they want security the next time around. It's fair to both parties.

Or we could let him walk. We get nothing in return. I have faith in Harbaugh, but...if we let our QB walk out the door for nothing, after the season we've had, we'd be the laughingstock of the NFL.