So pretty much if you make it to the 2nd round of the playoffs you have to lose a FA to sign one and the one you sign can't cost more money than the one you lost. I'm guessing we won't have to worry about this rule for a while. "A glimpse of the uncapped NFL Few realize it, but football's new form of free agency is going to look a lot like basketball's. If it goes to the uncapped year that everyone is expecting in 2010, then any team that advances to the NFL's divisional playoffs this season will be prohibited from signing any free agents unless they lose one. And if they lose one, then they will only be allowed to sign one of commensurate value. What this is, essentially, is the NFL's version of the NBA's midlevel exception. The NFL also put an additional poison pill in the collective bargaining agreement that would prevent non-playoff teams from signing free agents and then trading them to a team that advanced to the divisional playoffs that season. This means if a team doesn't go to the Super Bowl, it might be far better off losing in the wild-card round than in the divisional playoffs; in this case, it would be able to reap the full benefits of free agency. Otherwise, with a trip to the final eight, it won't. The NFL also told teams that the same system for signing rookies will be in place in 2010, even if there is no salary cap. There will be a rookie pool and each team will be allocated a certain amount of money with which to sign its rookies. Numerous topics were addressed at last week's NFL labor seminar in Dallas, but none any more important than what an uncapped 2010 might look like." http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4758930&name=schefter_adam
