Teams are really hedging their bets right now.

Around the league, you can see teams slapping fourth-and-fifth year veterans with restricted free agents tenders, something they must know is unlikely to fly in the new collective bargaining agreement. Please, Football Gods, let that CBA come soon.

Regardless, the Falcons became the latest team to get in on the action, assigning a second-rounder tender to Jason Snelling. This strongly indicates that the Falcons prefer to keep Big Snell around, which is welcome news to those of us who enjoy his varied skill set in the Atlanta backfield.

The bad news is that this is probably not going to stick. It serves as a message to other teams that the Falcons are serious about making him an offer, and the second-round tender lets Snelling and his advisors know that Thomas Dimitroff and Mike Smith like him. Like, like like him. Hopefully that will give them a tiny bit of power when it comes time to negotiate a new contract.

Thoughts?