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The low tender will be $656,000 (compensation = round in which player was drafted)
The middle tender will be $1.43 million (compensation = 1st round pick)
The high tender will be $1.9 million (compensation = 1st & 3rd round pick).

Our RFAs this year are:

OT Kevin Shaffer
OG Martin Bibla
OG Mookie Moore
S Kevin McCadam

There has been some speculation that the Falcons may only tender Shaffer. Shaffer carries a compensation of a 7th at the lowest level, while Bibla (4th), McCadam (5th), and Moore (4th) carry middle round comp.

I don't think there will be significant bites for Bibla, McCadam, or Moore even if they carried no compensation, but I think Shaffer might be signed away if he is tendered at the lowest level. Generally speaking, late round starters are tendered at the middle level, something we've seen this team do with Doug Jonhson, Todd mCClure, and Kynan Forney.

I think Shaffer should be tendered at the middle level because receiving a 7th round pick even for an average starter is not sufficient compensation. It's like replacing a starter with a special teams player. So we need to tender Shaffer at the middle level.

If the team is looking to save some $$$, they could not tender McCadam, Moore, or Bibla, since all figure to be on the bubble backups next year anyway. Such a move would save roughly $2 million off the cap, and we can still re-sign them (they become UFAs) at cheaper prices. The minimum salary for a 4th year player this year I believe is $455,000 and with a small signing bonus ($25,000 perhaps?), we could save about $176,000 in cap space per player instead of tendering them as RFAs.

Another question is raised at which EFAs we should tender. At this point, I think Pruitt and Blakely are the only ones worth bringing back. The others can walk. But here's the list of them for those who don't know.

There's actually 4 levels of restricted free agency.

The lowest: Right of first refusal, no draft pick compensation.
The 2nd: Right of first refusal and draft pick at player's original draft round.
The 3rd: Right of first refusal and one 1st round draft pick.
The 4th: Right of first resual and a 1st round and 3rd round draft pick.

The one no one ever mentions is the lowest level and that's because it's rarely used. Only in the case of an undrafted restricted free agent would this ever come into play.

As far as the Exclusive rights free agents go, I would think all will get tendered as they were on the active roster at the end of the season, wouldn't count against the cap and if so it would be very minimal and also provide training camp competition on the 80 man roster...