For 49ers, Franchise Is Young : Pro football: He is designated untouchable, rather than Montana, as NFL teams name players exempt from free agency.

San Francisco 49er quarterback Steve Young has joined an exclusive club.

Young was among only 10 in the NFL designated “franchise players” by their employers Thursday.

In a 28-franchise league, the total was far below team owners’ projections last summer, when, during long and heated negotiations with the players, they demanded one annual free-agent exemption for each club. Or, in the NFL parlance, one franchise player.

In this week’s reckoning, neither the Raiders nor Rams found anyone worth franchise status, which would have obligated them to large salary increases.

A franchise player, in return for forsaking free-agent status, must be paid either the average of the top five at his position or 120% of his former salary, whichever is most.

League-wide, only 56 of 74 veterans eligible for another costly exempt designation--”transition player”--were named. If a team did not designate a franchise player, it could name as many as three transition players.

The Raiders and Rams settled for two apiece.

They are quarterback Jim Everett and defensive tackle Sean Gilbert of the Rams and wide receiver Tim Brown and cornerback Terry McDaniel of the Raiders.

“We felt it wasn’t a necessity to (name anyone else),” said Steve Ortmayer, Raider operations director.

The Rams felt the same way.

A transition player must be paid the higher of two figures: either the average of the top NFL 10 at his position or 120% of his former salary.

Under the new rules, any club can dicker with any transition player and offer him a job when his present NFL contract expires. After the offer is made, his present employer can keep him by matching the other club’s bid.

The NFL chose transition as a term to mean that, while the clubs are reorganizing to meet the jolt of free agency, they can opt to hold onto three stars, if they wish, instead of being totally disrupted during the transition period.

Next year, each club will be allowed to name only one transition player and in 1995 none.

On a moderately historic day, the NFL began the long road to free agency after more than 10 years of talk and turmoil.

In fact, discussions between the many lawyers for the players and owners won’t end until at least 10:30 a.m. today, when Federal Judge David Doty, ruling in Minneapolis, said he will either accept or reject their new seven-year labor agreement.

It is an agreement that provides unrestricted free agency for most five-year NFL veterans.

Even if Doty’s decision is to accept the agreement, the players must reorganize into their old union and work out a new collective bargaining agreement with the owners, based on the Doty agreement.

“That will take several months,” said Gene Upshaw, NFLPA executive director.

The NFL’s excursion into a new kind of labor market will continue Monday when more than 300 of last year’s players will become free agents. Each is a five-year NFL veteran, and all will have until July 15 to find new places to play and work.

At San Francisco, in the meantime, Young has succeeded Joe Montana as the club’s franchise player.

Although Montana is still on the 49er roster, Young will nearly catch him in salary this season, when the 49ers, according to the Doty agreement, must raise his 1993 wages to at least $3.18 million.

Offensive tackles and defensive linemen were the most popular of the 10 franchise players designated Thursday. Three tackles were named--Lomas Brown of Detroit, John (Jumbo) Elliott of the New York Giants and Paul Gruber of Tampa Bay--and three defensive linemen: Leslie O’Neal of San Diego, Neil Smith of Kansas City and Reggie White of Philadelphia.

White has already been freed by Doty. The Eagles named him anyway, because, if he departs, they must be compensated, under the new rules, by a draft choice, in his case a No. 1.

Safety Tim McDonald of Phoenix, who is also already free, was reserved as the Cardinals’ franchise player for the same reason.

Two linebackers were named to the franchise-player class--Duane Bickett of Indianapolis and Wilber Marshall of Washington.

McDonald and Bickett are both former USC athletes.

White and McDonald will each have 10 days to accept or reject the franchise offers from their franchises.

If they reject, neither the Cardinals nor Eagles can name another one until next year.

Gruber’s was the most surprising name on the list, based on the Buccaneers’ long history as the NFL’s poorest-playing club.

Thus, he provided some crucial evidence that the new agreement is working.

Even more significant is Houston backup quarterback Cody Carlson’s new three-year, $8-million contract, which he signed Thursday as the Oilers angled to keep him off the free-agent market.

Last year, they paid him $600,000.

The more important NFL players, it may be, are on their way to bigger money.

The question now is whether some valuable journeymen will make less.

Franchise Players

A look at the teams that elected to designate franchise players under the NFL’s unrestricted free-agency plan. Teams not listed did not designate such a player.

*Detroit--Lomas Brown, OT

Indianapolis--Duane Bickett, LB

Kansas City--Neil Smith, DE

New York Giants--Jumbo Elliott, OT

Philadelphia--x-Reggie White, DE

Phoenix--x-Tim McDonald, S

San Diego--Leslie O’Neal, DE

San Francisco--Steve Young, QB

Tampa Bay--Paul Gruber, OT

Washington--Wilber Marshall, LB

X-named a plaintiff in free-agency lawsuits and able to move regardless of restriction.