"we keep our own"

[yellowxdiscipline]

(02-16-2017, 05:21 PM)Sled21 Wrote: No, but as I said, I was speaking to the team philosophy of not overpaying in general terms.... that not overpaying players is not a bad thing, and that sometimes overpaying one or two players wrecks a team. As for Zeitler specifically, if Kevin wants to test the market to see what he can bring, and the Bengals wait for that number to see if they want to match it, I see nothing wrong with that. Why offer him 10 mil a year if the market is only going to bring him 8? And if he gets offered 10, then the Bengals have the opportunity to match it.

Here's my take on it. If you draft a guy like Kevin Zeitler, develop him, and he becomes one of the better right guards in the league. He and Whitworth are the best offensive lineman on the whole team, so he is already somewhat irreplaceable. You put a value on him going into free agency. Do you feel if he walks you can replace him with someone on the roster or a rookie? If you aren't 100% sure that you can, then you need to consider that paying him more than what you initially valued him at is something you might have to accept. Letting a guy walk just because he asks for more money is a silly way to approach negotiations. If you truly value the player paying him more than what you initially valued him at shouldn't be off the table. Now you obviously cant take this approach with every player.