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(02-24-2022, 01:05 PM)Au165 Wrote: The greatest defenses of the last decade were led by high end safeties, if you are a team built to have a high end defense the safety position is key. In reality, the best defenses this past season outside of maybe Dallas had high end safeties. 

Buffalo - TWO high paid safeties who at the time were both paid top 6 (still top 15) in the league but market has risen since then.
Arizona- Budda Baker is a top 5 paid safety.
Patriots- McCourty has remained a top paid safety many years in NE
Browns- Just paid John Johnson top 10 money
Bears- Paid Eddie Jackson although he has been up and down

You have to be careful about confusing money and importance, that's the same kind of crap Mike Brown used for years to explain why we didn't need to pay guards. The price is always relative to current reality, saying "I don't want to pay 13" dismisses the fact that when others got 11 it was a larger percentage of the cap than what 13 is today. In reality, these things should be looked at the players percentage of total cap when adjusting for the cap increase he could make in the mid 15's and would still just be a top 10 contract relative to the other contracts and how they were as a function of total cap space at the time. Al that said 13-15 now won't be top 5 or maybe even 10 by the time the contract ends, so looking at old contracts that happened pre cap jump for comparison is tough.

As for the "fan" thing, I am telling you very smart football people are saying letting Jesse Bates leave is a massive issue. If there was a backup plan in place that would be one thing, but if you're just going to FA and hoping to save a little money it's probably not going to end well. This isn't Lawson who had huge injury issues, or even WJ3 who has some injury issues, this is one of your own who is a quality player an pretty reliable.

Poyer and Hyde combined only make $2 mil more than Adams.  "Highly paid" is relative when it comes to S's.  Vonn Bell is the 16th highest paid S, but is only $6 mil APY.  Hell, Brandon Wilson is 36th highest paid S in the league.  Also, keep in mind that four of those 5 teams have QB's on rookie deals and Allen's deal is extremely cap friendly through '22 before it balloons.  

I also have to point out that the two highest paid S's in the league, Jamal Adams and Harrison Smith, had their teams finish 28th and 30th in total defense.  But these are also teams with highly paid QB's.  If Mike Brown holds true to form, Burrow will get extended next year.  

My point about importance was directed towards the continuity angle.  However, S's are cheap because it's easy to draft a quality Day 1 starter on the first couple of days of the draft and it's a position that players can play at a high level for many years so there are always quality vets available.  Most teams smartly choose to devote their cap dollars to positions where it's much harder to find quality replacements.  

You're asking people to take a lot on faith when you shoot down sources that graded Bates negatively, say only the coaches can really evaluate him, then say very smart football minds say there will be big issues if he isn't retained.  Any way we want to look at it, Bates has played one year at an elite level, is coming off the worst year of his career, and wants Top 5 money.  His play level has swing wildly up and down every year since he was drafted.  It's very hard to justify.