The elephant in the room, again, Oline

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(02-03-2023, 12:17 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Even at a negotiated price, Tee is going to make a lot more money than Bates ever will just by nature of his position. Bates wants a huge payday that personally I don't see coming from anywhere. Jessie needs to take a good look at his film and understand why they didn't offer Fitzpatrick money. And the agent doesn't have the final say, the player does. If Tee tells his agent "I want to stay here with Burrow and Chase, make it happen" the agent has to do that or be risk being fired. 
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Sure, but you don't get an agent chasing absolute top dollar and raising the top of the market if you don't want him. You don't pay a guy 3% of your contract if you don't have to or he's not earning it. That's $3m+ you're just giving away if you aren't even trying to make a tough extension negotiation.

Even if hypothetically Tee took an unrealistically enormous sweetheart deal, that means he's only making what, $20m/yr rather than $25m/yr? That's still going to be an unprecedented amount to go to a QB and 2 WRs. 

Let me put it this way... when Burrow and Chase both get extensions, you're going to have 2 of the top-20 paid players in the NFL on the same team. One of those 2 will likely be top-2. You're going to have to save money on other offensive skill positions with rookie and lower contract guys. It's already going to be a decent challenge to create a complete team even without adding a 2nd WR who will likely be top-30 paid ($25m/yr).