Well, I disagree that it's solely about the money, but pretty much agree with everything else.
I'm going to try to make some contact with some people to see if they can tell me if I'm on the right track.
That said, the patterns indicate that it's not the money because the talks wouldn't have broken down the way they did if it were over a few million dollars.
it's got to be something like an opt-out clause.
Why's that important? Well, the Rams can't entertain it for two reasons: 1) they'll have the big hits from Goff and Gurley then, so they can't afford to ALSO be negotiating with AD again after the certain 3-year opt-out and 2) there's no guarantee the cap goes up with the new TV package, so a huge contract 3 years from now could really, really harm the team's cap.
If AD wants to only do 3-year deals, fine, but he can't get 6-year level guarantees on a 3-year deal and THAT'S what he's asking for if he's, in fact, asking for the opt-out clause as I suspect.
It's not all that complicated, but the patterns of behavior don't indicate that it's over money. The existing offer was huge AND front-loaded with lots guaranteed. Honestly, when Mack gets paid, he should just take that contract and sign it because it was super player friendly.
