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dzrams
Saying "we'll pay you top 5 money" is essentially saying we see you as somewhere around the 5th best defensive player.
All analysts who know the market have been saying that Donald ought to be expecting 20 M or more. That's probably anywhere from 20 to 24 M.
The logic of that is very simple. (1) 2nd contract amounts go up annually, and (2) the market for "best defenders" was set by Suh (19 M in 2015), Von Miller (19 M in 2016), and Watt (17 M in 2014). It's 2018. The market has gone up. It has to be at least 20 M and probably a bit more.
If you paid him the average for the top 5 defenders, that would be Cox (17 M), Ansah (17 M), Lawrence (17 M) Watt (17 M), & Von Miller (19 M). The average would be 17.25 M, which lowballs Donald by at 3 M or more. And only 2 of those players are in Donald's caliber as an elite defender (Watt and Von Miller.) Not that the other 3 are mediocre, lol...they're good. But Donald is just at another level from them.
I don;t ever accept the arguments about what players should be happy with in terms of money. I might listen if the same people included owners but they never do. I say, everyone should get what they are worth on the market.
In terms of the cap, I also don't buy that the idea that paying 10 M each for 2 players not as good as Donald gives you the same chances for the playoffs you get WITH Donald.
You set Donald out there as a FA right now and teams would get into wicked competitive bidding over him. The offers would not be in the 17.25 M range either. They would be far more than that.
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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2018 10:42AM by zn.