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dzramsHe would need to be an UFA to know for certain what market value is so let me rephrase.
If the Rams know they won't go above $20-22M, and that he won't settle for less than $25M, then I think the best move is to trade him unless they think he would play under the franchise tag. In his position, I wouldn't play under the tag and I'm pretty sure his agent would instruct him not to.
If he doesn't, they seem to be far apart and at an impasse that may not be able to be bridged.
This is when it's smart IMO to take a page out of NE's book.
Skip the franchise tag stuff, skip the hold outs, skip all the bad blood, skip all the team distractions and potential threats to locker room culture and winning. (This last reason was covered in the article here:
Aaron Donald's holdout undermines the Rams' incredible potential ) Trade him and move on.
If they play hardball like you want, the best case scenario is you teach him this harsh lesson, you get him to kneel at the alter of the Rams and kiss the ring as he comes back but you engender a lot of bad blood. That will hurt the team in the long run.
There is a reason why teams rarely play the hardball advocated here such as tagging a player three years in a row, or refusing to trade a player who wants out, or making the player pay all of the fines they rack up. "It creates bad blood." (That's a quote from an agent but I'll have to find the link later....)
And it sends a message to all of the other players and agents in the league that you are a difficult team to work with and can be petty. There's a chance that, all things being equal in money offered, agents can direct their vet free agents and UDFAs to other teams who don't have that rep. I think the Pats have the model they do to avoid all of this.
P.S. I think AD and his agent always knew they would lose the PR battle. Players
never win that battle since fans side with management as a general rule. But who cares? Does that lose him money in some way?