I'm torn on this. On one hand if I'm Yan, I would have taken the deal last year. Wasnt it $19M a year putting you as one of the top DEs in the league? Instead he holds out essentially and loses $17M. And is one year later in getting to a 3rd contract if he is fortunate enough to do so. He will likely get tagged this year and if something happens to him (another good but not great year, injury, etc... ) his value will drop. Took a risk by playing all of last year and will do so again this year unless he decides to sit out and lose another $19M (or whatever it was he would have earned had he signed the original deal).

On the otherhand, if I'm the Jags, while this guy may not be the best DE in the league (even though he wants best DE in the league money), he is a really really good player, works hard, doesnt get in trouble off the field, etc, etc... essentially everything you want in a player. And we are haggling over $2-3M? We'll spend $2M on some backup LB or something this year who will return us little to no value.

They are already so close, just a cut deal right down the middle and call it a day. It's almost as if pride is getting in the way on both sides now. Nobody wants to seem like the loser in the deal. Yan has been costing himself money and we are putting at risk one of our best players for what is essentially immaterial money in the world of NFL numbers.

---