(02-01-2024, 11:02 AM)Caldrac Wrote: I don't think it's a mistake at all. The only move should be at this time, you sign Josh Allen to a long term deal and DO NOT use the tag on him and you tag Ridley and hammer out a deal quickly.

A 4 year deal worth $75M is fair. Comes out to $18.75M per year. Places him just within or just outside the top 10. Remember, he was brought here to be a true number one receiver after a two year lay off.

You're not going to find his replacement in this draft unless you're willing to forego passing up on two bigger needs in the first two rounds between the interior positions on both sides of the football.

Here's one or two situations where I would be okay with Ridley walking.

1. They sign Mike Evans to a 2 year deal worth $40M.
2. They sign Tee Higgins to a similar deal above that I would offer Ridley. Maybe bump it up to $80M in total.

Either way, you're really playing with fire by not bringing him back. You're essentially back to square one with a new face inserted into the line-up trying to do what Ridley already did in his first year here.

Seems extremely redundant.

The term and total dollars aren’t as important as the guarantees.  Ridley’s camp knows he won’t see the majority of those last 2 years of your proposed deal.  What are you willing to guarantee him?  It is going to take guaranteeing at least the first 2 years of the deal to get it done.  

I don’t necessarily have a strong opinion either way, but ~$35M guaranteed or more off last year doesn’t completely sit right with me from the outside looking in.  The FO knows him best though, so perhaps we are his strongest offer in free agency if they believe in him as much as Baalke was talking him up in the presser.

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