(03-16-2024, 11:42 AM)Cleatwood Wrote:

(03-16-2024, 11:23 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: They haven't botched the extension with Allen.  Botching the extension would be bending over and giving him whatever he's asking for.

No. They botched it.

He should have been signed last off season for one. They should have attempted to re sign him during the season (something Baalke is very much against) and then they should have signed him before FA began. Then use the tag on Ridley and negotiate with him like they did Engram.

No.  You seem hell bent on ignoring that the above opinion requires presumption that Allen would have been truly willing to sign prior to seeing the couple of guys' deals that just got done.  

How much are you offering Allen coming off of the '22 season without knowledge of the '23 season to come?  Are you paying him $25M+ per year after '22?  Then put yourself in Allen's shoes, are you taking the "deal" being offered to you not having had a true breakout season yet?  Allen's first 4 seasons are exactly why the 5th year option exists and why teams value it.  More time to evaluate your 1st rounder.  And that's presuming an offer wasn't made last year that Allen didn't just toss aside intending to bet on himself anyway.

If you're the pending free agent facing the tag and get offered a deal prior to free agency.  If helping the team is not a priority of yours (no judgement on him if it wasn't) and more about maximizing your income over the next 3-5 years, then you should be of the opinion that the team has to offer you a premium for you to forgo getting a glimpse of the market by waiting to see what other guys sign for.  No one knows what the offer(s) was/were prior to free agency, but it's very easy to imagine this played out the way it has simply because Allen's only focus is on maximizing his income over the next few years and that the only scenario that would see him sign early would be one with a massive overpay.  Would you be the type to rip Baalke on the overpay as well?  I don't recall your initial opinion on Kirk's deal a couple of offseasons ago, but if I had to guess I'd bet you were probably ripping him for that too.

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