(05-16-2024, 01:23 PM)flgatorsandjags Wrote:

(05-16-2024, 01:01 PM)Jaguarmeister Wrote: If there's a time for him to hold out, it's probably now while he's slated to make peanuts this season anyway.

You make less when you start getting fined and miss games.  That wouldn't be very smart.

Yeah maybe not this year more so due to the fact that it wouldn't count as a year of his contract if he sat out the entire year if it came to that, so he'd be right back in the same spot next year only a year older.  I could definitely see him sitting out next offseason though and perhaps into the season.  The 5th year option salary on RBs is still relatively peanuts and he could sustain a career ending injury during the season and never even see the tag or the salary that comes with it.  Forfeiting or threatening to forfeit a $6M salary in an effort to get a (practical) 3 year deal with 2+ years guaranteed isn't being stupid if it works and if it leads to $10M+ annual salaries during that time.  It would probably wind up being something less than the tag whatever it is, so the team is getting some type of savings out of the deal and would also allow the team to likely part ways when he's 28 or 29 once his usefulness as an NFL RB is very likely over.

It may depend heavily on how much Tank asserts himself this year and if he commands a significantly increased role.  If that doesn't happen, ETN will have increased leverage next offseason assuming we don't go RB early in the draft next year and assuming he has another good year this year.   I'd probably be advising him to hold out in that scenario if I were his counsel.  He'll be shouldering way too much risk still in his prime producing years as it stands.

---