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And if we offered $1 or $2 million more as you suggested a 100 times, we still would have "failed" in your eyes.  So really there was no possible outcome that you would have approved of.

 

Why would we still have failed? That would have been a contract that totaled upwards of 50 MIL over the life of it, and the extra 1-2 MIL per might have been enough of a deterrent combined with the other contract language, to make the Browns pass. The final contract we offered totaled 42 MIL, only slightly more than Kalil, Kelce. The contract I suggest was enough over the next closest that if the Browns matched, you simply tip your cap and say, congrats. Our offer really wasn't that high. People are quick to say we offered the highest C money in the league, but that alone, really is a claim that essentially falls after every successive FA period. Its not that a big a deal beating the previous highest by a couple $5 bills (figuratively) ...

 

Yeah, I know the rhetoric/ posturing coming from the Browns camp is that "the deal needed to be fully guaranteed 5 years for them to not match", but I don't buy that for a second. The Browns are merely using that platform as a flimsy attempt to discourage the rest of the league ( should the Browns transition another player down the line), from going after one of theirs in the future.... 

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