Attyla the Hawk
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- Mar 11, 2013
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kearly":1l5jxpna said:Edit: Isn't it interesting that JS waits until a month before the 2013 draft before trying to lock up Chancellor? I just realized the obvious. If talks stall and don't work the way JS wants to, he can draft a strong safety in the 2013 draft and be prepared for losing Chancellor in 2014. It would also give him added leverage in further extensions that occur down the road with Chancellor.
I wouldn't read to much into that. It's understandable that the first priority was to shore up roster deficiencies. Including temporary replacement of Clemons. That requires that you don't know what your cap situation is until after UFA signings (which start like 7 weeks before the draft). I wouldn't have expected them to even begin negotiations until after the league year started. Simply because they needed cap flexibility as there was no telling what the market would be going into it.
Remember too, we could well have been looking at signing Henry Melton or Randy Starks at essentially Percy Harvin dollars. I can't imagine we would have hogtied those potential deals by locking up Chancellor first.
The timing is convenient for us no doubt. But I think it's just merely coincidence. In fact, I think that there was a fair bit of unexpected surprise at having money left over due to an unexpectedly weak market.
Truth be told, other than real franchise cornerstones (Thomas/Okung/Wilson), I would expect extensions to come after the UFA period in almost every offseason. You always want to have the flexibility to make a move on a guy if the market/price is to your advantage. Extensions reduce a teams' ability to make those kinds of moves. I can't envision this FO giving up that avenue to improve our team for essentially no reason.
EDIT: I guess I just realized the obvious too. Maybe the timing of the UFA/league year start isn't so coincidental after all. But a way to put teams at a position of advantage in the renegotiation period.