Quote:
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I just feel like we've proven that this team can play without him.
Parker at single high and some combination of Fleming/Brown playing Abdullah's role. It worked.
The whole "we look forward to negotiating with him in the off-season" thing is obviously bullshit. He's going to be a year older and with one more year of leverage. He'll have been given another massive single-year salary. If the Chiefs had any interest in giving him the salary he's going to demand next year, they'd have just rolled it into their deal this year.
This isn't like Houston's situation where they weren't entirely sure what they had just yet. What they got out of Berry last year is peak Berry. They know what he is and anything else is actually downside. Houston still had baked in upside and it was to the benefit of both parties to see if he'd reach it before they entered into a long-term arrangement.
Berry is this. He's not going to be better than he was and his decline years are going to start soon enough. If the Chiefs didn't feel he was worth that long-term investment now, they never will.
And if the tag isn't going to be used to create a long-term deal, then it shouldn't be used.
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They can play without him, but I think they're obviously better with him. If he's peak berry as he was last year, the defense is better with him.
But if this is the path they were always going to go down, I'd have let him go, kept Sean smith and targeted another safety