I gotta believe DJ cringes every time Pickens makes a catch. His value (as a Steeler) is going down each day the rookie receivers show value. If Claypool starts taking a leadership role in the receivers room…DJ’s value drops even lower.
I think this is what you have to do. I don't know about 2 or 3 a year but you may need to draft a WR in the top 3 or 4 rounds just about every year. Resign a guy here and there but no way do you spend $20 million for a WR.
There are arguments to not overpay DJ. This is not one of them.
Actually that used to be the Steelers way… if you had a guy that was really good but not great, and ypu had young replacements in the wings, you make him a fair offer and if tgey walk they walk.
The Leveon bell argument should come into play with tge franchise tage next year lol … someone should argue that Deebo got paid as a wr/ rb so all that shouldn’t be wr money😂
That usually happened after a second contract and the replacement had 2-3 years of experience all under the belt. Claypool hasn't proven himself to be consistent, Pickens and Austin are unknowns, and the rest are borderline roster players. Maybe if this was next year and Pickens was coming off an 800-yard and 7 TD rookie season, but we don't know what he can do.
DJ isn't in the same league as Deebo. With that said, I still find it very hard to pay a WR $27 million to get targetted, at most, 10-12 times per game with only 6,8, or so catches.
My line of thinking was either you sign him less than 20mil or not at all using next year's tag (if you can or he signs it). BOTOM line is it gives you 1 season to see what Claypool & company have to offer. Claypool may be the BIG money maker in this play out.
More like 24M but I get your drift.
Deebo has proven to be very good with YAC, an area where DJ has been limited. He’s still worth over $20 in the new WR market.
I haven’t commented yet on the DJ contract thing but here goes. First of all him and his agent would be nuts if they didn’t try and cash in on the 20 million plus contracts that are flying around for WR. You can’t blame him.
My argument is simple. He’s not a no one receiver and he’s not worth 20 plus million per season. There! We have talent at this position and this guy is expendable.
Johnson is definitely a No. 1, he's just in the bottom half of top receivers in the league. I don't see the talent you are at receiver. There is Claypool, an unproven but hopefully very good Pickens, then a bunch of guys who may or may not be good enough to make an NFL roster.
We’re going to have to agree to disagree here. I just don’t see Johnson as a true #1 receiver. More a no 2 guy imo!