Quote:
Originally Posted by Straight, No Chaser
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I wouldn't say he has zero leverage. He has some.
His leverage is: "You really gonna try to win without me this year? Good luck with finding the players and money to do that."
That leverage starts to drop if he actually holds out into the regular season. And his leverage for next season is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced along the way.
If the issue is his guaranteed money, he's got to weigh the gap between what he's guaranteed in a new deal and what he wants, and how much money he's costing himself right now. He's at like $2M right now. Every game he misses adds 1.1M to that total. And every 1.1M that's subtracted from his 2023 salary increases the likelihood he's franchise tagged in 2024.
If the best the Chiefs will do is $60M guaranteed in 2023 over 4 years, and he wants $80 over 4, what type of guarantee does he think he's going to get if he holds out this year, enough to get franchise tagged in 24?
at 2 games, he costs himself about $3.3M off his base salary (plus 1.8M in fines) this year and the Chiefs can tag him for $30M. Total dollars in 23 and 24: $45M
And it just gets worse from there.