Daron Payne

[EdmundDorf]

I am a bit back and forth on retaining Payne. The logic that you pay him more than JA and then need to pay MS and CY doesn't fit for me. JA seems to be routinely double teamed and even sometimes triple teamed so you would expect those playing next to him to have better results statistically, so I am a little cautious about attributing so much of DPs stats purely to his talent level. Paying all 4 DL when there are so many other holes to fill, not to mention up coming contracts for KC and others, doesn't seem like a good use of resources. I still can't get on board with the idea of trading Sweat or Young so the logical move would be to franchise Payne as a precursor to trading him. All of the talk about getting a deal done might just be setting the table about wanting to keep him to elevate his value in a trade. They were talking about trading him through last offseason up to the trade deadline but didn't receive the offers that made it worth it. Any return from a trade could be used to get another young DT in the draft, even if it is a 3rd compensatory pick. I think the arrival of Ridgeway may have influenced the path they take, I just cant see the value in paying him $18-20m apy .