Quote Originally Posted by s.r.genovese View Post
Not every player wants to take an early deal. Look at Cary Williams. And for good reason a lot of times: Cary is going to make a lot more money than his offer last year. It's a risk to hold out for free agency but often it's worth it for a lot of players.

And on the other hand, signing guys early is great but it also sets you up for holdouts when players realize that they are out-playing their deals. For example is Flacco signed a deal last year that averaged him 10-13 mil a year and then he had the exact same season this year, wins a Super Bowl, and maybe another Super Bowl in a year; you really think he's going to be happy being EXTREMELY underpaid in relation to his prodcution? That's how holdouts occur. Sooner or later you have to pay a guy what he is worth.

It's a two way street really, it's not as easy as just saying "ok now I'm going to sign guys early."
I get what you're saying but I'm not sure the Cary situation is comparable. They offered him a deal and told him take it or leave it; he left it. The same isn't true for Flacco... they were engaged in serious contract talks and there are indications that they were close to a deal at one point late last summer.

I'm not saying a deal definitely would have happened if they pushed harder... we don't know enough to conclude that. But Ozzie's MO over the last few years has been to not pursue extensions before a player's walk year. He broke that mold with Webb and I'd like to see that happen more often.

Don't buy the argument about holdouts. They're a bad idea--which is why they're pretty rare. They're especially rare for quarterbacks. And I don't think NFL GMs worry all that much about structuring contracts in anticipation of avoiding holdouts.