Originally posted by 9ersLiferInChicago:
Just pay the damn man. No need to go down this road.
Both sides are playing it smart in my opinion and I don't think we should have a problem down the road. From Buckner's perspective, he just had 12 sacks on a D-line that had trouble generating real pressure, and he has been on a nice trajectory since his rookie year. Even though the sack numbers dropped from 2016 to 2017, I'd say as a pass rusher he was better. Then we added edge talent and he should have a better pass rush help from the interior, so he should be even more disruptive going forward, even if the sack numbers don't equal 2018 production. Simply put, Buckner is looking at a great opportunity to have a monster year. So a monster contract comes with that.
From the F.O. perspective, no we aren't in any kind of real cap trouble, but you still have to be sensible about this. Sure I'd like to give Buck top-3 money if that's what he wants. Heck, you'd love if he played well enough to warrant an Aaron Donald contract. But you don't want to actually pay for it because there are other guys to sign, it limits your ability to bring in other people, etc. So you want to keep Buck's number as low as possible, without offending him. Say Buck would sign for 15 million per year, as a FO you are taking that. No need to just go in saying here's 20 + million per year. Then there's guaranteed money, etc to figure out.
I think they will get this done and hopefully they will have this done by this time next year. The last thing they want is to go into a contract year with Buckner set to hit free agency. Even though they control his rights, I'd rather not take it that far. Set a precedent with this new regime on how we treat high priority free agents (coming off of their first contract).