Specifically thinking about Holland and Phillips. Holland's deal's up and he's going to have a market. We exercised Phillips' 5th year option, but we might want to extend him since the price to resign edges goes up every offseason, especially if they hit the market.
Absolutely. Hence, my phrasing about another talent drain. Losing Wilkins, Van Ginkel, and Hunt was problematic. It's amazing that the team looks like it might be as good as (or better than) it looked with them. If we can keep Phillips AND Holland, you're not going to hear me say jack squat about Chris Grier. Well, for a while, anyway.
It was definitely a problem not signing Wilkins sooner. They could have signed him, but just didn’t want to pay the current market. And I’m pretty certain it’s not Grier signing these guys but rather Brandon Shore. Shore, Grier, and McDaniel all report directly to Ross and have their own responsibilities and Shore’s is player contracts.
It irked me last year when we didn't resign him. I knew his price tag would rise but I wouldn't have dreamed it would get to what the Raiders offered him. I had the same concerns for Tua, although we would have undoubtedly franchised him had he played out 2024 without a deal. Prices for every position except RB are getting crazy.
Last fall Grier offered Wilkins a deal that his own agent called fair. As a GM, all you can do it put a deal on the table, you can't make a player sign. Wilkins gambled on himself and it paid off. I like Wilkins and would love to have him on the team but I'd be more pissed if we offered him the deal that the Raiders did, simply because I don't think DTs, not name Aaron Donald, make enough of a difference to justify the cost.
Calculations have to be made about who to retain and at what price. The opportunity cost of bringing him back would have been losing several contributors. I can't blame the organization for figuring out how best to spend its money when they have clearly mitigated the loss of players who earned new deals.
Its all true, but the team needs to get to a point where players are more likely to stay because they want to. The best teams often do that, and get the guys resigned early. Thankfully there are good signs that we're trending in the right direction on that front. With Tua and Waddle locked up, we all agree that the next priorities are Holland, Phillips and Long. After that, there's the question of what to do with Ramsey, and I think that they'll wait to see how he plays, how he stays healthy and how he adapts to the new defensive scheme before they make that choice. But if the other three can get extended, then there aren't actually that many players slated to be UFA in 2026 for now. It could be a year of respite on that front.
