Yesterday in my column I opined that waiting to sign Lardarius Webb was another in a string of contractual mistakes the Baltimore Ravens have made over the past decade. His price is only going up and that trend may have been accelerated yesterday by the St. Louis Rams and the San Francisco 49ers.
The Rams signed free agent cornerback Cortland Finnegan to a 5 year, $50 million deal, most of which is loaded in the front end of the deal.
The 49ers re-signed Carlos Rogers to a 4 year deal worth $31.3 million.
Webb’s agent will argue that Finnegan wasn’t as productive in 2011 and his client is two years younger.
Rogers clearly doesn’t have the upside of Webb and he’s 30.
Are the Ravens simply going to wait and hope someone doesn’t sign Webb to an offer sheet?
If I’m the Bengals GM Mike Brown, I would offer Webb something between the two players. If the Ravens choose not to match the RFA offer sheet, they get the Bengals’ first round pick. If they do, they’ll spend significantly more because they waited too long.
Either way, it’s a loss for the organization.
