Visiting NFL.com and ESPN today reminded me that Antoine Bethea was still a Free Agent. He just signed a 4 year extension worth $27 million which averages out to about $6.75 million a year but it is front loaded to pay out $18 million over the first two.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8189bac2&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5276302
I think this bodes well for our chances to sign Atogwe to a fair deal simply because those are two Pro-Bowl Safeties who are getting less than the $7 million/annum that Atogwe wants. Looking at it, he, Collins, and Bethea have near identical stats (if you estimate Bethea's forward one year) except Bethea is a tackling machine compared to both of them.
Taking into account his injuries and his lack of Pro-Bowl births, I think we have some leverage against him when comparing him to the other players. I think he may have been waiting on the terms of Bethea's contract before proceeding and if so, he may be locked up this week by either Miami, St. Louis, or an outside chance of Detroit.
This also leads me to clash with those who don't want Atogwe or claim he is overrated. He has near identical stats to Nick Collins and Antoine Bethea. But you have to take into account he played with a defense that had a horrible pass rush and got little pressure on the QB. The Rams had 25 sacks in 09 while we had 44. The added pressure would almost surely increase his interception total. You also have to note he missed 4 games last season too. Even so he had more tackles than Collins. Just looking at it, I think if the FO is willing to shell out the $6+ million/year for Atogwe, we'd have a pretty great FS with the added help of a pass rush. With guys like Wake on third down getting pressure on the QB, a guy like him could seriously blow open a game for us.
Just some thoughts on my part.
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