Another day, another story about receiver Randall Cobb departing the Green Bay Packers in free agency.
This one has a bit more meat to it, however. Financial meat.
Bob McGinn says the Packers are perfectly willing to give Cobb a new five-year deal that averages between $8-9 million per season, which was supposedly his asking price. Cobb and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, aren’t biting though.
Sexton believes Cobb can get more money on the open market and he’s right. However, as we’ve noted before, that money is going to come from a team that sucks donkey balls, such as Jacksonville or Oakland.
Both of those teams have massive amounts of salary cap space ($50 million-plus) and they’re desperate enough for talent to overpay for a free agent. With the Dallas Cowboys franchising Dez Bryant and the Denver Broncos doing the same with Demaryius Thomas, Cobb is now arguably the top free agent receiver on the market.
The franchise tag is $12.823 million and we’re sure a receiver-needy team would now be happy to pay Cobb an annual salary in that ballpark if given the chance.
The Packers, meanwhile, made it clear they had no interest in paying Cobb an annual salary in that range when they decided not to franchise him.
So where does this leave us?
If we had to guess, we’d say Cobb ends up leaving. If he’s allowed to hit the open market, some team is quickly going to offer him more than the Packers are offering. The Packers will not overpay and Sexton is the kind of agent who only looks at dollar signs. He’ll happily send a guy off to rot in Jacksonville if the Jaguars are offering $5 more.
A lot can happen between now and Saturday, when other teams can begin negotiating with free agents, but you should go ahead and prepare for the worst.