I never said that or intimated that.
I simply said Beane chose not to tender him for what would have been a slightly lower amount, and would have provided additional protection (via a 2nd round pick).
I find this very peculiar.
Beane did not tender him with a 2nd round designation that would have given abates $3.9 million and would have provided the Bills with a 2nd round pick if he was signed elsewhere.
But Beane was willing to give him a 4 year deal with an average of more than $4 million per season.
I must be missing something.
$3.3 million is the cost of a 2nd round tender.
$2.2 million is the cost of the tender the Bills gave Bates.
For $1M more, the Bears or Vikings would have had to send the Bills a 2nd round pick to sign him. Which probably wouldn’t happen. So we would have him in 2022 for $3.3M.
Perhaps this is one of the many reasons why he is an NFL gm and I am not, but I find it hard to reconcile that he would want the player on the team at $2.3 million, but not $3.3 million?
The difference is so slight that it doesn’t make sense to me.