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The Legal Tampering period before free agency is upon us, and with that, the loss of Kelechi Osemele creeps closer.
The Baltimore Ravens left guard is rumored to be in talks with both the Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders. Reports are steep.
Raiders making strong push for OL Kelechi Osemele. I'd call them the favorites. As I tweeted earlier, it'll be for more than $10m per year.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) March 8, 2016
In addition to the #Raiders, I'm told the #Vikings are surging for OG Kelechi Osemele. Expect his deal to land well in excess of $10M per.
— Rand Getlin (@Rand_Getlin) March 8, 2016
The Ravens want to pay him, but I'm pretty sure they are not interested in going this high, nor do they have the money to pay such a price.
At ten million dollars per season, or $10,000,000 (look at those zero's) I can't expect Ozzie or Eric to rise up to the occasion and commit that much. The highest guards currently are being paid average around $8 million a year, but Kelechi Osemele is looking for average left tackle money, which would make him the highest paid guard by a large margin.
Currently there are 8 left tackles being paid $10+ million a year according to overthecap.com. A big problem with paying him that kind of money is that Osemele is ranked the 18th best tackle among 77 qualifying tackles.
Baltimore can't get in a bidding war with the Raiders as they have upwards of $60M of cap space. They can only win on loyalty and a fair contract. If KO wants the cash (and I can't blame a man for getting paid), he'll be packing it up by next week.
But wait. There's more...
Osemele has reached an agreement with the Raiders and will most likely sign once free agency begins on March 9th barring any collapse between the two sides at the 11th hour.
When the market opens tomorrow, Kelechi Osemele will become the newest member of the #Raiders. The two sides have an agreement in principle.
— Rand Getlin (@Rand_Getlin) March 8, 2016
The Ravens and the Vikings don't have a lot of time left to make a late push especially in the case of the Vikings. The Ravens are comfortable taking a third round compensation pick for the 2017 season in exchange for Osemele leaving.