Grimes Deadline Looms Large ... Kinda

The Brent Grimes contract shenanigans may come to a head in the coming week. Then again, they may not. He's refusing to play if they don't extend him! Oh wait. He's not Drew Brees. Nevermind.

To be clear, it won't affect us until 2013 if an agreement to extend Grimes isn't reach. He will still play, unlike one quarterback you may have heard of - last Brees reference, I promise. But - caveat alert! - at the conclusion of 2012's season, Grimes will enter free agency. And I seriously doubt we'll match what he'll likely command on the open market.

Grimes deserves a pay day. He just does. Is he perfect? No. But the vast majority of defensive backs aren't; and he comes pretty close, relatively speaking. He went from ignored prep player, to Shippensburg standout, to NFL camp body, to role player, to starter, to elite NFL corner back. Act like you wouldn't want to get yours. Go ahead. You're fooling yourself.

The "deadline" is July 16th. Don't get it twisted, if he walks, we will survive. At first we'll be afraid, we'll be petrified. But we can probably find a good use for that money. We live in a salary cap-driven league. As such, there are certain realities we can't ignore. We only have so much money, and it's downright foolish to think we can afford Grimes, Samuels, and Robinson long term. But for the time being, I'll enjoy Grimes' time as a Falcon, for however long it lasts.

Discuss!

Edit: Don't believe me? According to Article 10/section 2/sub k of the current CBA, I'm right. So there! I'll be honest, the CBA is incredibly confusing. There's some Twitter chatter that this rule doesn't apply to Grimes since he signed his tender. I think that's an urban myth, so to speak, or something like that. Please cite any CBA language to the contrary in the comments, and I'll readily admit I'm wrong.