Usually the player wants a longer contract, for security’s sake, and the team wants to protect itself against serious injuries with a shorter contract. This is all making my head hurt.

Besides, even if a player gets a longer deal and he outperforms it as the market value increases, that player will often go from gruntled to disgruntled, and things get ugly. So give him the three years or four years he wants, and let’s do the dance again. That way, if he turns out to be really, really good, and then morphs into the asshole that many of the great ones do, the Packers can trade him to the Jets for a dozen first- and second-round picks.