Earlier today, Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that the Jaguars will sign Browns center Alex Mack to a five-year offer sheet by Friday. Now, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports that Mack has agreed to terms regarding an offer sheet that has not yet been reduced to writing.
While there’s a chance that the reports reflect two different ways of saying the same thing, it’s looking more and more clear that, by Friday, the Browns will be on the clock. And they’ll have five days to match whatever terms the Jaguars present to Mack for his signature.
If the Browns don’t match the offer, they’ll get no compensation. And they’ll be criticized for using the transition tag (which required a one-year offer of $10 million) instead of applying the franchise tag (which would have cost only another $1.6 million more, and which would have prevented anyone from trying to pilfer him).
We speculated earlier on the terms that could be used to persuade the Browns not to match. Regardless, the Browns seem to be inclined to do what they have to do to keep Mack.
And so the next step will be to find out the terms of the offer and, specifically, the specific wrinkle that could make the Browns think twice about matching.