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The St. Louis Rams are reportedly to be "seriously considering" placing the lowest possible tender to restricted agent, and franchise defensive player, O.J. Atogwe.The tender would give the Rams the "right of first refusal", which would allow St. Louis to match any offer given to Atogwe, and you got to believe that they will do just that.
The main concern is not whether they will match or not, but should they not match, they would receive no draft pick in return.
The reasoning behind the move looks to be financial as it would allow the Rams to pay $5.75 million less than giving him a typically mandated 10-percent raise on his 2009 salary ($6.976 million).
While it would be expected that St. Louis would match any offer to keep Atogwe, despite his down year in 2009, but it could create some tension between the team and player. Add it onto the fact that the Rams picked second overall in the 2009 Draft, and dropped to the first overall pick in 2010, and you could have a bad situation.
Atogwe had a semi-down year in 2009, (58 tackles and three forced fumbles in 2010, compared to 75 and six respectively in 2009) but that shouldn't stop teams from extending offer sheets to the safety.
Depending on who St. Louis drafts in a little under two months, Atogwe may not be considered the franchise player any longer, but he deserves to be paid what he deserves.
