They gave us their initial offer last week and we're very, very far apart,'' said Wesley Spencer, Keaton's agent. Linta said the Bengals are the ones who haggle, not agents. Then they call back and say they're prepared to go to 80. By the third phone call they've come up to 86. Everybody is different.
Time becomes a pressuring factor in negotiations as summer wears on.
For that reason, the Bengals were thrilled to sign first-round pick Peter Warrick on Sunday. Warrick's deal consumed about 40 percent of Cincinnati's rookie pool, which should spur deals for the lower-round picks. Sawyer was a fourth- round pick in 1994 who was paid below market value because by the time he signed, the Bengals had little money left in their rookie pool. I've always been of the opinion that he who goes in first gets the gold,'' said Scott Salomon, who represents Cincinnati's 1999 fifth-round pick, fullback Nick Williams. In the end, though, it boils down to simple math.