I can’t imagine us putting Maye in a reserve role while paying him $7.4m this year (9th highest on team In 2023). Both Mathieu‘s and Maye’s dead money make them hard to move off the roster until their contracts expire in 2025.
7M is a lot but not enough to not improve the secondary if there’s an opportunity with an All Pro player available, especially while the 7M is on a short term deal. Market value for top starting Safeties is almost double.
We signed DTs to 5M and 4M a season in fresh new deals but still scouting first round DT talent. And Shaheed could get as many snaps or targets as MT while MT is the known starter on a $6M-15M one year deal. It’s probably unlikely we get Budda, but I don’t think preexisting mid starting salary stops us from pursuing better players if we could, especially when we frequently restructure.