Zygmunt: Bulger priority #1

Jay Zygmunt wisely identifies signing Marc Bulger to a contract extension
as the front office's #1 priority right now: stltoday.com article

Well, wait: what about signing Adam Carriker?

Anyway, the article mentions that the Rams have offered Bulger, currently
the 11th-highest paid QB in the league, a contract that would make him
one of the highest-paid QBs in the league and the highest-paid Ram ever.

Any way you slice it, the distinction of highest-paid Ram ever currently
belongs to Orlando Pace. The 7-year, $53 million contract he's on right
now is the largest total Ram contract I'm aware of. His $6 million base salary
in 2004 is the largest in team history, as was his total salary of $18M
in 2005, which included $15M+ in bonuses.

Using the recent 6-year/$60M deals for both Tom Brady and Drew Brees,
I figure Marc'll average no worse than $10M a year over his deal, and his
agent wouldn't be crazy to ask for $12M. Bulger's age, 30, is important, too,
with regards to the length of the contract. He'd probably want 6-7 years.

This would be a big jump over Pace, but the salary cap has really ballooned,
too: the Rams and Bulger ought to be able to agree on a contract in the
six-year, $mid-sixties range. If things break down, that's the gauge I'm
going to use to decide if the Rams are being cheap or Bulger's being greedy.