Too much hardball with MJD?

In today's O-Zone, John Oehser jumped all over Gary from DeBary for referencing the NFL's Top 100 and how it relates to contract negotiations with Maurice Jones-Drew. Here's the Q&A in full:

Gary from DeBary, FL:

No. 12 Player in the entire NFL – voted by his peers, the people who have to play against him every week. I understand and have agreed with the stance Gene Smith and the Jaguars have taken on this issue, but clearly this situation is an exception to the 'rule.’ It is now time for the Jaguars to make some kind of 'peace offering' and get Maurice Jones Drew in for the beginning of training camp. Get the 2012 season started on the right track on all fronts! At the end of the day, that IS what is best for the Jaguars moving forward. Your thoughts on MJD's ranking and how it could or should affect his – and future players’ –status as Jaguars?

John: My thought on Jones-Drew’s ranking is it was well-deserved. He had a magnificent, memorable year. My thought on how it should affect this situation or his status with the Jaguars is . . . are you kidding me? A list? You want them to negotiate based on a list?

While I agree that it would be silly to let anything as silly as an NFL popularity contest influence negotiations (or their existence, I suppose), Gary from DeBary actually slipped a relevant point in there. MJD is a special player, and although you don't want to get in the habit of tearing up contracts with two years left on them, I imagine most fans and GMs wish that they were consistently having to wrestle with the issue of how much to pay their All-Pros. The Jags timed his contract perfectly. There's no doubting that but, as Gene Smith has said over and over and over, no negotiations (ok, so those links are all reporting the same story, but he was pretty emphatic), I think they've overplayed their position. Maybe it is all strategy but I think hiding behind precedent and future ramifications is a little weak. There have literally only been a handful of players in Jags history who both on and off the field, in the locker room and around the league, meant as much as Jones-Drew. If you add some incentives and an extra year to his contract, what player is going to step up and say me next? Certainly no one on the team currently. Future 12th best players in the NFL? If that's what is holding this situation up, it's time to pay the man.

(Image is courtesy of FL Times-Union. Also, for self-plagerism protection, heads up, I submitted a similar question to the O-Zone. I wanted to hear Oesh's thoughts and he might not be one of my 7 readers. He also might not respond.)