Bears general manager Phil Emery discusses the need for secrecy during negotiations with new defensive end Jared Allen. Via Dan Wiederer at the Chicago Tribune:
“‘It does make a difference on any contract situation,’ Emery said, ‘because you remove the pressure of other situations. So the fact that we were able to do this quietly removed the counter, per se. … Jared felt that we were the right fit and we were going [to] continue through without it getting out in the papers and allowing others to advance in terms of countering during the period where we were trying to come to an agreement.’”
The advantages to the Bears in terms of preventing other teams from making counter offers is obvious. The advantage to Allen is not. You’d think that he’d want to drive the price up by allowing other teams to bid.
I can only conclude that Allen was sure that no other teams weren’t going to offer the package that the Bears did and that he was sure Chicago was where he wanted to be. And it does have the advantage of preventing distractions while trying to get the work done on the contract. Still, you wouldn’t think it would hurt to let other teams think about making a last effort. All you have to say is “No”.