Whatever he wanted we should have given it to him.
But I don't think any of your numbers or years are right. And he only gave us a chance to do it up until a year early by the time the season ended he never negotiated again.
But without getting into dollars he wanted a 3 year extension and when and how he negotiated is not really clear. What we know as fact is he wanted to play until he was 45 and we had him signed until he was 42.
Had we just locked him up until 45 I think the money would have been worked out. The problem is he tried to get this when he was 40 and BB didn't cave and then when he was 41 I think it still could of been worked out but when it didn't and he was about to turn 42 he insisted on the no franchise clause and it was over he played out his last year and hado already chose to leave. We all hoped and thought they would negotiate again but it never happened and he instead went to Krafts house and told him what his choice was and they called and informed Bill.
Anything else imo falls under woulda/coulda/shoulda. It really is dumb after ATL he should have been given whatever he asked for. Really after Sea. But everyone also likes to ignore that we had him locked up through age 42 and why give some one who would be 43 anything earlier than you have to it's kind of unprecedented and a fairly reasonable way to play it especially before the no franchise clause was added.
We really shouldn't have given that away and if it had to play out differently in August at least we'd have some leverage but coming off the Rams win no one was ready to get ugly and I think the no franchise clause and playing it out was the only thing that worked for all 3 BB, RKK, and TB12. Bill wasn't giving what TB wanted but TB wasn't ready to blow it up and Kraft couldn't take sides and played the middle like he typically does.
Man, I don't get how people still don't get to this day that Tom is...different.
Special.
There are a lot of factors contributing to this, from Drew Henson to Drew Bledsoe, Bob Kraft to Bill Belichick etc.
It was obvious to me and I think lots of (quiet) people from his first start. And his interviews too.
Opponents, the league and media are morons, that's a given.
But Kraft and Belichick never learned and clearly never will. They can blather rhetoric and hyperbole all they want, but when the chips were down both of them failed epically. Tom finished his career as an ex-Patriot, and he played at his superlative best including winning a title for someone else, and retired 100% a Buccaneer. Kraft's meltdown from this simple reality is indicative of his disconnect, prematurely and embarrassingly holding a premature induction into his illegitimate team Hall of Fame while Francis, Tatupu, Kilroy, Fairbanks, Stingley and Adams rest in peace with only the personal pride and knowledge that they gave everything they had for the team.
And we know and saw exactly what each of them did. Yup, Fairbanks too. He was driven out of town.
Tom was obviously open to staying and being a career Patriot. He was driven out the door and yelled at implicitly, "You're not and will never be Drew Bledsoe. You don't know your place. [Despite all evidence to the contrary] You're not worthy of special consideration or treatment."