Jairus Byrd Staying Put?

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INDIANAPOLIS — Hopes for a Jairus Byrd-Eagles union are fading fast.

It is questionable whether the Eagles would pony up the necessary coin to land the top safety on the market. It could be that Byrd never makes it onto the market in the first place.

The #Bills still want to do a deal with S Jairus Byrd. If not, I’m told they plan to franchise tag him. Won’t let him get away for nothing — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 22, 2014

Byrd was tagged by the Bills last year as well.

Similarly, the Browns have made it a top priority to keep T.J. Ward in-house.

Howie Roseman suggested this was a possibility when speaking to the local media on Thursday at the combine.

“When you say an ‘A’ player on the market right now, is that player going to get tagged, is that player going to be available?” he said.

If Ward and Byrd get locked up by their current teams, the top five available safeties would be Donte Whitner, Antoine Bethea, Chris Clemons, Louis Delmas and Malcolm Jenkins, according to Rotoworld’s rankings.

“Sometimes the option is just to get through the moment and to do some stop-gap things,” said Roseman. “And I’m not necessarily saying that’s what we have to do at a particular position, but if you look at the teams that have won the championships over the last couple of years, they’re not perfect at 22 spots. And I think there’s a big difference having a weakness at a particular position as opposed to being solid and getting through. That’s going to be the important thing.”