Alex Mack signed a five-year, $42 million offer sheet with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Browns decided to match it rather than let him go and receive nothing in return.

That makes Mack the highest-paid center in the NFL. Maurkice Pouncey can justify saying he should be the highest paid.

Mack, a first-round pick in 2009, has made two Pro Bowls. Pouncey, the Steelers’ first-round pick in 2010, made Pro Bowls in his first three seasons in the NFL and might have made it four had he not been knocked out of the 2013 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the first series of the opening game.

Pouncey has one year left on his contract, traditionally the time in which the Steelers sign their good young players to extensions. He is scheduled to earn a salary of $1,288,375 this season and reportedly a roster bonus of nearly $3 million more.

I would expect Pouncey to become the highest paid center in the NFL.