Here are some of Tim Ruskell's thoughts on cornerback Marcus Trufant and where and why they have stalled in negotiations:

"Nothing has changed. We put the tag on him And we will continue to talk. It is a unique situation. I think it is more than the money. It is a philosophical difference. Who is in the elite class and where in the elite class is Marcus is what it boils down to. My philosophy has always been with corners, the guys who have gotten paid are the guys who are lockdown corners, who can take the other guy out of the game. Darrell Green, Deion Sanders, Champ Bailey, those are the guys who have gotten the big bucks over the last 25 years. We make our evaluation and valuations on our guys. You either see them in that category or you don’t. And that is a great category. And there is another category, the guys who can do everything well. They have the whole package. Some of your lockdown guys, great in the man to man but they can’t tackle. Deion. I think Marcus is the top of the very good that does everything well type of category. That is where our offer is. That puts him above a lot of good guys. You talk about McAlliser. You talk about Ronde Barber. You talk about Woodson. And Newman. And Bly. A lot of good players. If they were sitting there, they would say, ‘No, he is up there with the lockdown guys. That is what he is. Just ask our people we talk to in the league.’ We have to go by what we see. Our evaluation. It has done us well for the last 20 or 25 years and we have to go by that. It has just gotten crazy what has happened to that market. They are approaching quarterbacks. And I think if you go back and talk to those teams that have recently said if we can just bring in a lockdown corner that is going to make our defense fantastic, you know that didn’t happen. In many cases, it went the other way. In a lot of cases, if you bring in a guy like that, the other team goes, ‘Phew.’ Because if you bring in a lockdown corner, I can blitz. The offense is going to go, ‘Let’s go at him so they know they can’t do that.’ Those guys get picked on. That is where the philosophical impasse is with us and his representatives. Who will blink and go across the bridge? We are both pretty staunch in our views. Having said all that, we love Marcus. He is such a good player for our football team. He said during the year, when you all asked why are you having such a good year, who did he credit? Got to have the pass rush. Got to have those guys behind you. It is really a team concept deal. He is a great system guy. What is frustrating, we didn’t want to use the tag. Because it is such a big footprint in the cap. Having said all that, I still think we get it done. I do. I am optimistic that way. I think they are going to wait and see where does Asante Samuel come in. That is a tough one. I have talked about where does the corner rank in terms of value. Do you put the quarterback first and rushing defensive end. I think every team has that list a little different. And can a corner come into your team and change it. If you’re good can he make it great. If you are average can he make it good? When you talk about a quarterback, you say yes. He can take you from poor to average. You have to really pay attention to that when you view your valuations."