While I agree that he needs to be paid, one thing you don't do is sign a RB to a 7-8 year contract. I don't care who he is. Huh? This isn't baseball. You sign him for as longterm as you can, to spread out the cap hit. It's not the length that is all that scary, it's the guarantee. Did you forget that 29-30 (sometimes earlier) is pretty much washed up for a RB? Let alone 32-33 (7-8 years from now). Chris Johnson got a 4-year extension, which is what Forte needs as well. Sure the contracts aren't as extreme as they are in MLB, but why pay him any money at all when the chances are some stud out of college will out-produce him by the time he reaches his 30s (See: Tomlinson).