Not self-imposed at all. It's market-imposed. They get paid what they get paid, and it's fairly well-established what that amount actually is. The problem comes in when what they want to get paid is at odds with what they're actually worth on the market.
And NE took Harris at 87, so, at the bottom of the top 100--where you should be shopping for RBs. Compare the draft value of 2018 #31 and 2019 #87 to 2016 #4. We overspent for the position, on a character risk, and, now that he's sitting out for the time being, we're handicapped trying to replace him adequately. We put all our egg in one small basket.