I think it is. He has been the lynchpin of the defense since he came to the team. He was misused as a 0/1 dt in his first 2.5 years. He was still a beast those years but wasn't allowed to get after the qb.
These last 2 he has had more freedom and you see the result. He's got the ability, dude has been extremely durable, only missed 1 games in 5 years iirc.. and that's with the beating he took as an undersized NT (for lack of a better term)
You can phrase it however you want, but the fact is that he didn’t light it up until his contract year.
In fact, a lot of your fellow Commanders fans wanted Ionnidas to start over Payne because they said Payne didn’t give full effort all of the time. Many of them were just counting on losing Payne once his contract was up because they thought there was no way he’d be re-signed because he didn’t give consistent effort.
That’s commander’s fans… not me.
Then, suddenly in his contract year, he has a really good season? Now he’s a must sign for Washington.
There is risk involved with giving him that much money. His motivation is gone. I mean, I do think he’s a pretty good player but I would definitely hesitate to pay him at the top of the market.