I agree he will get more than 6M a season, but will Steven Jackson dictate what the Packers will offer Jennings? Will it impact what they will do with Finley?
I wouldn't bring back Jennings or sign Jackson, but I'll offer an opinion on the what ifs:
When this Jackson stuff started, I thought 2 years / $8 mil seemed about right. As time moved along, I trimmed that back to 2 years / $7 million. The press has been kicking around 3 years / $12 million this week. The difference between the low and high among those numbers is just not big enough to influence a major FA signing, which Jennings is at this point. The more important question here is whether TT proposed but tried to slip a cubit zirconia on Jackson's finger.
Signing Jennings could have an immediate impact on keeping Finley. If Jennings came in at something like $7.5 mil per year, that would be it for FA, except maybe some minimum salary guys. We should be trying to get a solid defensive starter in FA in any of a few positions (S is my preference at this point); TT's pursuit of Canty is evidence of what is generally acknowledged by the fan base on this forum except for the hard line "draft only" guys.
If that's not enough, lets look again at the Rodgers / Matthews situation. A Jennings / Finley combo or a Finley / FA defender means any new deal for either Rodgers or Matthews will be "cap friendly". In fact, I'm pretty much resigned to that fact regardless. Which means we conserve cap space now, but pay for it later.
I think you have to be both extremely good and extremely lucky over a long period of time to avoid falling into the issues we see in Pittsburgh and Baltimore this year...deferred cap hits + age at some point get you to a retooling period where you hope the franchise QB can keep the team competitive and keep butts in the seats.
Our last 2 drafts have not met the good/lucky test.