Bob doesn't just mention stuff for the sake of it.
This is the same guy who tweeted something to the affect of "It'll be interesting to see if MacArthur passes his physical" the day before be failed and retired when there was no real rumours to him retiring again after the playoff run.
So he obviously sometimes knows pretty well something is going to go down, but he sort of puts hints out and doesn't speak in certainties.
So it makes me think that even if Bob McKenzie is not trying to make it sound concrete, the fact that he is putting an AAV put there and further discussing it makes me think there is a very good chance that this could get done soon.
8x8 would have been my guess, but I wonder if we end up going up to something like 8 x 8.75M in order to account for our inability to give out signing bonus filled deals. I think there'll be bonuses in the deal, Ryan got signing bonuses, but they'll be 2M-3M per season, not the entire salary.
The trade protection will be the most intriguing aspect.