Definitely the latter, but it's hard and always a crapshoot at best...
If you RS he won't leave, he'll just have his WE bottom out and be a suckier senior than he was already going to be. Of course, even with the "don't play him" path the same thing is the most likely outcome, but it won't be nearly as ugly and it gives you your best shot at having him give it up and move on...