Rookie Money: How would you fix it?

[Sgt John]

listened to some scuttle on this on SIRIUS NFL Radio last night.

Amazing how just a few seasons ago, Peyton Manning was signed for 17 million dollars out of college, and now Matt Stafford will likely command at least 40 million.

Obviously this salary system is out of control. What would you do to fix it?

 

[ExperiencedRookie]

Don't pay them at all. Once they show their value through their 1st year, they will then be signed and compensated for their 1st year of play based on performance.

Holy shit. I was just joking around but now that I re-read that, it sounds genius.

 

[Sgt John]

They would never allow it, but yeah, does make some sense....

what about a salary scale?

 

[Bayton]

Just pre-slot every single draft pick, regardless of position, a percentage of the salary cap.
#1 pick overall as say 4 percent. So, say 5-6 million a year that slightly increases. 7year/35 million is much easier to deal with than the current contracts being received. beyond the top 15 picks, the contracts are more than reasonable if not in some cases robbery against the players.

Anyway, a scale based on a percentage of the salary cap to me seems best. So that way if the cap does recede, the contracts fall in line also. Just think of this for a second. The NFL pays close to 3 billion just in player salary a year. How much money do they really make?

 

[Sgt John]

yeah but then you get a guy like Jones-Drew who plays way above the chump change he was making, yet an unproven player still gets millions.

I think they should cap it at like 2mil over 3 years with a team option for renegotiate after year two

 

[DearbornDolfan]

Three year contracts for every rookie drafted and signed with minimums guaranteed and performance based incentives. Obviously the incentives package would vary by position and round drafted, not to mention standardized and enforced by the league.

It kills early agent influence, hold outs, and overpaying for rookies who turn out to be busts. Basically the three biggest issues in the NFL right now.

 

[Sgt John]

Takes the guns off Rosenhaus for a bit for sure.

I just have a real problem with paying $50 million to start to Jake Long and jack crap to a franchise left tackle who got drafted low

 

[Runnik's Hambones]

Honestly I kind of like the way the NBA handles it the best. Rookies aren't guaranteed big money when they get drafted right away. In fact, it's hardly ever that first round picks get anything near what Stafford will make. They get paid based namely on performance, starting out at around $3-5M a year.

This also gets rid of that term we like to use: "bust." It's not quite unusual to hear that term in the NBA. I think that's namely because first rounders don't get paid a crap ton of money once they enter the door of their new organizations. They're not getting paid that much money and suck. Alex Smith has been set for life for a few years now, but he'll never be an NFL QB worth near the amount he has been paid. If he only made $3M a year to begin with, and the team just kept an eye on his production and adjust his pay accordingly, we wouldn't really be calling him a bust. We'd just say he sucks.

 

[Sgt John]

True you dont hear it, but then again the NFL version of Greg Oden would be making 30 million dollars for doing jack.

 

[Runnik's Hambones]

Exactly. Greg Oden only made $3.885 million in his rookie year as the #1 overall pick. In his second year, $4.176 million.

That's how it should be.

 

[Mike]

You want to lock the rookies in with smaller contracts? I have no problem with that. but if you do, I also want you to copy the NBA and open up that salary cap, allowing a team to keep their drafted players no matter the cost.

Are we all willing to do that? I am.

Personally, I don't think there is a problem. Most of you are catering to the whining being created by owners who don't want to pay these huge salaries, when it is the owners that put themselves in this position.

 

[Arctic Dawgs]

Doesn't the NFL currently have some kind of a Rookie Salary pool/cap, where it is a percentage of their cap taking into account their picks that they have to spend, but can't exceed ??

:headscratch:

 

[storminn0rm]

Doesn't the NFL currently have some kind of a Rookie Salary pool/cap, where it is a percentage of their cap taking into account their picks that they have to spend, but can't exceed ??

:headscratch:

I thought there was a rookie cap going into affect next season. That's why a lot of players decided to go into the draft this year.

 

[Sgt John]

I thought there was a rookie cap going into affect next season. That's why a lot of players decided to go into the draft this year.

I think that has to do with the uncapped year.

 

[Sgt John]

You want to lock the rookies in with smaller contracts? I have no problem with that. but if you do, I also want you to copy the NBA and open up that salary cap, allowing a team to keep their drafted players no matter the cost.

Nope. The Salary Cap is good for competition, but there would be more money available each year for the vets who earned it.

Personally, I don't think there is a problem. Most of you are catering to the whining being created by owners who don't want to pay these huge salaries, when it is the owners that put themselves in this position.

Explain this in better detail. Sure, they created the problem, and now they need to fix it. Im not siding with the owners boss, Im siding with a guy who is a proven player and not getting paid like he should while a rookie bust gets the keys to the city out the gate.

 

[Mike]

Explain this in better detail. Sure, they created the problem, and now they need to fix it. Im not siding with the owners boss, Im siding with a guy who is a proven player and not getting paid like he should while a rookie bust gets the keys to the city out the gate.

I just think it needs to be left up to the owners when it comes to contracts, and if I am leading the players union, the players are not going out on the field if there is a rule made like this.

I also don't like the "veteran minimum". If Bill Bates wanted to play another couple of years for 100K, just because he likes playing the game, why should an NFL rule prevent this?

Of course, I am the guy that doesn't like the salary cap either.

The NFL got extremely popular without the cap, and without league interfering with team/player contracts. I will never understand why it became necessary to change this.

 

[Sgt John]

IMO, it became necessary when the sport itself got huge.

Look back in the past, guys got mailed contracts. They either signed as is or went to Canada. Top picks got $5000 a year. No big deal. When your talking about $40 million dollars, it is a big deal.

 

[WesDawg]

I'm a fan of the NBA's system for rookies but not quite as much for the way they can bypass a salary cap by getting leeway to exceed the cap with the exception and signing their own players for more than the cap would allow.

I think we would all agree that you can't use the same player compensation system for every major sports league because they all present unique dynamics. A starting pitcher can remain productive into his late-30's whereas an NFL RB is entering his twilight at age 30.
From a macro scale down to a micro scale, it's ok for rookies to get whatever they can in a free market society, but it's not cool for these guys and their agents to be ridiculously OVERcompensated based on potential when there are so many established NFL players that won't ever sniff a salary that equals an overhyped college player.
Maybe a soft rookie cap of some sort with 3-year max contracts could be a start? I mean real, solid contracts.. not like the majority of NFL deals that are constructed so the cap impact is more important than actually honoring the length of the deal.

 

[Sgt John]

How would you do it Wes? Can you show me what..say the first ten picks in this years draft would make in your system?

 

[WesDawg]

This is very rudimentary, and I'm by no means an expert on the NBA system, but here goes.

First off, the NFL Salary Cap for the coming season needs to be set at least 1 month prior to the draft because that's what I'm softly basing this from.
Take a percentage of the established salary cap, identify a "veteran cap" and then allocate the percentage solely for rookies. (i.e. 2009 veteran cap=90 mill, 10% rookie cap=9mill) That 9mill is what you have to spend on your draft picks, which would be "slotted" in the first round. That slot system would also be based on the overall salary cap depending on which pick it is.
This would also solve the "signability" issue. Look at MLB, where the worst teams don't always get the best entry players because they're represented by a Rosenhaus or Boras. That really defeats the whole intent of basing draft order on the previous season's record.
Also, throw a clause in there that if you're drafted by a team, you're locked into that contract for 3 years whether you like that organization or not. That would prevent incidents such as the Elway/Colts and Eli Manning/Chargers from ever happening again.

I'd need a bit more time to put something more detailed together, but hopefully you understand my opinion for now.