Subject for Debate: NFL Rookie Contracts

[yankovic fan 0]

(merely all my humble opinions as a fan)

 

As it stands as a GM you can offer a rookie pretty much any amount of money within your salary cap. Matt Ryan has a 6 year 72 Million dollar contract with the Atlanta Falcons for being the third overall pick in the first round (making more than the first 2 picks because he is a quarterback, a position that is more valuable apparently - that's for another thread). So if you average it out, assuming he makes all incentives, that's an average of 12 million/year and he's never taken a pro snap.

 

Meanwhile Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are not sniffing that. But its argued that because of Ryan's contract, Brady and Manning, as veterans, can go in and demand more money in comparison because they ARE established veterans and therefore worth more to their teams than a rookie QB like MR is to the Falcons.

 

The union is against measures to reduce the money going to rookies. Upshaw has said as much. Goodell has said that he is willing to look at it and has said recently that he thinks it is ridiculous this 20something kid coming out of college is making this much bank.

 

Every year NFL training camps are held up by rookies wanting a higher salary than the previous years pick in the same slot. You have cases like Jamarcus Russell for the Raiders who did not sign until after the season started. They miss so much crucial learning time.

 

At least, as high as his contract is, Ryan is in camp for the Falcons. So is Joe Flacco for the Ravens. He (Flacco) was a pick in the latter part of round 1.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, if we look at the 2006 draft, Reggie Bush of USC was picked #2 by the Saints and signed a contract netting about 10 million a year (assuming incentives are met - which obviously they haven't). The fourth to last pick, Marques Colston of Hofstra was picked also by the Saints. Colston was making about 440,000 dollars a year on his rookie contract. If you follow professional football, Colston has been a much bigger impact player for the Saints offense than Mr. Bush has (and trust me I'm a big Saints fan and a Reggie Bush fan, I'm not attacking Reggie).

 

Colston was recently rewarded with a contract extension of four years 15 million dollars.

 

Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears was a 2nd round pick the same year as Colston and making a comparable football wage. Entering his third year as a pro he is already on pace to shatter every record as a returner in NFL history. He sat out 2 days of camp, but due to progress in negotiations, he is now in camp, with faith in his agent and Jerry Angelo (Bears GM).

 

Could you agree, as a fan playing arm chair GM, that these 2 guys are a perfect example of how a rookie contract should be set up. Team pays you a fair wage and rewards you for your efforts later?

 

Who wants to be the GM that drafts the next Ryan Leaf? Or would you rather be the GM that drafts Carson Palmer?

 

Would you want to be the GM in 1991 saying "oh that Brett Favre guy from Southern Miss isn't worth first round money..." or "Oh that Favre guy we drafted, we don't need him, lets chunk him over to Green Bay, he won't amount to anything..."

 

There is a lot of money that is wasted on these first rounders and it can really screw a team up for a long time.

 

 

Fire away:

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

It's not that bad outside the first 10-12 picks. If you look at this year's salaries so far, 14th pick Chris Williams signed a 5-year, $16 million deal with $10 million guaranteed. The drop between #1 and #14 is about 60%. Towards the end of the 1st round at #31, TE Dustin Keller signed a 5-year $12 million deal, but only $6 million is guaranteed.

 

One of the last things a crappy team probably needs is to drop $10 million/year on a guy who hasn't played a down, but overall rookies contracts don't bother me too much since they stop being a big deal within the first 5% of the players drafted.

[Guest The Elements of Style]

I don't think Devin Hester actually held out of camp. My theory is that he drove to Soldier Field, got confused that the Bears weren't there, drove up to Lake Forest, didn't see them there either, then got really confused and pretended he was holding out until someone told him how to get to Bourbonnais.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Considering how fucked up the system is for the old guys who are beat to shit and getting next to nothing from the league, I say leave it the way it is. One rookie contract's worth of cash for a top pick is enough, if saved & invested properly, to live a comfortable life. If somebody gets ruined like Kevin Everett so that they can never play again, is it better for the league to have one team pay them a big chunk of money in a contract so that they're taken care of, or to have all 32 teams contribute to a retired/injured player fund to help them out? I really don't know, but it's something to consider.

[Guest The Elements of Style]

One rookie contract's worth of cash for a top pick is enough, if saved & invested properly, to live a comfortable life.

Yeah sure great, but the mentality that you can be set for life once you're drafted is what leads to having Cedric Bensons in your league. For too many players, which can be defined as "more than one," that's where the journey ends. The league's not a goddamn charity for stupid people who run fast. I mean, sure it sets my heart aflutter when Top Pick Wide Receiver From SEC School can finally buy his mom a house and a car (if he hadn't yet under the corrupt auspices of college sport), but you have to dangle a carrot, to some extent, or they fritter their careers away. Make them earn the big money down the road. Brady Quinn isn't worth shit right now.

 

I'd rather see the union take better care of its retired players. Looking after stupid people who run fast is their job. For whatever reason, that whole NFLPA seems like a real nutless wonder to me, at least vis-a-vis the players' unions in baseball and basketball. The league walks all over them, just like they walk all over television networks, the federal government, and anyone else who stands in the way of the mighty NFL. Footbaaaaaaaaaaaaall.

[Guest Smues]

Any other sport had these rookie contracts and I'd say hell yes they need to make changes. But this is the NFL with unguaranteed contracts, and I get sick of seeing every decent player sign a backloaded contract, then get cut when the money years come up even if he's still performing, so the ungodly large rookie contracts balance the scales.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I think the system is fine primarily for the reasons Edwin and Smues pointed out. The Cedric Benson point is a rare one, though. Virtually all players get to where they are by competing at the highest possible level and spilling their guts. Benson's a piece of shit, though. Let the guy get a payday and get cut. He'll blow through it in five years and show up in Canada or the Arena League.

 

If teams are willing to break bank on a rookie, more power to 'em.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I don't feel like doing the research right now, so answer me this: is the system governed by the NFLPA, or is it just the natural sort of state of things? The NBAPA sets the rookie salaries for first-round players--is the NFL doing the same thing, or is it just a natural escalation wherein agents have been saying "the #4 pick got $8 million per last year, so you better give my guy 9"?

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Found these salaries on USA Today... for top drafted quarterbacks by season for their first 4 years (Essentially what they made per season added up)

 

QB Chad Pennington (2000-2003): $9.85 Million

QB Michael Vick (2001-2004): $30.4 Million

QB Drew Brees (2001-2004): $6.91 Million

QB David Carr (2002-2005): $21.75 Million

QB Joey Harrington (2002-2005) $21.97 Million

QB Patrick Ramsey (2002-2005): $6.49 Million

QB Carson Palmer (2003-2006): $31.91 Million

QB Byron Leftwich (2003-2006): $17.57 Million

QB Kyle Boller (2003-2006): $8.32 Million

QB Rex Grossman (2003-2006): $6.07 Million

 

From looking at the salaries: http://content.usatoday.com/sports/footbal...on.aspx?pos=119 it seems that the majority of the rookie contract is built into the signing bonus while the actual "base salary" is low, well under $1 Million for most.

 

2007 Top 3 QB Overall Salaries

- Marc Bulger(!): $17.5

- Vince Young (!!): $13.14

- Peyton Manning: $11.00

 

Tom Terrific was being paid only $6 Million.

[Mike wanna be 0]

I think the system is fine primarily for the reasons Edwin and Smues pointed out. The Cedric Benson point is a rare one, though. Virtually all players get to where they are by competing at the highest possible level and spilling their guts. Benson's a piece of shit, though. Let the guy get a payday and get cut. He'll blow through it in five years and show up in Canada or the Arena League.

 

If teams are willing to break bank on a rookie, more power to 'em.

I'm not a Bears fan by any means, so somebody needs to clarify for me: Is Benson a top-five-draft-pick-caliber runner who can't be bothered to put in any effort now that he's raked in big-time top-five cash, or is he just a scrub who got lucky to go to a run-heavy Longhorn team led by run-heavy Vince Young that inflated his stats and made him seem worthy of a pick when he really wasn't?

[yankovic fan 0]

I think the system is fine primarily for the reasons Edwin and Smues pointed out. The Cedric Benson point is a rare one, though. Virtually all players get to where they are by competing at the highest possible level and spilling their guts. Benson's a piece of shit, though. Let the guy get a payday and get cut. He'll blow through it in five years and show up in Canada or the Arena League.

 

If teams are willing to break bank on a rookie, more power to 'em.

I'm not a Bears fan by any means, so somebody needs to clarify for me: Is Benson a top-five-draft-pick-caliber runner who can't be bothered to put in any effort now that he's raked in big-time top-five cash, or is he just a scrub who got lucky to go to a run-heavy Longhorn team led by run-heavy Vince Young that inflated his stats and made him seem worthy of a pick when he really wasn't?

 

 

For me as a casual observer of him in college and into the NFL, he stunk the moment he was drafted. It was as if he couldn't be bothered the moment Paul Tagliabue announced his name at the podium. First he had a hold out. Then he got injured every season in one manner or another. Sprinkle in some character issues that he's had since college and well... I guess you could say possibly both.

 

I mean he did get some decent production in college, supporting cast or not.

[Guest The Elements of Style]

By all accounts of peole who have known or worked with the guy, Benson was just in it to get the big payday. He had no passion for the sport or personal excellence, just wanted the fast money. He got the fast money, he bought his boat, got a DUI on it, got fired, and now his career is likely over. Exploitation is a two-way street in football.