Written By: Michael McCollum
The issue is quite simple. The NFL has for a long-time had a fundamental flaw with the way in which it pay its players; particularly rookies. Unlike the other professional sports, that understand how to structure rookie contacts, the NFL is still lagging drastically behind. Both the NBA & MLB understand that results equal high reward. But it mystifies me that the NFL continues to act in an opposite fashion. Unproven rookies, that are yet to even take a down in the NFL, are the ones given robust contracts, while teams are forced to scramble to release, or restructure, the contracts of proven veterans on their teams; players that have proven their worth and value on the football field.
The NBA & MLB structure their contracts in such a way that rookies are capped on the amount of money that they can make on their first contract. Just like the NFL, the higher you are drafted, the bigger your contract. The distinct difference with the NBA & NHL’s highest lottery picks is there is still a cap on the amount that they can be offered. The NBA, NHL, & MLB make their players prove themselves before they receive major contracts. This allows for teams to actually have a body of professional work to evaluate before making an investment that is going to do serious damage to their salary caps. But NFL GM’s and owners are equipped only with college game footage to determine whether they should make a first round rookie one of the highest paid players, if not the highest paid player, on their team. Does the NFL really think that this is logical?
Now, one of the arguments for this system is that it is usually the bad teams in every league that pick the highest. Conventional wisdom says that the good teams are good because they have the good players; and good players are paid well because they are good players. That same conventional wisdom also says that bad teams are bad because they are full of bad players; and bad players are paid (or even released) because they aren’t very good. So let’s just say that, indeed, it is the weaker teams that have the most money to spend to try and improve their teams. Well in the NFL, their money isn’t as long as it would be in the NBA & NHL because the higher you draft the more money a team has to cough up. This is common knowledge, but the problem (with the NFL system) is only compounded by the fact that the ceiling continues to rise every year in terms of how much these top pick NFL rookies can be paid. So a bad team is forced to spend top-5 pick money on a player that hasn’t even played a down. So in reality, how much are bad teams truly able to improve when 1 rookie eats up all of their expendable cap-room money? Not very much at all. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a reason why the top players get drafted early in the first round. They wouldn’t be taken at that point if they weren’t good. But the problem is that, chances are, bad teams need to improve in many areas, not just the one position that they took the top rookie for. This is another problem that a rookie salary cap would directly address. By limiting what rookies can make for their first contract, it frees up more dollars for teams to venture out into the free agent market and sign more players to fix glaring holes on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. Free agent players that, unlike rookies, are proven commodities. Teams know what available players on the free agent market can do because they have years of actually NFL game time & statistics to look at.
What a rookie salary cap would also do is help teams to keep their own veterans. Every team has players that they don’t want to lose, yet after every season most teams are forced to make the decision to release key contributors solely based on money. Teams know that they have to shed precious dollars off the salary cap in order to be able to sign their rookies and re-sign other vital players on the team. But by putting restrictions on rookie salaries, teams won’t have to worry about freeing up tons of money in order to sign their rookies. They can, instead, focus those dollars on signing more of their own players that they would have formerly had to release. Players that their respective cities have grown to love and appreciate for all that they have done for the team.
Imposing a rookie salary scale would also improve locker room relations. I know for a fact that veterans on NFL teams cannot be happy about the contracts that rookies are getting when they join teams. They have to almost feel insulted that a 21 year old kid, that has done absolutely nothing, is making way more money than they are; especially the really good players that make less than a rookie. A rookie salary scale would ensure that rookies coming in would not be making more money than the team’s already established best players. A natural and just hierarchy would be established.
Lastly, I believe that this rookie salary provision would greatly improve the work ethic of incoming first year players. While I have no doubt that rookie players come in and work really hard, you have to figure that it’s just a tad bit harder to work your butt off on the practice field when you already have a $50 million contract. I’m a firm believer that you always work harder for something when you have to earn it. No disrespect, but these high first-round pick rookies aren’t earning these mega contracts; they are being handed them. They will study harder, tackle better, run faster, just plain work harder all the way around because they will know that they have to perform really well in order to get really get paid. Again, the other major sports do this so why doesn’t the NFL?
This issue could easily be fixed if the NFL would just quit being stubborn and fall in line with the rest of the professional sports organizations. It’s common sense because (in a nutshell) it would free up more cap space for teams, while also making rookies actually earn a mega contract. But if they continue to do nothing about it, rookies will soon be signing $100 million contracts in a few years while even more veterans will be given the pink slip in order to try and pay for that rookies huge deal. It’s a simple fix Mr. Goodell. You came in like gang-busters implementing a bunch of new policies aimed at making the league better. Well here is another opportunity to do just that.
TAGS: Richest NFL Rookie Contracts | NFL