billsfan89 Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 2 minutes ago, Billy Claude said: It was an easy one to win since the players who would benefit from lower rookie salaries got a vote while the ones who would be hurt in the future did not since they were not in the league yet. It was great for the league and the fans, up to that point NFL news during the summer was mostly about which draftees were holding out and how much they were asking for. In the early 2000's, many people regarded a top three or four draft choice as a detriment due to the amount of cap it was going to take up and the high bust probability. There was also a fairly small amount of players on those bloated rookie deals whose money wasn't going to be touched anyway. The vast majority of the league was drafted in rounds 2-7 or undrafted. Which meant the amount of players seeking big free agency dollars in a second contract far out numbered the high picks eating away high salaries. There just wasn't any significant contingent in the players union that was going to fight for it. I think the players union first ask was that rookie first round contracts be exempt from the cap and revenue splits but the owners laughed that out of the door and the players conceded to a slotting system. I always hated the old system in the 2000's because there would literally be trackers for which first round picks had been signed or not. And the system was so top heavy because until the first overall pick was signed the market wasn't set so if one or two teams in the top 5ish selections got stuck in negotiations it put a pause on the next 15-20 selections because they are waiting on the market above them to be set. It was just a very stupid system that only benefitted a small amount of players and did have some negative impact on the market for vet free agents as teams who were bad the past two seasons and had top 5 picks back to back years who should have had a ton of money to spend in free agency had less due to having to pay two top 5 picks top 10 salaries at their positions. Not having to worry about holdouts and burdensome rookie deals is better for almost every single party involved. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoMAn Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 On 6/12/2024 at 6:30 PM, MJS said: I remember the days when it wasn't and teams had to shell out real cash for their draft picks, many of whom became busts. The rookie wage scale was a significant change. Sam Bradford was one of the last big contracts before the rookie wage scale, I think. That guy got so much money for doing so little in the NFL. Over $130 million over his career. Highway robbery. Yes, that was one of the smartest moves by the player's union and owners. No more hold outs that last into the season, and the veterans are rewarded for having proving themselves to be NFL-worthy. It was crazy over-paying prosects based on their college performances. This makes so much more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 On 6/12/2024 at 8:59 PM, Big Turk said: Yeah but at least he played for a while as a starter...what about players like Ja'Marcus Russell and Akili Smith who busted early? they didn't make any money (52 million combined). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Turk Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 8 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: they didn't make any money (52 million combined). That's a lot for what they accomplished Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. WEO Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 5 minutes ago, Big Turk said: That's a lot for what they accomplished it's a lot less than they signed for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Turk Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 8 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said: it's a lot less than they signed for. Well, they effectively stole that money so they probably shouldn't be complaining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted June 14 Share Posted June 14 4 hours ago, SoMAn said: Yes, that was one of the smartest moves by the player's union and owners. No more hold outs that last into the season, and the veterans are rewarded for having proving themselves to be NFL-worthy. It was crazy over-paying prosects based on their college performances. This makes so much more sense. It makes more sense but the trade off is that you almost have to give a high performing young player a big extension after 3 years instead of the old days of 6 or more years of team control. The shorter rookie contracts give the players FAR more leverage. The franchise tag is nearly useless with regard to the QB position now. That is starting to lead to some incredible wastes of money. Like $250M guaranteed down the drain on DeShaun Watson. There are going to be a lot of false positive payouts and a lot more guaranteed money in general. The latter has always been the biggest concern with football players. As those inevitably become more common problems it will look more like a wash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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