"One positive, and there aren't many, of the rookie wage scale is deals getting done early. Guys get some $ sooner, and all report for camp."
I can't think of too many, if any, negatives with the rookie wage scale. The pre-CBA contracts that were being handed to players that had yet to take an NFL snap were getting ridiculous. The top picks were getting more money at signing than many accomplished, veteran players earned in a decade. Too many of those top picks never came close to earning even a fraction of that money. It was a horribly backward system that had to change. A lot of players don't like the change because it takes a large sum of money away from a particular group of players. Since teams have to spend up to the salary cap the money saved on rookies is spread to the veteran players. Those contracts have gone up as the rookie contracts have gone down. That creates an NFL where all players have an increased incentive to play at a high level. The rookie has to play at level that earns him that big second contract. The veteran has to play at a level to earn his contract and keep his job because there's always a cheaper player on a rookie contract waiting behind him. Or they become free agents and open bidding allows average players to get huge contracts but that's another story. This story has a better ending. The current rookie wage scale is a blessing and two positives of it stand out.
-Rookie contracts are under control. It's still a nice contract, just not a crazy contract.
-Since the rookie contracts are pretty much scripted by the spot in which a player is drafted there's little to negotiate. The players are signed early and easily.
As a Minnesota Vikings fan I remember the incredible frustration of waiting until October for 2002 first-round tackle Bryant McKinnie to finally sign his rookie contract and show up for work. October! It was the first of many frustrations that McKinnie would bring but that's beside the point. The point is that rookie holdouts were an annual occurrence before 2011. It never made sense for a football player that had never done a thing in the NFL to skip part, most, or all of his first training camp. The player and the team will probably never need practices more than those first practices. Many of these players were holding out for money that they'd never really earn. Some players play football only for the money, McKinnie always looked like there were hundreds of places he'd rather be, and they were having it a lot of money handed to them immediately. Where's their incentive after that? There might be problems with the player salary structure of the NFL but the current rookie wage scale isn't one of them. As teams and agents have gotten the hang of these easier negotiations training camp holdouts have become rare. It's even gotten to the point where teams are getting many of their new players signed before the draft is a week old. The San Francisco 49ers signed fourth-round running back Joe Williams signed on Wednesday after being drafted on Saturday. The 49ers have about half of their draft class signed. The Carolina Panthers topped that by getting their entire class under contract in time for their rookie mini-camp. The Vikings managed that last year but didn't hit that targeted mark this year. It was a surprise. Before 2011 it was a surprise if they had a single rookie signed before the middle of July.
It's a whole new rookie-signing world for the NFL and there are a lot of positives to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment