freakofthesouth Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 It started w/ Eli Manning whining his way to New York. Then, KW2 refuses to sign for anything less that the price of a small country. And now, we even have our own Sean Taylor having problems w/ the protocol of post-draft jockying for position. Regarding all of these conflicts w/ incoming rookies, I believe the NFL should step in and conduct some type of regulation on incoming rookies. The first thing that could be done is a rookie salary cap. This could be simply a flat #, that could not be exceeded by incoming college atheletes. The contracts themselves would have flexibility, as far as back-loading, front-loading, etc, but the overall amount must stay within this theorhetically imposed cap. Next, they could regulate the agent-determining process, by simply assigning agents. his would relieve a lot of stress w/ these incoming players, and would allow them to simply focus on making the transition to the NFL. For the sake of continuity, I would place a 2-year limit on this cap, where anytime after, they can restructure their contracts as a proven (or unproven!) NFL player. There would be mulitiple benefits from this. First and foremost, the egos of these incoming rookies would immediately be deflated, which IMO, needs to be in check. They need to comprehend that football is a team sport... Next, the transition these rookies would have would be much smoother; they'd get into camp, learn the fundamentals, and have a much stronger foundation from which to grow as a professional athelete. Lastly, remembering the original purpose of the team salary cap, this could breed better competition. W/ rookies having time to learn the game, there would be less 'busts', IMO. Not to mention, this would bring some type of control to the team cap as well. If KW2 gets the salary he wants, what happens when Shockey restructures, and then Gonzalez, etc. What happens when the next KW comes through, and wants even more $$ coming out of the draft? You can see how this can snowball, and completely complicate the original theory behind the team cap. Concluding, this would be a fantastic addition to the NFL's guidelines; it will keep the current team cap reasonable, and limit the cancerous egos of these high profile players that want the world handed to them before they catch an NFL pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakofthesouth Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 No one has anything to say? :cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ross3909 Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 I agree completely! There needs to be some kind of control of incomming rookies. They are holding their prospective teams hostage via negotiations and holdouts. Meanwhile they are still unproven and have never played a single game in the NFL. This NEEDS to be changed but just try to get it past the NFLPA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakofthesouth Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 :whew: Thank you Ross. Well, maybe the NFLPA would agree to the long-term benefits of maintaining that team cap, and having a systematic approach to orienting rookie players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phanatic Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 No more rookie contracts based on potential!!! Period!!! Hello Ryan Leaf! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakofthesouth Posted August 4, 2004 Author Share Posted August 4, 2004 Good point Phan, It would save some dough on 'busts,' and potentially prevent them by having these players in the start of camp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. S Posted August 4, 2004 Share Posted August 4, 2004 I think there should be a limit overall to contract. The salary cap is there, but that still seems insane. Im just trying to guess who the next qb is that will want Peyton's contract, and no matter who the team is, Ill feel bad if they have to do that. I dont understand why these players feel like they need this much money. Then I look at late first rounders, like 20 overall and onwards, and they hardly make anything compared to the first 10, now first 15 guys it seems. They shouldnt just assign agents though, that may be a bad thing as some agents may not like teams and then all teams dont like some agents (postons???). I think they should have a rule though that rookie contracts have to be in by july 15th, and some sorta penalty to both parties if no contract is achieved. Overall, the NFL should restrict signing bonuses to no mroe than 20 million now, as going with a current new trend. That number should only go up once the cap goes up by a certain percentage of the year the signing bonus cap is enforced, say like when the cap is 15% more than the 81 million its at now, then the max signing bonus can go up by 15%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pocono Posted August 5, 2004 Share Posted August 5, 2004 The thing is Freak there already is a rookie cap in place. Each draft slot has a value and a team's rookie pool is the total of all it's slotted values for the picks it has. A team can't use more cap space on it's draft than the total of it's rookie pool. Taylor's slotted value was 2.1M and that's what his 04 cap hit ended up. There's even a rule that a player's salary can't rise more than 25% in one year. The reason contracts can grow so much is the way the league treats option bonuses after the first year and how it treats incentives. Manning's 20M signing bonus is actually a 4M signing bonus and 4 more 4M option bonuses in years 2-5 of his contract. Here's the section of the CBA that covers treatment of rookie contracts under the rookie cap. http://www.nflpa.org/Media/main.asp?subPage=CBA+Complete#art17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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