The NFL and NFLPA have agreed on a basic outline of a rookie wage scale, according to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports. The major hurdle in these negotiations is how to divy up the over $9 billion in revenue but now we know they've agreed on at least one thing.
Here are the basics of the agreement, according to Cole.
Contract length: The new plan calls for all first round picks to receive four-year deals and everyone else to receive three-year deals. Previously, the top 16 picks in the first round could sign six-year contracts, picks 17-32 could sign five-year contracts and everyone else could sign four-year contracts.
Money: This we don't know yet but Cole says the owners original proposal asked for the No. 1 pick to receive $19 million over five years with $6 million guaranteed. It doesn't sound like that's the final number but it's a significant reduction from Sam Bradford's $72 million over six years with $50 million guaranteed. Their proposals as of last month were very different. For example, the NFLPA's proposal last month called for the 9th pick to receive $18 million over four years. The NFL's proposal called for $8.6 million over five years. Someone, or both, had to give in quite a bit on this.
This is a fairly big change in the first round but it's a good one, I think, because both sides had a reason to take control of the money paid to rookies.
From the players perspective, this allows them to get to free agency faster and that is always the goal. If you're good -- and everyone thinks they'll be good -- free agency usually means more money. From the owners perspective, this allows them some relief from the JaMarcus Russells of the world.
If this applied to the Chiefs draft picks....WR Dwayne Bowe would be hitting free agency right now and DE Glenn Dorsey would be entering free agency. This will take some getting used to.