I said Monday that these pre-draft press conferences from the Kansas City Chiefs, while often pretty generic, include some interesting clues. One of those clues came when GM Scott Pioli was talking about the way rookie contracts are structured and why the No. 11 pick isn't such a bad place to be.
A recap, since this hasn't been touched on very much:
"Right now, the way the new CBA has been done, and this'll be the first year that it's actually happening during draft time, picks one through 10, first-round draft picks, you're allowed to do five-year contracts on," Pioli said.
"Picks one through 10 have the value in the fifth-year option of being the transition number, which is the average of the top 10 contracts of that player's position in the league in the fifth-year option. Picks 11 through 32, the option number, the salary number is based on the average of picks three through 25, so that difference between pick No. 10 and pick No. 11, in terms of what that fifth year is, is a dramatic difference.
"There's going to be a different mindset and different thinking, I believe, with a lot of picks and people thinking about trades."
So why do you think Pioli is talkin' up the 11th pick? To make sure others know it's available in a trade? Or is he excited about keeping the pick?