Agents Take Heres how the NFL would look

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six-year contract worth a maximum of $86 million that he signed as a rookie in 2010 set an NFL record with $50 million in guaranteed money. Bradford made slightly over $78 million during those six years, although he mi sed a season and half worth of games because of two ACL tears in his left knee. The 2011 collective bargaining agreement drastically reduced salaries for early first-round picks by implementing a rookie wage scale. As the top pick in 2011, signed a fully guaranteed four-year, $22,025,498 deal, which included a $14,518,544 signing bonus. Deals for first-round picks under the rookie wage scale include an option for a fifth year. This salary for top-10 picks is the transition tag at a player's position when the option is exercised, which was $14.666 million in Newton's case. Potentially making slightly under $37 million over five years was a far cry from six-year contract that would have likely Taylor Lewan Jersey had a base value in the $86 million neighborhood with a maximum of approximately $95 million (in which $55 million would have been guaranteed) if the system hadn't changed. Prior to the 2011 CBA putting the rookie wage scale in place, the old system of compensating rookies limited the amount of money teams could spend on draft picks and undrafted rookies. It didn't place an absolute ceiling on rookie contracts or provide specific financial guidelines for each draft pick. Early first-round picks exploited the system primarily with salary escalators and not-likely-to-be-earned incentives which created lucrative base values for their deals. Additional money could also be earned with extraordinary achievements (All-Pro and Pro Bowl selections, leading the in a particular statistical category, MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, MVP, etc.). The salaries of top picks skyrocketed because of these loopholes. Unproven commodities were paid like Pro Bowlers without Tucker McCann Jersey playing an NFL game. , the 2008 first overall pick, became the NFL's highest-paid offensive lineman when he signed a five-year contract worth a maximum of $57.75 million containing $30 million guaranteed with the . JaMarcus Ru sell, the top pick in 2007 who is widely considered as one of the biggest draft mistakes in NFL history, became the poster boy for the problems with the system. Ru sell made $39.365 million during three disappointing years with the . He never played in the NFL again after Oakland released him in 2010.The NFL has been dramatically altered because of the financial ramifications of the rookie wage scale. Three areas where the impact has been clearly felt are draft trades, negotiating leverage for top picks during the latter part of rookie contracts and the escalation of salaries in the veteran market. Draft tradesSelecting near the top of the NFL draft was a ble sing and a curse prior to the rookie wage scale. It created an opportunity to get an impact player that could help change a team's fortunes. However, the salaries a sociated with top picks limited draft maneuverability. Nobody was clamoring to pay a king's ransom in draft choices to move up to the top portion of the first round knowing the type of Marcus Mariota Hoodies Sweatshirts contract that was going to be required for the player.Only one trade from outside for the top five of the draft into the top five picks was made during the last five years of the old system. That was in 2009, when the moved from 17th to fifth to select quarterback . Trading for top picks has been become a fairly common occurrence under the rookie wage scale. It's happened seven times since 2011. There could still be more such trades before the first round of this year's NFL draft is selected on April 26. The quarterback-needy , who have the 12th and 22nd overall picks, are considered the most likely candidate to move into the top five in a top-heavy quarterback draft. The gave the multiple selections, including two first-round picks, to move from sixth to second in 2012 to take Heisman Trophy winner . The decision to make the trade -- or at least the amount of draft-choice compensation the Redskins were willing to part with -- may have been different with the type of contract that would have been nece sary for Griffin pre-rookie wage scale. Instead of a fully guaranteed four-year contract for just under $21.12 million, Griffin probably would have gotten a six-year deal with a base value of at least $84 million and more than $90 million as the maximum, and $52.5 million of his deal may have been fully guaranteed.We'll never know whether Griffin's contract may have kept him in the starting lineup at the beginning of the 2015 season, when he lost his job to , a suming the Redskins would have still made the trade to get him at a much higher financial cost. If so, Cousins' ability to become the NFL' Derrick Henry T Shirts s highest-paid player may have been compromised without the chance to develop into a promising starting quarterback, as he did during his contract year in 2015.The Rams and traded up to the first and second spots of the 2016 draft to select quarterbacks and , respectively. If top-draft-pick contracts had continued increasing at a similar rate as before the rookie wage scale, $110 million over six years as the base value of these deals, with $70 million fully guaranteed where the maximum value is close to $125 million, wouldn't have been out of the question The annual growth rate with these contracts was pretty substantial. Bradford received an 8.3 percent increase over the base value of 2009 first-overall pick six-year, $72 million deal and a 10.3 percent increase over Stafford's $78 million maximum. His $50 million guaranteed was almost a 20 percent increase over the $41.7 million of guaranteed money Stafford received a year earlier.The tremendous roster-building advantage Philadelphia has with Wentz on an extremely affordable rookie contract would have been negated if his first contract averaged over $18 million per year instead of currently being just under $6.7 million per year. Super Bowl LII MVP , one of the NFL's higher-priced backup quarterbacks, may have been a luxury Eagles executive vice president of football operations Howie Roseman couldn't afford. Some of Philadelphia's depth in the trenches on both sides of the ball, which played a role in winning last season's Super Bowl, probably gets compromised with Roseman constructing the salary cap to accommodate Foles.This year's first overall pick, presumably a quarterback, may have expected a six-year A.J. Brown Jersey contract with a base value of $130 million where $85 million or more fully guaranteed from the , given how rookie contracts had been escalating at the top of the draft. The maximum value for the six years could have been as much as $145 million. It's debatable whether the will take a quarterback with the second overall pick. A quarterback would have been out of the question under the old system, with the Giants committed to in 2018 because of his $21 million-per-year contract while a rookie pa ser would have gotten a deal av