I'm on my phone so I can't post a link but the league is trying to get a rookie cap starting in 2010. Read it over on profootballtalk.
Rookie cap in 2010?
- Thread starter houtz
- Start date
ckparrothead
Premium Member
Not surprising. As I brought up before, imposing a rookie cap in 2011 would be almost the same thing, and possibly just lead to a lot of messiness this year from agents and players that refuse to understand that there's no upside and only downside to them holding out a full year and re-entering the draft in 2011.
Like I said, if a rookie scale gets ironed out before contract negotiations with the rookies begin, then teams are going to look at what that rookie would get paid NEXT year, they won't look at what a guy at that spot got LAST year. If a rookie decides not to sign with a team, he doesn't have a magical ability to holdout and go back in time to the 2009 Draft. He can only hold out and re-enter the 2011 Draft. And by doing so he'd put himself under the 2011 rookie wage scale, and also risk significantly damaging his draft stock due to being out of football for a year.
If I were an agent in 2009 trying to convince underclassmen to go pro, I would have been pointing this out to the players and telling them that Goodell's promise that a rookie wage scale wouldn't take form until 2011 was basically an empty promise.
Like I said, if a rookie scale gets ironed out before contract negotiations with the rookies begin, then teams are going to look at what that rookie would get paid NEXT year, they won't look at what a guy at that spot got LAST year. If a rookie decides not to sign with a team, he doesn't have a magical ability to holdout and go back in time to the 2009 Draft. He can only hold out and re-enter the 2011 Draft. And by doing so he'd put himself under the 2011 rookie wage scale, and also risk significantly damaging his draft stock due to being out of football for a year.
If I were an agent in 2009 trying to convince underclassmen to go pro, I would have been pointing this out to the players and telling them that Goodell's promise that a rookie wage scale wouldn't take form until 2011 was basically an empty promise.