Rookie contracts too much?

It just seems to me that the rookies that go early get way too much money. Too many of them take too long to develop, and too many of them dont pan out to be close to the worth of the amount that is paid. The draft is devised to even out the differences between teams by having the worst teams pick first, but it seems to me that many teams are actually getting hurt by picking too early because of the amount of money spent on the top picks. Lets examine the top picks from 3 years ago. Not one player picked in the top ten turned out to impact even close to the amount that they got paid. Maybe one day these guys will produce, but the fact is that they are being paid the big bucks now to produce, and for the most part they are not.
1. Alex Smith-OK, but not top pick worthy. If he was drafted a year later, I doubt he would have been in the first round, and definately would have been at least the 4th QB taken.
2. Ronnie Brown-barely got over 1000 yards despite being the workhorse back, and only got 5 tds.
3. Braylon Edwards-Probably has the talent to be this high picked, but due to the lack of talent surrounding him only got under 900 yards and 6 tds
4. Cedric Benson- Was the backup to a guy who got traded for a swap of 2nd round picks. Never got over 700 yds or 6 tds
5. Carnell Williams-Despite being the workhorse back, he averaged only 3.5 yds per carry, got un der 800 yds, and had only 1 td.
6. Adam Jones-Talent might be worth the pick, but is suspended for all next year.
7. Troy Williamson-Didnt always start last year, got no tds, got 455 yds.
8. Antrel Rolle- Didnt turn out to be that good of a corner
9. Carlos Rogers-Might not even start next year.
10. Mike Williams-Is so bad, he was traded with a backup QB for a 4th round pick.

My point being that these guys are unproven, and do not deserve these huge contracts. The nfl should get involved and find out a way to reduce the payments of rookie contracts, because they just seem to be that rising way too fast and are getting to be way to high. I suggest that the league restrict the contracts, but allow for preformance insentives to make the contract huge, so if the players pan out, they get what they deserve, but if they are a bust, the team is not hurt. I think this should be applied to just rookies, not vets as well because when signing a vet, you know what you have evidence of what they can do in the NFL, but rookies have not proven they can play at the NFL level.

What about Adam Archuletta? What about Brandon Llyod? What about Dana Stubblefield? What about Dan Wilkinson? I can keep going but all of these players were veterans that got huge signing bonuses/contracts by the Redskins and did not perform well. Has acquiring high priced veterans instead of focusing on the draft resulted in a better record for the Redskins because the Front Office had evidence of what these players did in the NFL on other teams?

Instead of just restricting rookie contracts the only way to avoid overpaying for busts is to change contracts that rely on signing bonuses to contracts that rely on performance bonuses, but there a lot of agents and the NFL players association that will fight that to the end so we are stuck to having high priced busts that consist of rookies as you pointed out and veterans as I have pointed out.

What about Adam Archuletta? What about Brandon Llyod? What about Dana Stubblefield? What about Dan Wilkinson? I can keep going but all of these players were veterans that got huge signing bonuses/contracts by the Redskins and did not perform well. Has acquiring high priced veterans instead of focusing on the draft resulted in a better record for the Redskins because the Front Office had evidence of what these players did in the NFL on other teams?

Instead of just restricting rookie contracts the only way to avoid overpaying for busts is to change contracts that rely on signing bonuses to contracts that rely on performance bonuses, but there a lot of agents and the NFL players association that will fight that to the end so we are stuck to having high priced busts that consist of rookies as you pointed out and veterans as I have pointed out.

I wouldnt consider any one of those guys you mentioned a bust. All of those guys showed what they could do in the NFL, and all of them produced what could be predicted of them. We took a risk on Arch knowing that he couldnt cover, Llyod isnt doing that much worse than he did in SF (if he is doing worse at all), Dana Stubblefield got injured and never recovered fully, that could happen to anyone and was just unfortunate, and Dan Wilkinson actually did well for us in the beginning, but he weighs alot, and as a result did worse earlier on in his career than he should have. But all of what I just said is irrelevevent to the fact that we are not forced to pay these guys the money that we pay them. We choose who we give that money to. The rookies who are taken early on have to get paid that money, and teams might not think the rookies are worth that money, but according to what they should get paid, they are paid. Also, we have documented footage of what vets can do, and can predict when they might not produce those numbers. When signing a vet, you make the decision of weather to take a risk on them or not based on their previous preformances in the NFL and the indicators that will predict how well they do with your team and for how long, but that is not true when signing a rookie who you have to sign, and do not know how they will do in the NFL. Also, rookies generally do not make immediate impacts, they take a few years to develop into people worthy of the money that they make, and that is not fair to know that you are probably not going to get full production from a guy for the first few years, but still have to pay him the big bucks.

for some reason, sports contracts are based on 2 things. what kind of season you had last year, so the new contract is kind of retro active. or what you have the potential to do. it definitely is a screwy system

So basically your saying they look at your history or future. What else would they look for?

who can predict how a rookie will perform? to give these guys a wad of money without ever playing a down in the NFL, is just plain stupid

I completely agree with this.. Rookies means they will make mistakes and everything, def not worth lot of money..

And Rolle, the one in Arizona, he is good.. Def worth what he is getting..

The market dictates what the rookies get, and if a guy's services are in high demand, well he gets to hit the jackpot come signing time. I don't agree with it, but it is how things work. The NFL should have had performance incentive laden contracts since day one of the FA era, but they didn't and now the cat is out of the bag for some time to come.

Why pay a guy based on what he might do. How about letting them earn the big money?

Why pay a guy based on what he might do. How about letting them earn the big money?


for the simple fact that he was drafted that high and how much the salary cap is the higher the cap gets the more rookies will get

I don't see how this problem can be fixed. If I'm the #1 overall pick next year (crossing my fingers) why would I sign a contract that's lease than the one that Russell signs this year? I know he signed one that was bigger than Mario Williams', who in turned signed one that was bigger than Smith's. I also know that the cap goes up from year to year and that the trend is that each year the picks make a little more than the previous year.

If you try to make to the contracts smaller you're just going to get more and more holdouts.

I don't see how this problem can be fixed. If I'm the #1 overall pick next year (crossing my fingers) why would I sign a contract that's lease than the one that Russell signs this year? I know he signed one that was bigger than Mario Williams', who in turned signed one that was bigger than Smith's. I also know that the cap goes up from year to year and that the trend is that each year the picks make a little more than the previous year.

If you try to make to the contracts smaller you're just going to get more and more holdouts.

You are right, no one would sign a smaller contract than the previous year, which is exactly why the league must get involved in this. Teams dont choose what to pay their pick, they may not want to pay anyone in that draft that type of money, but they have to because of their draft pick. The league should put restrictions on rookie contracts that allow for preformance insentives incase the rookie turns out to be real good.