FanPost

Why rookies need a salary cap

When your legacy is on the line at the beginning of your NFL career, the last thing you need to be worried about is starting. Or for that matter, making a significant contribution. Lets go back the presalary cap days when it was the exception rather then the rule that a rookie quarterback would be expected to start. Now it seems to be the rule.

 

Rookies need to understand that accepting a cap similar to the NBA actually works in their favor. If they are not as pressured to come in before they are ready, they can take the time to learn the system and develop physically in order to compete on this level. It is when guys like Brady and Romo have the chance sit back and learn is when you start to see talent developed properly.

 

Perhaps some of those first round busts would not have been by taking the pressure off and easing them into the system. In todays would of fantastic rookie salaries, no team can afford to live by the Landry 3-year rule. Ask some 1st round bust if they would rather have the salary they got when drafted or take less and have the ability to sign an even richer contract sooner.

 

Lets take a success like Demarcus Ware as the other side of the coin. Under a rookie cap scenario he would still be a millionaire for being drafted 11th overall, but he would have had the opportunity to sign a new deal last year that would have dwarfed the deal he signed as a rookie. He would have resigned last year for Dwight Freeney money.

Bottom line is it’s a win win situation for everyone by limiting rookie salaries.

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.