FanPost

My Thoughts on the Draft

This is not your standard "Draft post", where I would give you my list of players that I think Dallas should draft. I think that has been made abundantly clear over the past few weeks (the "A-Team" and It's Miller Time! FTW BABY!). Instead I want to delve into a slightly "deeper" subject, the possible ramifications of the lawsuit filed by the players for the NFL Draft. I also want to share an idea that I had that would allow teams to A) still allow for the Draft and B) still allow teams to "bid" on players. Now follow me past the jump for the details.

Here is the main crux of the problem for rookies. Once a team "drafts" said rookie, you can only bargain with that team. Now, they can hold out, wait a year, then re-enter the draft, however, they risk losing out on a huge chunk of money. So it behooves the rookies to sign with the team that drafts them. Now certain players have "forced" the drafting franchises to trade them, but that isn't an option for most players. So most simply sign with the team that drafts them, even if that team is one that the draftee doesn't want to play for, whether it is due to a scheme conflict, a dislike of that team, or any other reason. Also consider this from our very own Blue Eyed Devil:

Imagine Microsoft, Oracle, Google, etc. all the big software companies coming together to draft recently college graduated computer programmers. The programmers would have no say in what company they worked for and would get paid a pre-set "scale" just like the NFL. As you can see, this would clearly be highly illegal.

Now I am sure that the NFL has been granted an exemption from Big Brother in regards to the draft so I highly doubt that the draft is illegal. And it is also a great "parity driver" as it is formatted to allow the "bad teams" a chance to obtain "elite talent" that normally would have gone to a "better team". I am not saying that this is a bad thing, even though it normally hurts my favorite team. But yet there has to be a better way, for the teams and the the rookies. And I think that I might have a solution. The great thing about my idea is that it is already been tried and found successful by the league: Restricted Free Agency.

For those that may need a refresher course here is RFA. If a player has fewer than "X" amount of years in the league and has reached the end of his contract, the team that previously held his contract may issue a "tender". Once issued, a player is still available as a free agent but has an added cost, in the form of draft picks. The most famous of these is of course the 1st and 3rd tender, in which any team signing a player that has been issued this tender must give up their 1st and 3rd round picks in the next draft.

So my thought is this, why not apply this to draft picks? Here is how it would work: as each team "drafts' a player basically they would be issuing that player a "tender" based upon the round that they were drafted in. So let's say a player like Von Miller was drafted in the first round by say the Cardinals. By "drafting" Miller they would issuing him a "First round Tender". Now let's say the Cowboys really coveted Miller. They could still offer a contract to Miller, and if he accepted it, the Cardinals could then match that contract. If the Cardinals declined to match the contract then Miller would sign with Dallas, would would then have to send either their current pick(if not used) or their next year's pick (if the current pick has already been used).

Now before you ask "What about the Rookie Wage Scale!", that is what the initial "tenders" are. The pay is based on a sliding scale on a per round basis. Here is how i would set it up: most UDFA's make the rookie minimum which was 325,000 dollars, non guaranteed, if I am not mistaken. So let's use that as the basis: if a UDFA is worth 325K, then a 50% raise per round (i.e. a 7th rounder would get paid 487,500 = +50%) would mean it would work like this:

1st round "Rookie Tender"=325000+350%= $1,462,500 per year for 4 years

2nd Round "Rookie Tender"=325000+300%= $1,300,000 per year for 4 years

3rd Round "Rookie Tender"=325000+250%= $1,137,500 per year for 4 years

4th Round "Rookie Tender"=325000+200%= $975,000 per year for 4 years

5th Round "Rookie Tender"=325000+150%= $812,500 per year for 4 years

6th Round "Rookie Tender"=325000+100%= $650,000 per year for 4 years

7th Round "Rookie Tender"=325000+50%= $487,500 per year for 4 years

Now bear in mind that those numbers could change, but that is how I would base it. So using our earlier example of Von Miller to the Cardinals, with the 5th pick in the Draft, the Cardinals tender Von Miller at 1.4 million per year for 4 years all guaranteed. Now again, Dallas really covets Von Miller, and offers him a 5 year deal worth say 2 million per year with the 5th year a team option. Now the Cardinals match that. Now Dallas can either re-offer a higher contract, or allow Von Miller to sign with Arizona at the 5 year 10 million deal. Now if the offer is not matched then Dallas signs Von Miller to the 5 year 10 million deal. Now if Dallas has yet taken their first round pick in the draft then they would be required to give up picks equal to within 10% of the value of Arizona's pick. If Dallas has already picked then they would have to give up their first rounder in next years draft.

Now to make it fair, all teams would have to match would be the money per year and total years. So if a team tried to put a "poison pill" in the deal, that would not matter to the other team. As long as a team matches the amount per year and total years, then the contract is considered matched, and no draft picks are exchanged.

So tell me what you think BTB. Like the Idea? Hate it? Like it but think it needs tweaks? Here is your chance to sound off...POLL TIME!!!

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.