Dallas Cowboys Assigned $5.71 Million Year-One Rookie Pool

The Dallas Cowboys added seven new players through the 2012 NFL draft, and they all want to get paid. It's now up to Stephen Jones and the player's agents to agree on contracts.

According to Aaron Wilson the Dallas Cowboys have been assigned a $5.71 million rookie pool with which to sign their new rookie class. The total amount of compensation for Morris Claiborne and the six other picks from the 2012 draft class can't exceed $31.42 million in total.

These amounts are determined in the new CBA and based upon the number, round and position of a team's selection choices in the draft. This means that there is little to no room for negotiation between a player's agent and the teams, effectively making rookie contract holdouts a thing of the past, as there is only a fixed amount of money available even for top tier picks. Last year’s draft class was the first affected by the new rookie cap, and most rookie contracts were signed within a week of the opening of the contract negotiation period late in July.

All seven of the Cowboys' draft picks must be signed to four-year contracts, only first-round pick Morris Claiborne will be signed to a four-year deal that will likely include a 5th year club option at a salary equal to the average of the five highest-paid players at the cornerback position. In case the Cowboys sign any of the undrafted players to full contracts, all will be three years contracts.

The rookie pool is cap is a cap within the cap, but doesn't have a dollar for dollar correlation to the team's overall cap. For more details on the cap implications, follow this link.