Rookie salaries, guaranteed cash, and Nick Saban

National Football League
Draft King Analysis

Reader feedback is always welcomed here. Send your thoughts to Draft King at LouPickney@gmail.com.

(Note: I finished this article literally about two minutes before word broke of Dez Bryant agreeing to a contract with Dallas. Bryant is the first player from the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft to sign.)

With NFL training camps opening soon, there is plenty of activity in the league, particularly when it comes to signing draft picks. One interesting thing is that, to this point, no first round pick has signed. There are several reasons for that, but two come to mind:

1. With uncertainty concerning the 2011 season, players are hesitant to sign deals that defer some of the signing bonus until the second year of the contract. Without a salary cap in 2010 you'd think that teams would want to put as much of the financial burden in this fiscal year, anticipating the strong likelihood that there will be some sort of cap in 2011 and beyond under the new CBA. Then again, I also thought there was a chance that a maverick owner or two might sign every high-profile free agent to huge one-year deals, and that didn't happen.

2. It's a game of chicken when it comes to agents agreeing to a deal for the player(s) they represent. No agent wants to agree to a deal only to see a player drafted behind their guy land a better contract. That sort of thing can be used by an agent later on down the line, both in trying to land current players and also in wooing top notch talent coming out of school (more on that in a minute).

Deals will end up being signed, and they will likely happen in waves. But, for now, there aren't any contracts in place with any of the 2010 first round picks -- not even the top spot, which sometimes is a position where a deal is negotiated ahead of the draft.

As I mentioned on the Batchelor Pad internet radio show on Tuesday, Sam Bradford has the chance to be the first NFL draft pick to land a signing bonus north of $50 million. Last year's top pick, Matthew Stafford, received $45 million guaranteed as part of his contract with the Lions. Bradford will press for more than that, and it will be interesting to see if his side is able to break the $50 million guaranteed mark.

If Bradford doesn't do it, there's a good chance that it will be quite some time until another incoming rookie has the chance to command that kind of guaranteed payday. With the current labor deal expiring after this season, it's widely expected that the league will press hard to do something to change the huge guaranteed money that high draft picks have been able to command. The NFLPA doesn't care about guys who aren't in the league yet, which gives them an area that they can work with in conjunction with the NFL owners and league management in the negotiation process.

There will be a draft in 2011 with or without a new CBA, though if we are without a new deal by this time next year there will be many more problems to contend with than just what the top five rookies drafted are able to negotiate from the teams that drafted them. But it's an area where both the NFL and NFLPA can save face, which makes it likely to be something changed for 2011. How it works out remains to be seen. This article explains some possible scenarios, including the elimination of any guaranteed money for rookie deals.

Remember that the owners have been planning for this for some time, and most impressively the league negotiated a deal with DirecTV where they get paid the same for 2011 with *or without* NFL football. If there's a lockout it doesn't matter. It's like the "F-you, pay me!" scene in GoodFellas, only without Henry Hill's narration. The NFL will get its DirecTV cash.

Most everyone involved with the NFL hopes that a lockout can be averted. Want to know who is hoping for a full 2011 NFL lockout? The UFL. But just because most want to avoid a lockout doesn't mean that one will be avoided. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has a far different outlook on the league than, say, Bills owner Ralph Wilson. The owners themselves have trouble at times agreeing on how things should go, which is a reality that will likely complicate the negotiation process.

I would be remiss if I didn't address comments made earlier this week by University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban where he compared agents to pimps. To me that was an incredibly brazen thing for Saban to say. Published reports pin his salary at an estimated $4 million per year, and believe me, he's worth every penny. Look at how quickly he turned Alabama back into a national power: his ability to recruit is uncanny. Read in the book "The Blind Side" (not the movie) how charming Saban was to the Tuohy family in attempting to get Michael Oher to come to LSU, where he was coaching at the time. Had Saban not jumped ship to the NFL, I suspect he would have won the Tuohy family over and landed Michael Oher.

	Alabama head coach Nick Saban is a smooth operator. (Icon SMI)

While Saban is masterful at his job, for him to say that agents are no better than pimps is a brazen statement when you consider the source. College athletes are not financially compensated for their countless hours spent practicing and playing their sports, save for the scholarship they receive and whatever food stipend is given to them. Much like a pimp takes the money from his whores at the end of a night, Saban takes the $4 million per year while his elite athletes perform in a de facto minor league system for the NFL.

Look at Mark Ingram. As a true sophomore in 2009, Ingram performed amazingly well at running back for the Crimson Tide, facing elite defenses and cutting through them with remarkable skill. Ingram won the Heisman Trophy for his efforts, and by most estimations he was the best tailback in college football in 2009.

Right now, if you could put Ingram on any one of more than a few NFL team's rosters, he would likely end up as the opening day starter. Yet the NFL refuses to allow players who are less than three years removed from their high school graduation to enter the league, a policy that withstood a court challenge by Maurice Clarett. So Ingram, who in my opinion should have had the choice to leave for the NFL if he felt he was ready, didn't have that as an option.

This fall Ingram will be in Tuscaloosa, playing for a scholarship and trying to replicate his impressive 2009 season all while hoping to avoid injury. Who will receive millions of dollars for the work of the "student-athletes" this fall? Nick Saban, that's who. Now who's the pimp? That reality is what made his comments so jarring to anyone aware of the facts. This article by Lynn Zinser in the New York Times provides more detail if you care to learn more.

This is hardly a call for a pity party for agents, a group notorious for being sleazy and cut-throat, but the reality is that 99.9%+ of all college athletes are adults. Hearing them called them "kids" might sound good coming out of the mouth of a smooth-talking coach, but the reality is that the players are adults and are aware of the rules that they are expected to abide by. Violate those rules, get caught, and you will have to pay the consequences.

Lou Pickney's 2025 NFL Mock Draft