Dysfunction at it's finest

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(06-12-2025, 10:54 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Just hope players aren't getting tired of having their rights drafted away and then forced to sign an artificially lowered value slotted value contract rather than go to the workplace of their choice after an open market bidding war for their services.

-Sam Bradford got a 6yr/$78m (but it wasn't all guaranteed) as a rookie 1st overall pick and was (theoretically) able to get a raise/extension after 1 year.
-Then 10 years later Joe Burrow got 4yr/$36.2m (fully guaranteed) as a rookie 1st overall pick and couldn't get a raise/extension until he finished 3 years in the league.

He led the Bengals to the Super Bowl and then proceeded to make $3.9m in 2022 because of the artificial suppression and he also artificially wasn't allowed to get more money yet.

Don't rock the boat too hard on your cushy deal of vastly underpaying high end talent for the first few years of their career. The price of that is 1st round picks getting guaranteed deals. Once you get greedy and want to take even more from them, that road leads to labor disputes.

Guys like Sam Bradford are why we have rookie contracts these days. It protects the teams financially from busts like him, and super busts like Ryan Leaf or Jamarcus Russell.