A Rookie Pay Scale Must Be Priority For NFL Offseason

There are a vast amount of issues that the leauge will be facing this upcoming offseason, but one of the biggest issues that must be resolved soon is the amount of money that the rookies have been receiving. 

A rookie pay scale must be in place in order to keep the veteran players happy and to keep teams picking high happy. The amount that the rookies are being made is staggering when you look at the numbers. Matt Ryan's made $72 million in his contract with 27 million as guaranteed money.

Wages such as this are making it increasingly difficult for teams in the top five to trade down and receive more picks because some teams who may want to trade up simply cannot afford these types of salaries.

The NFL must improve this because it hinders a teams ability to rebuild. Some teams such as the Detroit Lions who went 0-16 are going to be looking to get a lot of draft picks so that they can get a bountiful amount of players to start building around rather than just one stud with nobody else there. A team such as the Lions who have the No. 1 overall will have a difficult time looking for teams who may want that pick. 

The rookie wage scale would improve free agency too by allowing teams more room under the cap so that players who have earned the money will be able to get it. It is absurd Reggie Bush, in his rookie season, made around the same amount of money as LaDainian Tomlinson.

A player needs to earn their money instead of just being able to have a great college career, get drafted high, and be able to relax because they have instantly become one of the highest paid players in the NFL.

Players need to earn their keep, a player who is drafted high and making that much money may not put all his effort into practice or training camp because they know they do not need to worry about if they are going anywhere for their first rookie contract because the team has already invested so much in them. 

The NFL must fix this problem soon because the amount that rookies are making is growing drastically each year. Roger Goodell hopes to have a rookie scale in place sometime after 2011 but they need to sit down and work something out before is goes out of control.