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Fixing a Flaw
NFL teams would benefit from having rookie salary scale such as one used in NBA
AP Photo
First-round pick Jeff Otah (right) has not signed with the Panthers.
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Published: July 23, 2008
CHARLOTTE - The Charlotte Bobcats drafted D.J. Augustin and Alexis Ajinca in the first round of the NBA Draft four weeks ago. Both are already signed, with the start of NBA training camp still more than two months away.
The Carolina Panthers drafted Jonathan Stewart and Jeff Otah in the first round of the NFL Draft in April. Neither is signed, with the start of NFL training camp approaching this weekend. The Panthers are scheduled to report to Spartanburg, S.C., on Friday, and start practice on Saturday.
What's wrong with this picture?
Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't Stewart and Otah have been signed long ago, with negotiations out of the way? If the NBA can have its rookies signed months before the start of training camp, why can't the NFL?
The answer is that the NBA has a rookie salary scale with guaranteed contracts for first-round picks that is, in essence, nonnegotiable, although there is small flexibility in the numbers. The NFL continues to do it the old-fashioned way, with each player and his agent negotiating with individual teams.
The NFL has general parameters in the sense that players eventually get "slotted" into salary ranges. For example, Stewart, the 13th pick, is likely to wind up with less than the 11th and 12th picks but significantly more than Otah, the 19th pick. But even then, the players' positions change the dynamic, and the negotiable items include signing bonuses, option years, length of contract, and other fine print.
Jon Beason, the Panthers' first-round pick last year, missed the first eight days of training camp, holding out for an additional guaranteed bonus in the second year of his contract. He wound up signing a deal he could have signed before camp ever started.
This is one of the few cues the NFL could take from the NBA, because in this case, the NBA has it right with its system, and the NFL continues to suffer consequences with its system. Holdouts are commonplace in the NFL. JaMarcus Russell, the No. 1 pick last year, held out until Sept. 12 before signing a 6-year, $61-million deal with the Oakland Raiders. Surely several first-round picks will miss the opening of training camp this year, even though top pick Jake Long and third pick Matt Ryan have already set the pricing bar by signing with the Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons, respectively.
The costs of holding out
The notion of an NBA-like rookie scale for the NFL continues to be a topic of discussion around the league. The league's collective-bargaining agreement with the Players Association runs through the 2010 season, but there is no salary cap in place for the 2009 season. So, in essence, anything involving a new system would be negotiable after this season.
Marty Hurney, the Panthers' general manager, defers questions about a future rookie scale as an issue to be dealt with "between the NFL and the NFLPA reps." But he has long maintained that nobody wins when a rookie holds out.
"Any time a rookie misses time, he obviously comes in behind and he misses valuable classroom time and valuable time on the field with the installation," Hurney said. "He has to come in and catch up, you know. So I think that's always difficult, and it's important for guys to get signed and get in. That's part of our job, to reach agreements."
Truth is, teams would benefit from a rookie scale, because it would guarantee that they would have everyone in training camp on time. And a rookie scale -- depending on the years and the guaranteed money that would be settled on -- would save teams money in cases where high draft picks turn out to be complete busts. The list is long of players who signed long-term, multi-million dollar contracts with huge signing bonuses, then turned out to be flops.
Comparing systems
That's one of the things that prompted the NBA to go to a rookie scale. Beyond the yearly holdouts, a significant chunk of teams' salary caps were going to unproven rookies. When those players fizzled, it left teams in a cap bind. And, it took away from the money that could have gone to veterans instead. The NBA veterans, who make up the NBA Players Association, wised up and realized that the veterans would benefit by putting a rookie scale into its collective-bargaining agreement.
The NFLPA has yet to wise up similarly. Maybe that's because it wants to use a rookie scale for leverage, as a bargaining chip, once negotiations heat up. The NFLPA could "cave in" and agree to a rookie scale on the contingency that it gets a different concession back from the owners. Or maybe, as the NFLPA's Gene Upshaw has stated, the players truly believe that when rookies get big signing bonuses, it ultimately gives veterans more leverage with their contracts.
George Bass, a Dallas-based agent, represents NBA and NFL players. So he operates under both systems. Personally, he likes the NFL's way better.
"From an agent's standpoint, I don't want a rookie scale," Bass said. "If you end up with a premium-position guy -- a quarterback, a running back -- if he's picked at a certain spot he's probably going to be worth more than another guy who's not a premium-position guy. I want the chance to go negotiate more. That's the way I look at it. The NBA, you're only negotiating plus or minus 20 percent of the rookie scale, so agents are not getting compensated for that first 80 percent."
Potential vs. performance
Bass does sense sentiment for the NFL to go to some kind of rookie scale eventually. He's just not sure what is the proper way to go about it, since some things about NBA and NFL contracts are inherently different.
"It's difficult to say that one system works best in both worlds," Bass said. "You have to realize that NFL careers are a lot shorter, so that's where you're seeing some bigger numbers for the rookies in the NFL. Some guys will play one contract, and that's it. And there's a difference with the guaranteed contracts. There's always been guaranteed contracts in the NBA, and in the NFL only the bonus money was guaranteed, at least in writing. Now, we're starting to see more guaranteed money filter into NFL contracts, so maybe it is starting to migrate over to the NBA system.
"I think the fundamental issue is do you pay guys on potential or on performance? Potential seems to be what guys are getting paid for these days. And if you put a rookie scale in there, there's some protection there. The thing I've always thought was interesting is the players are the ones who vote on what they want to happen. Guys in college don't vote. That was one of the reasons the NBA rookie scale went into place. And that may be one of the reasons the NFL rookie scale goes into place. If the veterans say, ‘Hey, we want more money,' then the way to put more money in the salary cap for veterans is to have a rookie scale."
That's the way it should be. If a rookie pans out, he will make plenty of money over the course of his career. If he doesn't pan out, he should thank his lucky stars that he got drafted and got guaranteed money in the first place.
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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