A long-standing NFL Draft tradition holds that the last pick of every draft be dubbed Mr. Irrelevant. Circumstances as they are, the first selection is becoming Mr. I'd Rather Not. The Dolphins have been trying to trade their No. 1 pick for months yet seem resigned to the fact they won't find any takers by the time NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announces the top choice next weekend in Radio City Music Hall. When the premier selection in the draft turns into a hot potato nobody wants, NFL executives are even further convinced a hard rookie salary cap is needed to correct an awkward problem that makes it possible for unproven rookies to get paid more than future Hall of Famers at the same position. With top rookie prices about to burn through the ozone layer, teams picking at the front of the draft are bracing themselves more than reveling in the honor of presenting their jerseys to the finest college players. "It is tough," Dolphins co-owner Wayne Huizenga said last month in Palm Beach at the NFL's annual meetings, "when you take a talented player who has never been in the NFL before and you give him a bunch of signing bonuses and then you give him a guaranteed contract of huge dollars. "If you make a mistake there ... and you pay $35 million or some number to a person who does not work out, you're stuck with that for a period of five or six years, which means you no longer can get rid of him and someone else could be there, taking that money." Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian calls it "salary-cap hell." Others around the league feel just as strongly. LINK http://www.palmbeachpost.com/dolphins/content/sports/epaper/2008/04/16/0416dolphins.html
Parcells is working hard right now to reverse that trend, see which prospect will take a low contract under what the #1 got last year. I hope he gets it done, and I hope it doesn't backfire on us.
I hope it works out too... but I sure would hate to be the player & the agent that agrees to that deal as it will affect salaries all the way down the board. It would upset alot of players and agents thats for sure. A simple rookie salary cap would solve this problem all together...
