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ESPN is using the NFL draft’s top three stars,
Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and Vince Young, during
lead-ins to its coverage this weekend. |
Drafting a player at the top of the first round of the NFL draft is a multimillion-dollar investment for clubs, and the cost is going up every year.
It’s not just the contracts, though — Alex Smith, who was the No. 1 pick last year, got a record $24 million in guaranteed money. It’s also the cost of employing five to 10 scouts to make the right pick.
“What we are trying to do in the league is we are trying to make the best decisions possible,” said Gil Brandt, former vice president of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys and an NFL.com senior analyst, who serves as a draft consultant to the league. “So what you are trying to do is to spend $100,000 so you don’t lose $1 million.”
And it’s not just the teams that stand to lose if they make the wrong decision. For the players, a drop from the No. 1 slot to the No. 2 slot means the loss of $5 million in guaranteed money. For agents, representing a top-10 pick now can get you in the door to recruit top players in the future.
One change in the league’s new collective-bargaining agreement could affect the money that draft picks see.
NFL players won a 20 percent increase in their minimum salary, but that victory could potentially squeeze the contracts of the top first-round picks this year. Conversely, it could also mean lower signing bonuses for lower-round picks.
The rookie pool, a cap within the overall team salary cap, is expected to increase by about 5 percent, from $127 million last year to $133 million this year, said Mark Levin, director of salary cap and agent administration for the NFL Players Association. That number will be set after the draft.
Under the new CBA, the minimum salary will increase to $275,000 from $230,000.
“This is the largest increase … in the rookie minimum since 1993,” Levin said. “It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the increase in minimum salaries will have on the first-round contracts.”
Because teams must stay within the rookie salary cap, if they pay more money to lower-round players, there will be less for first-round picks. Players from the middle of the second round through the seventh round typically receive the base salary, which is now 20 percent higher than it was last year.
If a seventh-round pick gets a salary 20 percent higher than the player in his spot last year, teams and agents will have to decide whether he gets the same signing bonus. The average signing bonus for a seventh-round pick last year was $37,000. If the seventh-round player then gets that same bonus, there will be less money available for the first-round pick on that team.
