NFL Rookie Signings: Time for a Change

Lets face it, the current system is broken. I know the NFL faces a lot of interesting questions and discussions going forward, as it’s in the best interest of both the players and owners to get a deal done before there’s any kind of holdout. There may be huge things on the table that need to get changed, number of games, payment scales, salary caps and minimums, and franchising star players, but nothing needs to be changed more than this stupid draft pick signing situation.

Camps have either just started or are about to start for every single team in the NFL and there are just 3 First Round Draft Picks signed to their respective teams. What a joke. Three… Out of Thirty freaking Two drat picks. Football, more than MLB baseball or NBA basketball, relies heavily on your ability to play within your team schemes. You can still be useful in baseball if you don’t know the signs. You can be a 1 on 1 defender and offensive player for an NBA team even if you don’t know all the plays. In football, you’re useless if you don’t know the schemes, audibles, and intricacies of your team. You know what happens when a running back goes the wrong way on a dive? He gets destroyed, that’s what.

I’m all for young athletes making loads of money. Do I think rookie quarterbacks should make more money than Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? No, I do not. But that wouldn’t bother me nearly as much if this stupid system didn’t have players signing contracts well into the start of training camp. It’s dumb – no other sport has this problem, and that’s because of how pathetically obtuse the idea is.

3 out of 32 draft picks have signed in time to start camp with their teams. That’s supposed to be the best 32 players drafted this season, the guys expected to help their new franchises the most. It’s terrible when guys hold out and miss games because of it, and it’s bad when they miss too much training camp to be ready to go in Week 1 – but what makes it even more ridiculous is that it doesn’t need to happen at all. The NFL players union and the Owners need to get their aces together and figure it out – this rookie contract hold-out BS needs to go!

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