According to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, the NFL and NFLPA have agreed on a rookie wage scale for the potentially new collective bargaining agreement. Once the other details, namely the financials, of the current negotiations are worked out a rookie wage scale has already been agreed upon. The agreement will replace the current rookie cap and limit signing bonuses and guaranteed money available to rookies.
Click the jump for the details.
Under the agreement, rookies drafted in the first round would be allowed to sign four-year contracts. Players drafted after the first round will be limited to three-year contracts. Originally owners wanted five-year deals and the NFLPA wanted three-year deals for the first round, but naturally they met in the middle.
Players drafted after the first round would be restricted free agents in the fourth year, which is virtually identical to the current system. Typically players who are not drafted in the first round sign three-year contracts, so this would only set forth a standard for all draft picks.
Jason Cole reports the owners' original offer for the first overall pick would have been a 5-year, $19 million contract, of which only $6 million was guaranteed. By comparison in the 2010 NFL draft, Sam Bradford received 6-year deal with $50 million in guaranteed salary. Setting a wage scale similar to what the owners proposed would dramatically change how teams look and feel about moving around in the NFL draft and could potentially give teams the freedom to take what are seen as "riskier" picks without potential devastating loss in salary.