signing draft picks

[dawgfan]

This has been covered a bit in the general discussion page, but I thought I'd formally propose this idea in this part of the forum.

Going along with Quicksand's wish to see free agent demands decline over time (which would accurately reflect the panic as a player realizes he's priced himself out of a job in a competetive market) I'd like to see that same logic applied to draft picks.

Currently, if you don't sign your picks before Training Camp, they become free agents. I believe this is contrary to the actual rules in the NFL, where a team retains negotiating rights to a player for at least a year (anyone know the specific rules on this?)

What I'd like to see is a team's ability to retain negotiating rights to a draft pick for a year, combined with Quicksand's idea for declining free agent contract demands over time. This combination would be a way to reflect rookie holdouts. An owner, if he didn't want to meet a draft pick's initial demands, would have to weigh the pros and cons of leaving him unsigned for an extended period of time.

Pro: he may lower his demands over time, costing the owner less.

Con: the rookie would lose valuable development time in training camp, preseason and the season (depending on how long the holdout lasted)

Of course, this type of feature might not be looked upon too kindly by the player's association...holdouts being bad publicity and all...

[henry296]

Another impact could be a decline in the loyalty rating making it more difficult to resign later.

Todd