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Picks made, but can they be signed?

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Posted: Tuesday April 20, 1999 08:54 AM

Thanks to the uniqueness of this year's draft, and some hard realities about NFL economy, 1999 could very well be the Year of the Holdout.

Three quarterbacks going 1-2-3 will force owners to open their pocketbooks early. Top pick Tim Couch has already agreed to a contract with the Browns -- seven years for $48 million and a $12.25 million signing bonus. The reason the deal was not significantly higher than for Peyton Manning last year was that Cleveland could use its interest in Akili Smith as leverage. Donovan McNabb at No. 2 will surely work off of Couch's numbers, and sources tell me Philadelphia has the money and is prepared to give it to him. But Akili Smith, as the third of the three taken, could be different. He doesn't have the same leverage -- but does have Leigh Steinberg -- and could be out of camp for a while.

Another quirk in this draft is the presence of two more quarterbacks, Daunte Culpepper and Cade McNown, right in the middle of the first round (11 and 12). In the NFL, many teams use "slotting" to determine draft salaries (where the figures slide with each slot in the draft), but QBs are used to getting paid on a higher scale than other positions. Culpepper and McNown could drive up the slots of guys right around them like Chris McAlister, Troy Edwards and John Tait.

And the other factor you have in this draft is a pretty strong contingent at cornerback and tackle, with five of each taken in the first round. A common negotiating tactic is for agents to compare their clients with others drafted at the same position and drive up the asking price accordingly. There will be a lot of jockeying around among the guys on each of these lists.

Complicating all this, and what many fans don't realize, is that half the teams in the NFL can't afford to sign the guys they just picked. The oft-talked about rookie salary pool only tells teams what they're allowed to spend. To create the real cap space, they have to cut veterans or restructure contracts. If your team went out and took a high profile player where they already have a high-salaried veteran, that's a sure sign of a cut to come. Cincinnati has already told Neil O'Donnell he will be released to make room for Smith. Others who could be in trouble include Andy Heck in Chicago, Carolina's Kevin Greene and Denver's Neil Smith.

So why do so many of these teams take until late in the summer or even early fall to sign these rookies? Because it may take that long to create the cap space. June 1 is the date when teams' financial calendars turn over and may clear leftover signing bonuses from the year before. For instance, the Baltimore Ravens' fifth-highest charge against the cap right now is actually Vinny Testaverde ($2.6 million), who they released before last season (He only costs the Jets $1.38 million). Veterans that are cut after June 1 do not count against the cap until the next year.

So as you can see, GMs and personnel directors across the league right now are celebrating the end of the draft, but probably cringing at what's ahead.

 

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CNN/SI's Kirwan: Assessing Day 1 strategies Pat Kirwan Analysis: Round 1 Pat Kirwan Analysis: Round 2 1999 Draft Central
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