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How the NFL draft screws over players

April 22, 2025

Good morning and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! I hope your team’s “arm barn” is holding up alright.

It’s NFL Draft week, and if you’re heavily invested in this, it’s probably a sign your team sucks and needs the help. We’ll talk about how NFL Draft picks are getting screwed, and you’ll view those images of draftees smiling next to Commissioner Roger Goodell in a weird new light. Then we’ll move on to a possible new NFL stadium, a marathon record, and an awesome TV show.

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The Pick Is In Screwed

When Cam Ward (almost certainly) gets drafted first overall by the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night, he’ll earn a contract worth $43 million over four years. Must be nice! But that value is dramatically lower than top draft picks were getting 15 years ago.

In 2009, Matt Stafford agreed to contract terms with the Detroit Lions the day before the draft—he went first overall and then signed a deal with a total value of $78 million. The next year, Sam Bradford went first overall to the then–St. Louis Rams and inked a deal worth a maximum of $86 million (or about $117 million in today’s dollars, thanks to inflation). Those deals had $42 million guaranteed for Stafford and $50 million guaranteed for Bradford.

But then draft pick salaries fell off a cliff. The following year’s top pick, Cam Newton, got just $22 million for four years (fully guaranteed). The 2011 collective bargaining agreement stripped away almost all the negotiating power draftees had with teams. From then on through at least the end of the current labor agreement, rookies could either agree to the preset salary system or they could skip a year—and then have to get drafted again and get stuck with a preset salary again.

Get more sports from Jason Russell and Reason.

The money went from drafted players to older players. Who do you think negotiated the 2011 collective bargaining agreement for the players union? Future players like Ward, who was 9 years old at the time, obviously didn’t get a say.

The other major professional sports leagues do versions of this too. Whoever gets to pick Cooper Flagg first in the NBA Draft gets to keep his rookie salary down to just $13.8 million. When NHL draft picks get to the show, they sign entry-level contracts with a maximum salary under $1,000,000 (length varies from one to three years depending on their age). MLB rules are a mysterious fog that lead to “service time” manipulation to keep players from reaching free agency too quickly.

With little negotiation power, it’s no surprise some NFL draft picks, like Caleb Williams last year, don’t have an agent (this would ruin the Cush plotline in Jerry Maguire). Since the average NFL career is between three and four seasons, many players never get to negotiate for their worth in a contract.

The system works out well for the league’s owners, who get to keep a below-market ceiling on a large portion of their player contracts. It works well for veteran players, who get to soak up a bigger portion of the salary-capped pie. It doesn’t work out for young draft picks—and it’s a surprise more of them don’t speak out about it.

Who’s Taking Your Money This Week?

The Washington, D.C., government and the Washington Commanders are closing in on a deal for a new stadium and an accompanying development. When the entire project is estimated to cost $3 billion, with $2.5 billion coming from the team, the deal sounds downright benevolent. The city government’s $850 million cost seems small in comparison.

But $850 million is still a lot of money—$1,250 per resident, if you estimate D.C.’s population at 680,000. The city is full of die-hard ~~Redskins~~ Commanders fans, but I bet most residents would rather see their $1,250 share spent on something else. (Frankly, being forced by government to pay that much for a stadium and not even getting a free ticket out of it is offensive.)

Even if the Commanders come to an agreement with Mayor Muriel Bowser, other political challenges lie ahead. “It’s unclear how DC has the money to do this,” as stadium financing expert J.C. Bradbury posted. The city already has $515 million committed to Capital One Arena. Congress also has to approve the city’s budget and might balk at the spending. Amazingly, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson is one of the few local politicians in the country who has the right line on taxpayer dollars and sports: “I have said many times that I support a stadium and welcome the return of our football team, but without the investment of public dollars,” he told NBC News4. (But he still voted to “invest” public dollars in Capital One Arena.)

The team’s current stadium, Northwest Stadium (formerly FedExField, and yes, it apparently was all one word) is in terrible physical condition and was horribly managed by former team owner Dan Snyder. Perhaps upgrades by the new ownership group have changed things since my last game, but the sorry state of affairs doesn’t mean the D.C. government should subsidize a new stadium—sports are just entertainment, not an industry that should or must be supported by government spending.

Boo Commanders. Boo owner Josh Harris. Boo Washington, D.C., government.

A Record for Humanity

I get mixed feelings about a lot of record-breaking achievements in sports, but new records in running always bring a smile to my face. They feel like achievements for all humanity, not just the individual.

When records fall in other sports, we get arguments about different playing eras, offensive styles, and quality of opponents. Running records are more about beating the clock than beating your opponent—and records are falling more and more often. They show how much humanity has figured out about health, nutrition, physics, and athletics, each lesson building on top of another. Even technological improvements in running shoes have played a part.

With that in mind, congratulations to Sharon Lokedi for crushing the Boston Marathon’s course record for women by more than two minutes. She spent hours learning and training and it all came together in the race—I, personally, had nothing to do with it, nor did most people. But she couldn’t have done it without all the lessons we’ve learned about how to run 26.2 miles faster and faster without dying. It’s a small example of another barrier that humanity can break down when people have the drive, resources, and freedom to pursue their dreams.

Never Lose Again

I get it. It’s playoff time, but your NHL team is dusting off their golf clubs instead of sharpening their skates. You wish you wanted to watch but putting the playoffs on makes you sigh.

Thankfully, Shoresy is here to help you. It’s the best TV show about hockey you’ll ever see. It’s what Brockmire was for baseball except the fourth season doesn’t suck and it’s still going strong. It’s Letterkenny but with a plot. Anyone who’s ever felt a sports-induced emotion will love it. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll start quoting it every single day, you’ll see the best TV romance you’ve seen in years.