Let me put it this way. We have our walk-ons. It's pretty impressive in a wide scope that they even made it on to a D1 team at all, but when you're looking at helping the team win, they're not exactly irreplaceable. There will be some diamonds over time for sure, but the vast majority are just not good enough to make a difference at this level and if you had to give them significant playing time, that would not be a good sign. That is about how I see these end of the roster/practice squad/FA type guys. Sure, it's impressive overall that they made the NFL, but when you're looking at them in comparison to their peers, they're just not all that valuable to the team. If they lose a step, get more expensive, or their play tails off at all, they're dropped like a hot coal.
As far as the comp to the NBA, you're not understanding me. My point is that there aren't any more legitimate NBA players available in the draft just because a lot of them come out early because the guys who would potentially be the really good upperclassmen in the draft are already gone. Take Manziel in the NFL for example. He may add another top prospect this year, but the fact that he won't be there as an upperclassman takes it away from that class. There theoretically shouldn't be any more NFL prospects, they're just coming out earlier.
i got an understanding of what you're saying but I don't agree. Because what you're really talking about is based on the concept of a sliding salary based scale, or a sliding scale of anything of value and that's not applicable. Philip Rivers is an "irreplaceable" part of the San Diego Chargers football team, but they couldn't stop Denver yesterday on 3rd and 17 late in the fourth quarter because they had a couple of those lower end players in the defensive secondary - but which one was more important to the win? Philosophical differences I suppose. I think every player on every play doing their required job, is what's important to winning. I'm a communist that way. But the wage scales aren't the same, and they won't ever be - so we get these kinds of problems in the NFL regarding wage scales. It's actually a big part of why I like the college game so much more. Anyhoo.
I understand the numbers argument, but I again disagree. How many exhibition games for seniors are managed by NFL people are there each year now? Increasing the numbers of underclassmen eligible for the draft is NOT balanced out by those same players not being available as upperclassmen and/or seniors. Football is a unique sport in this regard as well. This is not a sport where an athlete needs to be trained for years since childhood to excel. So we'll have to disagree on that as well. There is a fixed number of roster spots in the NFL,a dn the competition for those spots is fierce, and getting more so.
I'll put it this way - maybe this will make more sense as to what my point is. In the past, once a player made it in, they usually had a good chance of staying around for awhile and circulating. THe competition for entry into the league was intense, but once a player signed and made a game day roster, they usually had an easier time of bouncing around, and finding different roster spots as long as they were healthy and in shape. The competition to get into the league was fierce, but once you were in, things were pretty good as long as you stayed healthy. The league took care of it's own that way. That has changed, and changed quickly.
The way things have changed, the competition for a roster spots, aside from the very few "franchise" type players in the league, is going to be essentially the same for all players, we'll see less and less multiple year deals, and veteran and rookie alike will be competiting for roster spots- and given the choice, of signing two players of similar qualities, one to a fourth year contract at a big price, a franchise is more likely to go with a first, second or third year player at lower cost.
The league is killing itself with the NFL draft and the ownership greed and inability to solve the problem of escalating contracts for the top picks over the past 2 decades. THe current CBA and rookie scale is a disaster for the league long term. I predict that by 2020, there no longer is an NFL draft, but there will be a signing period or something, yearly signing day, much like college football and the NLI.
