When players are drafted tonight, they won’t have to wait that long to start negotiating contracts with their new teams.
Albert Breer of NFL.com reports that the NFL and the NFLPA have come to a basic agreement on the terms of the rookie salary pool for the 2012 season. With the pool in place, teams can start working out contracts that would be impossible without knowing how much was available. Breer’s report has no information on the financial parameters.
It originally looked like the rookie pool was going to drop from the 2011 season, but more recent reports indicate there will be slightly more money available this season. If that’s true, first overall pick Andrew Luck would wind up making a little bit more than the $22 million over four years that Cam Newton signed for with Carolina last season.