Myles Garrett signed his four-year rookie contract with the Browns. It is reportedly worth $30.4 million, including a $20.25 million signing bonus.
Back in the day, something like this would have been huge, “stop the presses” news.
“Thank goodness he’s signed,” the Browns and their fans would have said. “We can be sure he won’t be holding out when training camp starts.”
Now, though, that “huge” story is not much of a story at all. The reason, of course, is the presence of the rookie salary cap. It used to be that first-round picks in the NFL Draft were signed to obscene contracts that dwarfed those of veterans, even though they had never played a down. That was ridiculous, even for something as crazy as pro sports, where seniority is almost always a joke.
But with the rookie cap, the teams can say to even No. 1 overall picks such as Garrett, “Look, this is the entire pie we have to work with, and this is your piece. You can take it or leave it, but we can’t do any better than this. It’s not like we can come up with any additional money. It simply isn’t there.”
That Ohio State’s Joey Bosa held out a long time after being picked No. 3 overall in 2016 by the then San Diego Chargers was absolutely absurd. Both sides lost big in that situation.
The implementation of the cap, which was long overdue, is one of the best moves the NFL has ever made. It makes a lot of sense to everyone – except, of course, the rookies, and no one cares what they think.
It was funny – but at the same time, sad – the way things formerly worked. Teams would parade their first-round picks out on stage and each side would say all kinds of glowing things about the other. It was a love-fest, a match made in heaven.
Then, several months later and with those players holding out as training camp trudged into its third week, tempers grew short and the sides threw nasty shots across the bow at each other like battleships in a fight-to-the-finish at sea. The rookies, of course, would eventually sign – in almost every case, at least – but the practice time they missed would cause them to fall way behind. Trying to catch up too quickly before they were really in football shape, they would sometimes hurt themselves and miss even more work.
It was ugly, ugly, ugly.
The Browns desperately need Garrett to be in camp on time and ready to go. That he is now guaranteed to do so was a fait accompli long before he signed his contract.
