[Preds]

I need some time to digest Brian's proposal before truly commenting on it.

On the surface I like it, I'm not opposed to some kind of incremental merit pay increases for top performing rooks.

What I do know is that there are far fewer homeruns than there are strikeouts with rookie picks, so starting out on a smaller scale that is adjusted based on performance is fine by me.

The specifics of the scale and increments would need some deep thought, but I think it's an interesting idea, similary to the pay scale idea the Freedom proposed a year ago for regular players. I think it makes much more sense with the rookie picks.

As for Jake's comments on the DS. The DS is nice, but the salaries of these rooks are still to prohibitive to get much use ouft of them.

Just look at Ashley Lelie or Donte Stallworth... they're paid comparably to Derrick Mason, who was a FA pickup... which would you rather have? Don't even get me going on the QB's... none of them are worth their payscale. Even the RB's for the most part haven't merited their pay.

I think the DS is fine as is, it buys you time for your talent to develop, however, few of the rooks are worth their salaries, and thus promoting them off the DS just doesn't make sense when FA can buy you twice the player for half the price.

I think we should encourage building through the draft, not penalize teams. And right now the current structure still penalizes teams IMO. Going with a lower scale and giving the rooks annual increases based on production is a very interesting concept.... the question is, administratively, how do we keep it from being too much of a burden.

If we can work out the details I endorse the concept.