That will depend entirely on whether or not a glut of Juniors declare for the draft like last year. That's tough to gauge, hopefully a lot of them play well and the now Seniors play poorly inflating the value of the underclassmen so they have a greater incentive to declare.
I've been thinking about this and it seems like a foregone conclusion that if there is football in 2011, there will be a Rookie Wage Scale. The logistics behind it are gruesome, watching the NFLPA fight tooth and nail to at least maintain the top picks come away with top FA money is going to be ugly, but if the wage scale makes the potential RBs cheaper and cost controlled for longer, there is a very good chance that Belichick will have to re-evaluate the RBBC strategy knowing that the top flight talent is cheaper. I think that's what made Corey Dillon so attractive back in 2004. His base salary was low, he had enough gas left in the tank to be a feature back, and with our O-Line he put up one the best seasons for a RB in Patriots history and we won the SB.
Excellent points, though I think BB may prefer the RBBC system a bit now. Not saying he wouldn't snag a guy who he thinks could be the next Barry Sanders if he had the chance. However, if the guys who are likely to require a 1st-round pick to obtain aren't significantly better than everyone on the current committee, regardless of how (relatively) cheap they may be salary-wise, he'd probably opt for just a replacement guy in a later round and spend the higher pick on a better player at another position. The RBBC, reasonably effective as it's been, does give him that leeway.