I agree about the whole rookies making so much money thing being rediculous. The #1 pick in the NFL draft makes as much as a proven pro-bowler, with only a fraction of the guarantee that you are getting a good player.
I disagree. If teams are willing to pay that much, then that's what they're worth. If not, then they couldn't demand that much money. All of the risk is on the players end anyway, if they suck and get cut or get injured, very little is guaranteed. Look at Adrian Peterson; rookie or not, are you going to tell me that the best player on the Vikings isn't worth that much?
My point here is that as Pats fans we should hope that nothing is changed. As long as sh!tty teams overpay for top draft picks, they will have unbalanced teams that are centered around one star that either does or does not make it. This benefits the more elite teams (Pats) who normally wouldn't get such a high end pick and thus do not need to take such a risk.
Economically, as soon as the risk placed on paying these top picks such a high percentage of the salary cap outweighs the reward, teams will stop doing it, and rookies will stop demanding what they won't be able to get. So for the Pats, you have a blue chip in the number 7 pick because there are teams that will build off of it and trade you more steady, reliable value with a little less upside but a much more reliable downside.
Restructuring the salary cap to put restrictions on top draft picks will only help lesser teams shore up risk and improve parity. It will hurt teams like the Pats by giving a much better chance fo sh!ttier teams to improve drastically from one year to the next.
Believe me, a team like the Pats, who can decrease risk by turning one huge upside draft pick into two or three decent upside draft picks and decrease the risk involved by spreading it around, will most definitely benefit by other teams putting so much stock into high end picks. I can categorically guarantee that a solid, well-rounded team like the Pats, unless there is a huge impact change in the roster (several core players) before next year, will trade a pick that high and benefit greatly from its perceived worth to a team willing to gamble with nothing to lose.
If you extrapolate this situation to a more global, albeit imprecise, analogy, then you could recognize that in general, the less restrictions placed on the free market, the more that benefits those who are already at the top. This is just simple economics. The salary cap did away with the competitive advantage that larger market teams had, but restricting this will do away the competitive advantage that teams with an abundance of resources (the Pats) have. In short, the Pats in this situation are the United States and the Jets are Mexico, if you want that disparity decreased, then you want restrictions on the percentage of the salary cap that high end draft picks can successfully demand and a reduction in the desperation of countries like El Salvador and teams like the Dolphins.
