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The NFL rookie contract is no longer a source of consternation and fatigue. Starting with the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), a rookie wage scale was put in place, outlining basically every parameter for each pick based on round and selection number. Each year, the amount goes up from the previous year, but the increases are predetermined basically taking out the most important leverage an agent had for the highest of draft picks, but looking out for those in the middle rounds.
The 2020 NFL Draft is hardly different, though with a bigger bump thanks to the most recent CBA, and based on where the Dallas Cowboys selected their seven players, we know what their salaries are going to look like.
The Cowboys will award roughly $7.4 million worth of 2020 cap space to it’s seven drafted rookies. That includes their 2020 base salary, as well as the prorated signing bonus that is spread evenly across all four years of a rookie contract.
That amount, however, is not how much cap space the rookies will take up; it will be considerably less.
During the offseason, team’s cap compliance is based on what the top 51 players of the 90-man roster come up to. Only when things are whittled down to 53 players for the start of the league year does everyone count.
So when Dallas signs these players, whether tomorrow or right before training camp, they will replace people already included in the calculation. The change in the team’s total salary number will be the difference between the rookies and the salaries at the bottom of that top 51.
The bottom seven players almost all make the minimum salary on each team, which thanks to the new CBA was bumped up to $610,000 per man.
7 x $610,000 = $4,270,000 removed from the total team salary to make room for the $7,376,668 means Dallas will add a net total of around $3.1 million.
Dallas entered the draft with around $10 million in cap space, but that will likely increase to $17 million once Travis Frederick retires. If the club chooses to make things official after the June 1 deadline, the remaining signing bonus allocation will be split between 2020 and 2021 cap numbers, meaning his entire base salary of $7 million will be added to their cap space.
Take away the $3.1 million for the eventual signing of their rookies and Dallas will have just under $14 million remaining to sign players from now through the end of the season.
Of course, if they ink Dak Prescott to a long-term deal, there’s a real possibility his cap hold of $31.4 million for the franchise tag gets reduced considerably. There’s also a chance after drafting Oklahoma DT Neville Gallimore the club could ask for a pay reduction for Tyrone Crawford and his $8 million base salary. An outright release is also possible.
As for the rookies individually, here’s a look at how their contracts will be structured.
Player: WR CeeDee Lamb
Round/Slot Picked: 1.17
Signing Bonus: $7,749,100
Total Salary: $14,010,014
2020 Cap Hit: $2,547,275
Player: CB Trevon Diggs
Round/Slot Picked: 2.51
Signing Bonus: $2,157,024
Total Salary: $6,320,908
2020 Cap Hit: $1,149,256
Player: DT Neville Gallimore
Round/Slot Picked: 3.82
Signing Bonus: $963,956
Total Salary: $4,680,438
2020 Cap Hit: $850,989
Player: CB Reggie Robinson
Round/Slot Picked: 4.123
Signing Bonus: $729,268
Total Salary: $4,024,268
2020 Cap Hit: $792,317
Player: C Tyler Biadasz
Round/Slot Picked: 4.146
Signing Bonus: $494,400
Total Salary: $3,789,400
2020 Cap Hit: $733,600
Player: DE Bradlee Anae
Round/Slot Picked: 5.179
Signing Bonus: $237,776
Total Salary: $3,532,776
2020 Cap Hit: $669,444
Player: QB Ben DiNucci
Round/Slot Picked: 7.231
Signing Bonus: $95,148
Total Salary: $3,390,148
2020 Cap Hit: $633,787
Cowboys Wire 2020 NFL Draft Coverage
Grading all 7 Cowboys 2020 draft picks | UDFA Tracker
QB Ben DiNucci | DE Bradlee Anae | C Tyler Biadasz
CB Reggie Robinson | DT Neville Gallimore | CB Trevon Diggs
WR CeeDee Lamb | Lamb jersey choice | Lamb Gallery
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