How Much Do Rookies Make In The Nfl?
Contents
How much do NFL rookies make? It depends on their draft position and contract, but the average salary for an NFL player is $2.1 million.
Introduction
In the National Football League, a player’s annual salary is derived from a base salary, signing bonus, other bonuses and incentive clauses. A rookie’s base salary is determined by a slotting system put into place by the NFL in 2011. As of 2013, the first year base salaries for rookies selected in the NFL draft are as follows:
Round 1: $405,000
Round 2: $540,000
Round 3: $635,000
Round 4: $720,000
Round 5: $805,000
Round 6: $885,000
Round 7: $960,000
NFL Rookie Contracts
All first-year players are subject to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA. This means that they are not able to negotiate their salaries. Their salaries are determined by the NFL’s wage scale.
Drafted Players
-All drafted players will sign a four-year contract with their team worth a set amount of money that corresponds to where they were selected in the draft.
-The total value of the contract will decrease each year and the player will be paid a base salary plus any signing bonus, performance bonuses, and other miscellaneous earnings.
-Once a player’s rookie contract expires, they become a free agent and can sign with any team.
-If a team wants to keep a player beyond their rookie contract, they can sign them to what is called a “second contract.” Second contracts are generally more expensive than rookie contracts since the player has now proven themselves in the NFL.
Undrafted Players
Undrafted players are often signed to contracts that are worth less money than those given to drafted players. The reason for this is that undrafted players are not as highly sought after as drafted players, and so teams feel they can get away with offering them less money. That being said, there are still a number of undrafted players who have gone on to have successful NFL careers, so it is not impossible for them to make good money in the league.
NFL Rookie Salaries
In recent years, NFL rookie salaries have exploded. The average salary for a first round pick in the NFL is now over $10 million. But how much do rookies make in total? And how does this compare to veteran players? We’ll take a look at NFL rookie salaries and how they compare to veteran player salaries in this article.
Minimum Base Salaries
All NFL rookies have a minimum base salary that is set by the NFL’s CBA. The minimum salaries for each year of a player’s contract are as follows:
Year 1: $495,000
Year 2: $585,000
Year 3: $675,000
The NFL’s CBA also stipulates that all rookie contracts must be for four years. However, a team can choose to exercise an option for a fifth year on a first-round draft pick’s contract. If the team does so, the player’s salary for that fifth year will be determined by where he was drafted. For example, the salary for the fifth year of a player who was drafted in the first round will be equal to the average of the salaries of the third through 25th highest-paid players at his position.
Signing Bonuses
All NFL rookies receive a signing bonus, which is typically paid out in installments over the first three years of their contract. In recent years, rookie signing bonuses have averaged around $10 million. However, the top pick in the NFL draft can expect to receive a significantly higher bonus. For example, in 2019, Kyler Murray signed a four-year contract with the Arizona Cardinals that included a $23.58 million signing bonus.
2018 NFL Salary Cap
The 2018 NFL salary cap has been set at $177.2 million, which is an increase of $10 million over last year’s cap of $167 million. The NFL had initially hoped to increase the cap to as much as $190 million, but that number was not reached.
The new salary cap will go into effect for the 2018 league year, which begins on March 14th. Teams will have until that date to get under the salary cap or they will be subject to penalties.
How rookies’ salaries are determined
Rookies’ salaries are determined by the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. There is a rookie salary scale that dictates how much each pick in the draft will make.
The first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft will receive a base salary of $4,983,000, which is an increase of nearly $1 million over last year’s first overall pick, Myles Garrett of the Cleveland Browns. The second overall pick will also receive a significant raise, as their base salary will be $4,636,000.
Later picks in the draft will not see their salaries increase as dramatically, but they will still receive a significant raise over last year’s numbers. The last pick in the first round of the draft (32nd overall) will have a base salary of $2,914,000 in 2018. Compare that to last year’s 32nd overall pick, Reuben Foster of the San Francisco 49ers, who had a base salary of just $1,817,248.
Overall, rookies will see their salaries increase by an average of nearly 20% over last year’s numbers. This is due to both the increase in the salary cap and also because of changes to the rookie wage scale that were negotiated as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union.
Conclusion
In summary, rookies in the NFL can expect to earn a minimum salary of $495,000, with certain exceptions. The average salary for all NFL players is just over $2 million, so rookies can expect to earn less than the average player. However, many rookies are able to sign contracts for more than the minimum salary, so it is possible to earn more as a rookie in the NFL.
