Submitted by Dave Hewitt, Jul 13, 2007 15:21

I have been saying exactly what you wrote for years to anyone who would listen. The Leaf pick killed the Chargers for YEARS, and the $ numbers have gone up massively. He cost SD 14-16 million dollars, not to mention not performing on the feild. Thats two giant negatives. No money to sign other players and no help from the ineffective player. Now the numbers are double that. The top picks are a blessing and a curse, it is practically a crapshoot if you look at the top ten picks over the last ten years. It is nearly impossible to tell the difference between a Peyton Manning and a Ryan Leaf. The worst teams are forced to take the risk head-on, and if the player ever amounts to anyhthing it is often for another team, for example Carr or Harrington. The drafting team pays a ton of money to develop the player and another teams takes an inexpensive opportunity to salvage the players career. The NFL has been wedging quality veterans out of the league to pay for these unproven players. It has got to change. SD payed the 12th pick Merriman just over $11 miiliion over 5 years with bonuses he will likely achieve it still under $16 million over 5 years. That's more like it, and when he gets a new deal he will have earned it. The entire concept of the draft was to allow poor teams the opportunity to improve. The very spirit of the draft is violated by the perversion of rookie slaries. Thanks for shining a light on this very solveable problem in tne NFL. Players and owners and fans all stand to benefit greatly if this travesty is remedied. The NBA draft is two weeks old and all the players are signed, but with just two weeks to go before NFL training camps begin just one NFL player is under contract. The NBA got this one right, and the NFL should follow suit.

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.