Each year a top pick is taken and signed and sets the bar for the others and this year that guy is Matt Ryan who was selected by the Atlanta Falcons with the 3rd pick.  Ryan signed a 6 year 72 million dollar deal with a reported 34.75 million of that guaranteed.  That is crazy.  The guy hasn’t played a down yet and doesn’t have to work the rest of his life.  QB’s are busts in the NFL all the time and it is a joke that players get this much money having proven nothing against the best competition in the world. 

You might be asking or saying “Jake Long signed before the draft didn’t he set the bar?”  Well yes and no.  Since he technically signed before the draft it usually doesn’t have the same effect as Ryan’s will.  By Ryan signing where he did it will give teams a great idea where to start in their negotiations with players taken through the 10th pick I believe.   You will just see deals going much quicker especially from players who are getting anxious and want to agree and not miss camps and fall behind. 

The interesting part to the deal is that it was signed before the owners opted out of the labor agreement which runs through 2011.  Because of that the Falcons were able to get 6 years where if they had waited until after the opt out had taken place they couldn’t have gotten the full time they wanted.  The labor deal is a completely different topic that I’ll tackle another day.

Enjoy your money Matt Ryan and enjoy a successful career in Atlanta.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 21st, 2008 at 10:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.