Ping 49ers - Alex Smith is signed !
 

There will be no holdout.
Alex Smith agreed to a six-year $57M contrat (according to CNNSI) or $49,5M (according to ESPN) but what is certain is that he received a $24M signing bonus. All in all, his contract is a 20% increase over Eli Manning's contract from last year, thus making it the highest ever signed by a rookie.

A.Smith will report to camp on time ! That's good news for the every 49er fans out there.

Great now maybe all the other first rounders will get signed. Fucking Smith holding up progress.

I understand salaries rise every year, but 20%? He's not 3/4 as good as Manning, le alone 20%better. The Nfl needs to get rookie contracts under control

One thing I think NBA has right... or at least as close to right as any of the big 4 (or is it 3... hmmmm)...

Suddenly, Peyton's signing bonus looks like a bargain! Thanks, Niners!

I agree, but you have to realize that the union needs SOMETHING to take back to its membership after the CBA talks. The NFL already has a hard cap and non-guaranteed contracts. Granted, compared to the unions in the other big sports, the NFLPA is basically neutered (thanks in large part to the owners' gutsy and successful decision to play the 1987 season with scab labor). But I don't even see the NFLPA accepting a hard cap, non-guaranteed contracts, AND low rookie contracts. There would be no point in having a union if it gave up all of those.

Perhaps a good middle ground would be to have slotted rookie deals (so that there were no holdouts) but to keep them nice and fat (so the agents stay happy).

Well, when the NBA went to slotted contracts, they did not roll them back, they set them to be no more than x% greater than the previous year's. The NFL cannot live with 20% increase every year, so they really need to do something like that soon.

The NFL could certainly have slotted deals, with the players still receiving a hefty chunk of change. There should be no reason for these guys to routinely miss camp.

I like Peyton Manning and think Eli will be good. But, I would dispute that claim. How do you know that he isn't 3/4 as good as Manning. Eli hasn't done much yet, and Smith might end up being significantly better than Manning.

Hrm. I don't know how I feel about this -- Smith's probably going to be a fine starter, but man that's a lot of money to throw at one player.

I do agree with the idea that the spiraling bonuses and salaries for rookies is concerning.

There wasn't a lot of leverage there Vince.
As you know, Smith's contract -by definition- couldn't be lower in 2005 than the one last year's #1 overall pick Eli Manning received...so everyone figured from the start that it'd be in the £45-50M range with a bonus in the $20-25 range.

I think most of the NFLPA would be more then happy to let rookies be slotted into a salary. It would in the end leave more money for veteran players since Mr. Rookie isn't taking up as much cap space.

I know...but I don't have to like it :)

That's funny. How many Pro bowls has Eli Manning made?

Eli Manning is teh suck.

6. He's already been assigned to the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 (he'll get injured early in 2009 and miss 7 or 8 games), 2011, and 2012 Pro Bowls. The Press is waiting to see how he does this season before deciding on 2013 and beyond...