[Legionnaire]

I tend to think you should just sign the 1st rounder to a 5/6 year deal, and then sign everyone else to 3/4 years. In reality, teams work those later picks with shorter deals so they're more year-to-year. But teams control a player's rights for the first handful of years of his career anyway, so rather than have to keep signing him every year, it's simpler to give myself the option of cutting him or not instead of re-signing him or not.

Then once the rookie contract is up after 3-5 years, much like real life, that's where the player starts being able to ask for real money.