Detroit Lions contract to Stafford proves need for NFL Rookie salary cap

The Lions take Stafford #1 overall AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

The NFL draft pick market has already been set, as the Detroit Lions coming off a 0-16 season gave Georgia QB Matthew Stafford the largest NFL rookie contract of all time. The deal is for six years and 78 million dollars. The Lions guaranteed him 41.7 million dollars of that deal and if he never plays a down he will walk away from the game and team a very rich man.

To put this number in perspective it is 20% more than the Atlanta Falcons gave QB Matt Ryan last year when they drafted him with the third overall pick. The total contract is worth almost 20 million more then last year’s #1 pick Jake Long got from Miami, and the Lions have guaranteed a rookie more money then Albert Haynesworth is guaranteed as the best defensive player in the NFL.

These facts seem to suggest that the NFL must cap these rookie salaries because bad owners, like William Clay Ford, cannot be trusted to do what is financially reasonable.

We must remember that this is a team that already is losing money. This is a team that has been so bad for so long that they have turned their own fans off to their product. This is a team the fans believe in so little, that Stafford is unlikely to get a fair shot from them. I now guarantee that while Stafford is a long term project once the Lions are 0-3 in 2009 the fans will be calling for him to start.

The Lions front office appears to not understand what is happening in their own city. While we may not know the success of this pick for three years, this is not the pick the majority of the fan base wanted the team to make.

We must now remember hat for the first time in the six year history of Ford Field the Lions failed to sell out many of their home games in 2008. The fan base has had enough and is tuning out. Further complicating the Lions draw is the soft economy. The Lions are already located in a state that leads the nation in the unemployment rate. The sad fact is that this is a number that is likely to get far worse before it gets much better.

Detroit will know by this Thursday, April 30th, if Chrysler is headed for bankruptcy court. Detroit will also know by the start of summer if GM will follow them there. These two things will explode the unemployment rate in Detroit and the entire state of Michigan.

If these two companies fail, and it seems ever more likely that they will, the Lions could be located in a city where a good percentage of the population simply cannot afford to come to games. It is likely that a bad start to the 2009 season would further alienate the small percentage of the fans they have left.

These factors combined could leave the Lions in the likely position of further failing revenues, with an increased payroll. Luckily for them the NFL business model is designed to limit these stressors but it will leave the Lions in very bad shape. As bad a shape as a 0-16 team that lost money in 2008 could be in.

A smarter short term move may have been to add a player that could have served as the face of the new Lions defense. Many of these players were available where the Lions had picks but hey choose to go in a different direction.

While the team’s strategy may just work out in the long term, the Lions will have to continue to ride out a revolt among their fans. If they can survive the short term, and economic factors largely out of their control, they may finally reach the end of the long dark tunnel of being the worst run NFL franchise of all time.