Beyond being one of the NFL's most dominant defenders, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons is one of the league's best and most outspoken posters. Never shy to give his two cents on any given topic, on Wednesday, Parsons tackled the economics of rookie contracts in the NFL, weighing in on a video of his former college teammate Joey Porter Jr. getting a pep talk from his dad (former NFL great Joey Porter) after falling out of the first round in the NFL Draft.
“Man tbh if you outside top 15 second round might be better !!” Parsons tweeted. “You get to re up that bag way quicker!! But I think Joey will be great no matter where he was selected! You can’t teach dog and he has that in him!!”
Depending on a player's situation, the Cowboys star has a very valid point. Although first round contracts are fully guaranteed, the take away a degree of flexibility, locking in a player's salary for the first four years and giving the team an option for the fifth; a first round pick cannot negotiate an extension or renegotiate the terms of their deal until after their third year and cannot hit free agency until as late as the seventh year of their career, if the team exercises their fifth year option and then places the franchise tag on the player the next year.
Conversely, second rounders can hit unrestricted free agency after just four seasons, theoretically allowing them to escape the confines of the NFL rookie scale more quickly. The difference in annual salary between the last few picks of the first round and the first few picks of the second round isn't so significant, so the flexibility and freedom of going in the second round might actually be preferable to some players than the security and status of going in the first. If Micah Parsons were a second round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft instead of a first rounder, the Cowboys would feel the urgency to offer him record-breaking deal as soon as next offseason, rather than have the luxury to wait another few years.
“Yeah, if you're going to be a very late 1st, you might just want to go early 2nd instead and so you could hit free-agency one year earlier,” an alleged NFL insider allegedly named Dov Kleiman commented on Micah Parsons' tweet. “5-year deals for 1st round picks. (5th-year is team option) 4-year deals for the rest of the rounds.”
“Best way to get Pay back is hit them for 25 million a year in 3-4 years lol,” Parsons replied.
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