Shedeur Sanders Signs NFL Contract With Browns Which Is A Pay Cut From His NIL Deals

It was a big day for Shedeur Sanders on Monday because he signed his first NFL contract, which paid him a handsome $447,380 for merely putting his signature on a contract that is worth $4.6 million over four years.

But …

Sanders Gets Less To Play In NFL

Did you know the former Colorado quarterback who slid to the fifth round of the April NFL draft has signed up for a pay cut? And a substantial one at that?

It's true.

Multiple estimates, including by On3, had Sanders' Name Image and Likeness valuation at approximately $6.5 million.

And that's got me feeling some sort of way because I recall days when college kids rode bikes or drove used cars to practice. And Sanders reportedly owns a Rolls-Royce, a Lamborghini and someone also gifted him a Maybach.

I hope he'll be able to make ends meet with his new NFL salary.

But, seriously, this is not any sort of judgment of Sanders. He's been reared amid the obvious prosperity of his father, Deion Sanders. So he's been familiar with money for a long time and good for him.

Jerry Jones Speaks With Deion Sanders About Dallas Cowboys Coaching Vacancy (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)

NIL Craziness Isn't Athletes' Fault 

I would also say approximately 99.9 percent of the souls on this planet would accept obscene sums of cash for merely playing a game they love at age 21, 22 or 23 years of age. So, this is not a rebuke of what the players are accepting.

But this does illustrate how disciplined the NFL long ago became in paying rookies. The 2011 collective bargaining agreement established a rookie wage scale that sets limits on how much a team can pay its rookies.

NFL players in the league, wanting a bigger slice of the financial pie, negotiated a CBA in which they got that bigger slice at the expense of incoming rookies who had never proven anything in the league.

The rookie wage scale also sets specific contract figures and structure based on the player's draft slot. Players picked earlier get more than players picked later all the way from the No. 1 overall pick to Mr. Irrelevant.

Oct 13, 2024; London, United Kingdom; The NFL shield logo at midfield before an NFL International Series game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

NFL Rookie Scale Doing Its Job

It is a departure from the old days – before 2011 – when agents could negotiate whatever amount popped in their heads as the right one their clients were worth. Obviously, teams often had different numbers pop in their heads, and that often led to rookie contract holdouts.

NFL rookie holdouts are a thing of the past.

The generational money in the NFL is now made on a second contract. That's when teams pay, and often overpay, for the best and brightest players, who are typically 24-to-27 years old (in their prime) and are already proven in the league.

Sanders has three years before he's eligible for such a deal in the form of an extension. So he has time to rise from his draft stock collapse into the fifth round to a deal that surpasses his college deals at Colorado and earlier at Jackson State.