Negotiating With Rookies

[Schneed10]

When you draft a guy, you get his "rights" for one year. During that one year, you have to sign the player to a contract, or you can trade his "rights" to somebody else, who then has the remainder of the year to sign him. That's what the Chargers did, they traded the rights to Manning to the Giants for the rights to Rivers and a bunch of other picks.

If the year expires and you don't have him signed to a contract, I think he goes back into the NFL draft. I'm not certain though, it may be possible that he becomes a free agent. Either way, I can't remember a time when this ever happened in the NFL.

I do know that in baseball, if you draft a guy and don't sign him after one year he goes back into the draft the next year. This happened with JD Drew and the Phillies, they drafted him and he wouldn't take their deal. They decided not to meet his demands and just let him go back into the draft, and the next year the Cards picked him. Seems like the Phillies made the right call in standing up for themselves there, because even though they completely lost a high pick Drew hasn't done much except for his one good season last year as a Brave. He even looks crappy this year as a Dodger.