Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

After the Raiders lost by 15 points to the second worst team in the NFL, I thought things had to get better. Well, according to ESPN, the Raiders have finally come to an agreement with number one pick JaMarcus Russell, Savior of the Franchise™. The contract is due to be signed Tuesday and he should be practicing Wednesday. While I’m happy that the Josh McCown era now has a foreseeable end, JaMarcus probably won’t be starting for a while and the Raiders will still be stuck in quarterback limbo.

For the NFL as a whole, this entire saga is extremely worrying. The main bone of contention was that Russell didn’t want to be payed as much as last year’s number one Mario Williams, but significantly more:

The deal also includes about $31 million-$32 million in guarantees and an attractive payout schedule that will enable Russell to earn substantially more in the first three seasons of the deal than the $20.95 million that Houston Texans defensive end Mario Williams, the top overall selection in the ‘06 draft, will bank in his first three years. There are also guarantees in the fourth season of Russell’s deal, and he will make more in that period than the $23.35 million that Williams will pocket in his first four years.

It’s easy to see how, if unchecked, holding out until the first few weeks of the regular season could become the standard practice for high round draft picks. For Russell, he probably got a much higher, more secure payout for holding out than he would have received had signed he signed a few weeks after he was drafted. The incentives, at least looking at Russell’s case, are simply too good for any player in a comparable situation not to behave in a similar fashion.