When it’s ratified, the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement will cost rookie linebacker Von Miller up to $46 million.
Yet, while the opportunity to play for the Broncos made Miller cry on draft day, money won’t.
“I’ve been playing football all my life for free,” Miller said Wednesday. “So it doesn’t bother me too much.
“The one thing about it is I’ll be able to get that second contract a little quicker, and that second contract is always the more lucrative contract.”
Under the NFL’s previous collective bargaining agreement, Miller, as the No. 2 overall draft pick, would have been in line for a six-year contract worth $66 million, based on the usual 10 percent increase from the contract of the previous year’s No. 2 draft pick, Ndamukong Suh.
But the revised rookie wage scale figures to leave Miller, a former Texas A&M star, with a four-year contract (and a fifth-year club option) worth $20 million to $30 million.
Either way, the new CBA whacks Miller in the bank statement.
The concession is that Miller and this year’s other top draft picks will be able to reach the potential bounty that is unrestricted free agency one or two years earlier than it had been done.
“I’m confident in my play that I’ll get to that second contract,” Miller said. “But the money aspect isn’t that big a deal to me. I just want to play football.”
Mike Klis, The Denver Post
