THE LAMAR JACKSON QUANDARY

Lamar Jackson is the former Heisman winning QB from Louisville. He has chosen an interesting path as the NFL Draft approaches. He has no sports agent. His mother Felicia is his manager and he claims he is his own agent. As a projected RD 1 to RD 2 draft projection one has to wonder. What kind of risk is he taking?

 When the new CBA was worked out in 2011, they developed a rookie pay scale. Those chosen after RD 1 get a 4 year contract. given that the amount is largely depended on where you get picked and mostly a set amount you ask yourself where is the risk if any is Lamar taking. Every Rd 1 draftee gets a 4 year contract with a 5th year option. Pick 1 to 10 is paid the average of the top 10 players at that position. Pick 11-32 gets the 3rd to 25th highest paid for their respective position.

The total amount the Chargers have to disperse between their 7 draft picks over the course of 4 years is $6,217,834. Rd 1 $2,260,421, Rd 2 $1,025,010 Rd 3 $703,485, Rd 4 $647,556 Rd 5 $551,821, Rd 6 $519,385 and Rd 7 $501,86. The faces you see of players that fall on TV is the ddollar amount in their eyes.

One risk is right before the draft a rumor can send a player stock falling costing him millions of dollars if the situation not addressed correctly. Teams have done this to try and get a prospect to fall to them.

National writers will tell you this could distract teams from selecting Jackson. I'm not so sure. I know for a fact Dean Spanos can not stand players agents. This might help instead of hurt when it comes to the Chargers at least.

Agents make 3% on a players contract. The top sports agents also control the market. 13% of agents have 50% of the NFL players contracted. 25% have 78%, 25% have between 1 and 4 clients and 42% which is 300 agents have 0 clients.

 The language of the contract like bonuses, negotiated incentives and when the remaining balance of a contract is to be paid is still open to agents and the owners to work out. Leigh Steinberg is who the motion picture blockbuster Jerry Maguire is based upon. I suppose we won't hear Lamar telling his mother to "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

So Lamar has taken a risky path but given an agent can make a million dollars in commission  off of a round 1 draft pick maybe it is worth the risk. What do you think? Would you choose the path Lamar has chosen?