Huge HUGE difference between a guy who's been mentored by his coaching staff on the professional level for three years and 7 games starting vs a rookie.

It's pretty damn hard to even put up an argument against that.

One good debate would be, is one year playing in college better than one year riding the bench in the NFL?

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I say no ... the caliber of players and the personal time with said player.

ie jenkins is almost a sure thing if his pec is good (or is it his ankle) ... raji well ... we need to see how he does

I wasn't ripping on Rodgers i used him and cassell as examples. neither one of them played very much at all but got huge contracts for one year, I think it is totally stupid to do that. A guy riding the pine and a rookie can be compared why not? They both started the same amount of games, You have the guy in practice and you have game tape of the rookie. It all boils down to how they play in a game and not in practice. I think they should set up some sort of pay scale by the amount of games you actually play in. Lets compare Bustin and Raji as it stands right now who would you pay the big bucks for?

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So that would mean, what, an undrafted free agent? Or a 5th rounder who doesn't take the field in his first season and then somehow gets a big contract out of the blue because he practiced so well? Because I'm pretty sure that Cassell started an entire season and that Rodgers started multiple games (after 3 years of evaluating him in practice as well).

The difference is that teams aren't forced to pay a guy like that big money. We could've waited with Rodgers and they shouldn't have given Cassel such a sick contract, either. And all of that, while they arguably already deserved it. They've shown something for it.

Rookies, on the other hand, haven't done diddly squat. Look at the amount of failers in the first around. You spent 50 million and 5 years of grooming on a bust and your whole franchise has a huge setback at that position. A first rounder should be happy with a 3 million dollar contract over 3 years. Let them eat some humble pie. If they've shown what they can do, there's enough money to go around.

You see the difference here, right?

People take holdouts way to seriously. The chances a Crabtree holdout lasts a week are high, but look around the NFL, a lot of players are holding out. I'm not going to not take a player even if he's a potential holdout. The 49ers knew that this could happen and they still took him.

Why?

Because he's good and I think he'll be real good. Same goes for Raji. I think he'll be real good too and holding out now in the end is meaningless in the big picture. Nobody forgets to play football in a week.

If it's late August and they're unsigned, then I'm concerned.

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Those teams weren't obligated to pay the Cassell/ Rodgers contracts though. Those players could have still played with what they had and could still practice with their current contracts (unlike rookies). The teams felt like those players earned those contracts so they paid them. The rookies have to be paid before they can even do anything so the teams are kind of screwed. The two situations are completely diffirent.

It matters not one bit whether any of us thinks Rodgers deserved his money because the management obviously did. Now the real question is do you think management thinks those rookies deserve their multi-million dollar deals? My guess is no.

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I don't get how Crabtree's agent thinks he should have gone in the top 3 when the Raiders are the only team ahead of the 49ers who even drafted a WR in the first 2 rounds.

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ya its funny how these guys think they should get paid like a seasoned pro when they even havnt played 1 single nfl game.

Darius Heyward-Bey is supposedly getting 23.5 million guaranteed
http://twitter.com/AlvinKeels/statuses/2933641156 

If that contract rumor is true then won't he average more per season than Greg Jennings?

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This is a fantastic point I hadn't even considered. I am sure it is one the 49ers will bring up in the negotiations as well, unless they're terrified of ruining the chemistry in their club by offending their star recruit.

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