http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2434786 snippet: The formula for deriving each team's rookie pool is regarded as Byzantine even by the most astute team officials, and is basically a function of how many overall choices a franchise makes and where those picks are slotted in each round. The Packers had top five choices in just two of seven rounds and top seven picks in only three rounds. But for all his moving up and down the draft order, Thompson rarely dropped below the top half of any stanza. That element, and the sheer volume of selections, created the lofty rookie pool allocation for the Packers. The large allocations awarded the Jets, San Francisco ($5.646 million) and Buffalo ($5.366 million) were indicative of the fact those were the three franchises with multiple first-round selections. In all, there were eight teams this year that amassed 10 or more selections each and, of that group, only the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Bucs ranked outside of the top 10 in rookie allocation funds. There are seven teams with rookie pools of $5 million or more and 14 franchises were awarded allocations higher than the league average of $4.168 million. The Atlanta Falcons, who exercised a league-low five choices and did not have a first-round selection, were awarded the lowest allocation, just $2.069 million. Four other teams received pools of less than $3 million. From a leaguewide standpoint, the total allocation of $133.38 million is an all-time high and it represents a 5 percent bump from the 2005 pool, with that rate of increase holding steady for the past two years. Before that, the rookie pool had been fairly "flat," with increases of just 2 percent.
So.... what does this mean again?? Teams have to fit their rookie signings in under this figure?? what happens if they don't??
They lose the player and he becomes a free agent. This happened to Raheem Brock of the Colts. He was a 7 round pick of the Eagles ,but waited to long to work on his contract. The Eagles ran out of rookie money and could not sign him.
Texans | Team allocated rookie salary cap pool Thu, 4 May 2006 22:37:40 -0700 Tom Silverstein, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reports the National Football League allocated the Houston Texans $5,390,902 million under the 2006 rookie salary cap pool, according to a source with access to NFL Players Association salary data.
