The sixth overall pick in last year’s NFL draft, Russell Okung, got a contract worth up to $58 million, including $30 million guaranteed. The sixth overall pick in this year’s NFL draft, Julio Jones, will likely get a lot less than that thanks to the expected new rookie wage scale.
But Jones, whom the Falcons traded a bounty of picks to acquire, says he’s thinking a lot more about the game on the field than he is about the contract he’s going to sign.
“I love football,” Jones told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “It plays a part, but at the same time I can’t worry about that. It’s out of my hands. The best thing I can do is come out here and play football.”
It will probably come as a shock to some of this year’s high first-round picks how much less they’re making than last year’s high first-round picks. But Jones’s attitude is the right one: There’s nothing he can do about the rookie wage scale, so he should just focus on football.
