As noted earlier, agents have tried to persuade teams to include within top-tier contracts a provision ensuring that the player will receive a percentage of the salary cap in future years. Specifically, per a league source with knowledge of the negotiations, the term was proposed to the Jets during the protracted Darrelle Revis holdout of 2010.
The idea was submitted to the Jets by agents Neil Schwartz and Jonathan Feinsod, who until recently had represented Revis for his entire career. The Jets refused to tie compensation to a percentage of the salary cap.
It actually would have been a smart move for the team, in hindsight. The cap dropped after the 2011 lockout and then grew slowly for multiple years after that.
Even though the labor deal doesn’t prohibit compensation from being tied to a portion of the cap (indeed, that’s how the franchise tag for each position is now calculated each year), the widespread belief continues to be that teams will refuse to do it. Some think the Management Council will pressure teams to hold firm in this regard, which if it happens would be collusion. Then again some think collusion already is occurring in several different respects.