There are three players from the 2012 NFL Draft who have yet to agree to terms on contracts, despite the fact that the NFL worked to eliminate such disputes with a wage scale. Those players are wide receiver Justin Blackmon, wide receiver Kendall Wright and wide receiver Juron Criner. Now - what are the similarities here?
Well, they're all wide receivers and they all have been called first-round talent at one point or another. But one of these players is not like the other. One of them doesn't belong. Blackmon and Wright were actually drafted in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft, while Criner was ... a compensatory pick at the end of the fifth round.
Paul Gutierrez of CSN Bay Area is reporting that Criner has not signed his contract because of a dispute over guaranteed money. That's right - a fifth round pick is already thinking he's undervalued due to the lack of guaranteed dollars. There's a difference of $14,000 that Criner believes he's entitled to, according to Guiterrez.
The Raiders are offering $144,000, which is where the NFL thinks the numbers should be, while Criner is saying that the drop in money from one slot to the next is too great when it comes to him and he should be getting the rate of decline that the players above him are getting.
Which is, of course, absolutely stupid. To be totally blunt, it doesn't matter if Criner was projected to go in the first or second round at one point. He fell for a reason, and like every other player who falls, he has to earn the money that he would have got had he not fallen.
Of course, he'll probably get his way in the end. Though there's a chance he won't, considering the fact that the Oakland Raiders feel pretty good about their wide receiver position going forward. Which is why they traded Louis Murphy recently.
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