It's Complicated

Talented Rams' safety O.J. Atogwe is faced with a not -so-difficult decision. He can either take the restricted free agent offer from the Rams for roughly about $4.5 million less than he made last season, or he could wait until the first of June and force the Rams to give him a one million dollar pay increase from his pay last season (sounds like a tough decision). The Rams, if they don't want to pay him, could let him become an unrestricted free agent.

Is it just me or did all of that information sound really complicated? That's because Atogwe is a victim of the NFL's "restricted" free agent system. It was designed to allow teams to keep young players from entering unrestricted free agency for one more season (cheaply of course) or give their former teams compensation in the form of draft picks if they decided to sign somewhere else.

The fact is the NFL needs to improve this situation. No team has traded for a restricted player in the three previous off-seasons, and the owners were the only party reaping the reward. I'm hoping that in the new CBA, between the owners and players, makes it easier on both parties.

Until then, the talented Atogwe is faced with sitting around and watching Boomerang all day like the rest of us. Okay, maybe that's just me.




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