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Under the new collective bargaining rules, a deal for the No. 1 selection in the draft no longer will include $50 million in guaranteed money, as it did for Sam Bradford in 2010. Cam Newton, the No. 1 overall pick in April, will make about $22 million over four years with the Carolina Panthers.

“In the new NFL, the money has been drawn away from the top 10 rookies and will flow to proven veterans,” agent David Dunn of Athletes First says, “which, simply put, is logical.”

My job and most jobs in the country are jobs where seniority has its place. It was certainly odd seeing a Bradford or a (Matthew) Stafford jump to the very top of the market having never played a game.”

Under the pending CBA rules, the pool of money teams are allowed to spend on rookies will apply to both the salary cap and cash, meaning the incentives and bonuses that once allowed agents to negotiate cap-friendly rookie deals for big money no longer are possible.

“Before, you could make a $2 million cap (room) into a $72 million contract without very much difficulty,” says Dunn, who has represented NFL players since 1990. “It was like there was a hole in the tax code that has been exploited for years and years. Now, the door has been shut.”

Dunn says the wiggle room is gone, which explains why more than 90% of the first-round picks were signed by Tuesday, a week after teams were permitted to negotiate rookie contracts.

“It’s a formula, and both sides know what it is,” former NFL general manager and CBS analyst Charley Casserly says. “I had one general manager tell me the conversation to sign his first-rounder took five minutes.”

The only room for negotiation, says ESPN NFL business analyst Andrew Brandt, is whether first-round picks get three or four years guaranteed, and the extent of that guarantee, be it for injury, performance or both.

That’s what’s holding up the last few first-rounders yet to sign — the difference between three and four years of guaranteed money.

“The contracts being signed now will be used as a precedent for many years to come, even though they’re being done in a compressed time frame,” says Brandt.

Dunn says that after this year’s growing pains, fans won’t be hearing about rookie holdouts.

“There are far fewer things to argue about,” Dunn says.

That was the goal when the NFL Players Association and owners reached agreement on a new rookie salary system during negotiations last month. The development was celebrated as a breakthrough. But Brandt says concessions on ballooning rookie wages were always a certainty, even before the lockout.

“Even two years ago, everybody knew the rookies would be the sacrificial lambs of a new deal,” he says.

Dunn’s clientele can attest to that. Last year’s No. 14 pick, Seattle Seahawks safety Earl Thomas, signed a five-year deal worth more than $21 million. One of Dunn’s newest clients, Tennessee Titans quarterback and 2011 No. 8 pick Jake Locker, recently signed a contract worth about $12.6 million over four years.

“When a quarterback was drafted high, veteran quarterbacks would say ‘Wait a minute he hasn’t played a down. I’ve made three pro bowls and I make less than him?'” Dunn says. “It was nonsensical in some ways but you couldn’t blame the top picks or their agents for getting what they could.”

But now, veterans will get a bigger slice of the pie, an encouraging prospect for most of the 80 active players Athletes First represents.

“Appropriately, we’re now in a system where if you play well in your rookie contract, you will benefit from it,” Dunn says.