By waiting a year to enter the NFL draft, Matt Barkley could be setting himself up for an even bigger payday in 2012. Depending on who you talk to, if Barkley had entered the 2012 NFL draft, he would have been selected anywhere from sixth to tenth. But by waiting until 2013, Barkley now has a very good shot at being the top pick of that draft. And the difference is millions.
Below is a look at the guaranteed money handed out to the draft picks in this past year's draft*.
As we can see, there is not much financial advantage for a player to improve his stock from the the end of the first round (~$7M in 2011) up to picks 10-15 (~$10M). However, there is a big difference between being the 10th pick ($12M) and the top pick ($22M).
* All data is from NFL.com. Details for several of the contracts outside of the top ten were never publicly disclosed but were likely to fall close to the players selected around them.
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