JaMarcus Russell is about to get rich.

As one of the most promising employees of a $6 billion-a-year industry, Russell, the LSU quarterback chosen first by the Oakland Raiders in this year’s NFL draft, deserves to get rich. But how rich he’s going to get demonstrates that the NFL has a salary structure that is seriously out of whack.

The Raiders and Russell are negotiating a contract likely to guarantee Russell close to $30 million before he ever takes a snap in the NFL, a contract that will make him among the five or 10 highest-paid NFL players. Last year’s first two picks, Houston Texans defensive end Mario Williams and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush, both got contracts that guaranteed more than $26 million, and Russell’s agent will see that as the starting point for negotiations. Even though he has yet to do a thing in the NFL, Russell will be the Raiders’ highest-paid player, and he’ll get a bigger signing bonus than any veteran free agent received this off-season.

Huge rookie contracts have become the norm for the early picks in the NFL draft, and while some highly coveted rookies play well enough to earn the money they get, many others become a severe strain on their teams’ salary caps. The latest example is Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones, who held out after the Titans chose him with the sixth pick in the 2005 draft, before finally signing a contract that guaranteed him $13.5 million. Now that Jones’s off-field problems have gotten him suspended for the entire 2007 season, the Titans are in a difficult position. They would no doubt prefer simply to release Jones, but releasing a player just two years into a contract that paid an eight-figure signing bonus wreaks havoc on a team’s salary cap. If the NFL’s salary structure didn’t pay so much to unproven rookies, the Titans wouldn’t be in such a tough situation.

The Detroit Lions have had one disappointing top-10 pick after another, and that has caused them significant salary cap problems. Three recent draft picks, quarterback Joey Harrington and wide receivers Charles Rogers and Mike Williams, have cost the Lions a combined $45 million, even though not one became even an average player in Detroit and all are now gone. Those contracts have hamstrung the Lions’ ability to fit other players under the salary cap, and that’s one of the reasons the Lions continue to pick in the top 10 every year.

That’s not likely to change this year, as the Lions had the second pick in the draft. That pick, wide receiver Calvin Johnson, will expect to make at least as much as the Saints paid Bush last year. Even if Johnson turns out to be a great player, a contract that big will make it harder for the Lions to afford free agents down the road.

There are already indications that the team with the third pick in the draft, the Cleveland Browns, should prepare for some acrimonious contract negotiations. That pick, tackle Joe Thomas, could have a lengthy holdout as he tries to exceed the $25 million guaranteed deal given to last year’s third pick, Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young. Thomas’s agent is expected to say that Thomas should get more money than Young because the league’s salary cap has increased, while the Browns will counter that Thomas deserves less money than Young because quarterback is a more important position than offensive tackle.

But if the Browns pursue that line of reasoning publicly, it could cost them in their negotiations with their other first-round pick, quarterback Brady Quinn. Cleveland traded for an additional firstround pick to select Quinn 22nd overall, and Quinn’s agent has suggested that he expects a contract that reflects Quinn’s status as the team’s quarterback of the future. The Browns may try to convince Thomas that he should accept less money than a quarterback while simultaneously trying to convince Quinn that quarterbacks are just like everyone else.

Every year at least a few rookies report late for training camp because they can’t reach an agreement on a contract. But such holdouts could easily be avoided if the NFL would simply follow the lead of the NBA. The first pick in this year’s NBA draft, Greg Oden, signed with the Portland Trail Blazers almost immediately because the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement dictates exactly how much money each rookie makes. Oden will make about $4 million a year on his rookie deal — good money, but unlike Russell, Oden won’t be anywhere near the highest-paid player in the league. In the NBA, rookies don’t have heated negotiations or lengthy holdouts, and that allows them to focus on getting ready to play.

That’s why the NFL — even though it is, in most respects, America’s best-run sports league –— needs to take a page out of the NBA’s playbook. The owners and the players’ union ought to work out an agreement that keeps the salary cap at the same level it is now but gives a smaller slice of the pie to untested rookies and a bigger slice to proven veterans. After a few years in the league, JaMarcus Russell might prove himself worthy of a $30 million payday. Until then, that kind of money should be reserved for players who have earned it on the field.

Mr. Smith is a contributing editor for FootballOutsiders.com.