NFL's middle class feels salary pinch

The money's still good. But for a growing segment of NFL players, the past five weeks have shown it isn't nearly what it used to be, and that has left them scratching their heads.

While stars such as Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers can still get astronomical numbers, the rank-and-file players are struggling to find more than minimum-wage deals - if they can find work at all.

Free-agent quarterback Josh McCown had sounded a warning during an interview before free agency opened.

"It could be slower than anything we've ever seen," McCown said then. "The owners could send a message loud and clear that they're not going to pay people.

"Guys like Julius will be fine, but the rest of us could be in trouble."

Deals this spring have been fewer and smaller than past years, and it's the guys in the middle who may be feeling it most. With teams hunkered down into the final stages of draft preparations, the middle class is lucky to hear the phone ring at all.

Only 40 unrestricted free agents have changed teams so far this offseason. Last year, 128 changed teams.

Granted, there are 103 fewer UFAs this year because of rules that raised the bar to six years of service to qualify for that status, but the deals are down by percentage as well. In 2009, 170 of the 338 UFAs signed in the first four weeks of the market (50.3 percent); this year, 89 of 235 UFAs (37.9 percent) signed deals in the same timeframe.

It's almost as if there's no more bell-curve distribution, with a few big deals and a few minimum-wage deals and the majority of players falling between. To those guys, the six-year, $84million deal Peppers signed with the Bears doesn't register. Big names can still get big money, but the leftovers, though they're still huge to those in the real working world, aren't what they used to be.

Two years ago, McCown signed a two-year, $6.25million deal with the Miami Dolphins for a shot at a starting job. The contract came with him to the Carolina Panthers when he was swapped for a seventh-round pick.

Now, he can't find anything close to that kind of payout.

With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire after the 2010 season, most teams have clamped down on costs. It could get better with a new labor deal, but that's a year of uncertainty away.

There may be no better example of how market forces have creamed such players than former Panthers cornerback Dante Wesley.

Wesley is a decent pass defender who blossomed into a bigger role, but his value was primarily as a special-teamer. Those guys never get rich, but from time to time teams will open up to retain their own.

Before free agency, the Panthers made him an offer: two years, veteran minimum salaries ($755,000 and $765,000), with a $175,000 signing bonus. Not bad, but not what he was hoping for. And there was a condition - the offer was only good until the start of free agency.

Wesley said then he thought he could do better.

Last week, he signed with the Detroit Lions, for the same two years and same base salaries, but with a $20,000 signing bonus. The $155,000 difference was a costly lesson in the realities of the new marketplace.

Former Panthers defensive tackle Damione Lewis has also felt the pinch. Cut in part because of the roughly $5 million he was set to make this year and partly because he turned 32 last month, he signed a one-year deal with $1.15 million in base salary with the New England Patriots last week.

"The whole environment changed," Lewis said before signing. "Bottom line, guys are just going to have to get through this year, and see what comes next."