Re-estimating the Carriker contract

As a handful of 2007 first-rounders are signed, and the Rams, in sheeplike fashion,
wait for the picks around Adam Carriker to be signed, I see that my first estimate
of his contract is off by a country mile. Turns out Kamerion Wimbley's contract is
much different than most rookie contracts and is a very bad one to use as a baseline.

Let's use Haloti Ngata's, then, with the additional bonus that he's a DT just like
Carriker. He signed a 5-year, $11.9 million contract last year, with about $9.3M
guaranteed. Three picks later, Tye Hill came in at 5 years, $10.2M, $7.7M guaranteed.

Enter this year's #15 pick, Lawrence Timmons, signed by the Steelers, who have all
their picks in camp on time. CBS Sportsline reports he's getting 8% more bonus money
and 19% more total contract money than Hill.

Assuming it's a 5-year contract, then, Carriker's probably looking at a contract in the
neighborhood of $14M total, $10M guaranteed.

Let's quit screwing around, make it happen, and get the man in camp.