Thanks to their trade with San Francisco during last year's draft weekend, the New England Patriots will be able to add one of the best players available in the 2008 NFL Draft with the number-seven pick they own.

But in recent years, the cost of signing the players chosen in the top picks has increased considerably, particularly where guaranteed money is concerned. Five years ago, the number-one pick, Carson Palmer, received a $49-million contract with $14 million guaranteed; this week, the Dolphins came to an agreement with offensive tackle Jake Long on a deal that will give the number-one pick $30 million guaranteed. Last year's overall number one, JaMarcus Russell, received $33.5 million guaranteed from Oakland.

New England, however, is currently concerned with the going rate for the number-seven pick. Last year, that was Adrian Peterson. The running back agreed to a five-year, $40.5-million deal with the Vikings that included $17 million guaranteed.

Are the numbers getting out of hand? Veteran players across the league, many of whom get one chance for a big free-agent payday, feel that in a league in which paychecks are so frequently based on performance, paying unproven players such deals is unfair.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell seems to agree.

"We do want to look at that," Goodell said this month at the league's annual meeting. "I think it's important to veteran players, personally. As a veteran player, you've proven your performance on an NFL field and that should be rewarded. When you see players come in that have not played in the NFL and it's unclear as to whether they will be able to play at a certain level, I think it's a fair point.

"I do believe that is something we should address, because it's not necessarily saving dollars but putting dollars to the players who should get them."

The NFL Draft system is set up to benefit teams that most need help, with the teams who struggled the most in the previous year getting first crack at the players believed to be the best. But if that player is a bust, a team could be financially hamstrung for years.

"If you fail with that (number-one) pick, your franchise is saddled with an albatross you can't get rid of for who knows how long," Colts president Bill Polian said at the NFL Combine. "It's completely changed because of the cost of those picks and in my view, that's wrong. It should change. That's bad for the game. It isn't about money; it's about the integrity of the game on the field."

Polian got lucky - 10 years ago, his team had the top pk and guessed right, taking Peyton Manning instead of Ryan Leaf. Manning has annually been one of the best-performing quarterbacks in the league and delivered a Super Bowl to Indianapolis. Leaf, drafted number two by San Diego, was a colossal bust and didn't even finish out his then-record rookie contract.

Polian thinks there will be a change, and offers ways to alter the system.

"Our game is based on competitive balance, the fact that every year every franchise can win, unlike other sports. You can go from worst to first in one year, sometimes based on how well you do in the draft," Polian said, pointing to agents as the main reason why contracts have escalated so rapidly.

"There's any number of ways," to get deals under control, he continued. "You can roll back what those picks are paid, you can go to a slotting system. But in my humble opinion, it needs to change because the draft was designed to positively affect the game on the field and create competitive balance and now we find it's just the opposite."

The NBA instituted a slotting system several years ago, and there have been no issues. The number-one pick receives a set amount - which goes up a percentage each year - and the number-two pick receives a bit less, on down to the final first-round pick.

However, the NFL Players' Association has yet to broach the subject, and NFLPA director Gene Upshaw apparently has no intention of getting things changed anytime soon.

"Every year at this time, I hear it again: they don't like how the rookies are paid," Upshaw told Yahoo! Sports this week. "'They need some kind of pay scale.' Well I'm not going to limit how the rookies are paid because it has a huge impact on veterans. I'm not going to agree to it."

Recent reports indicate that a growing number of players are unhappy with the job longtime NFLPA head Gene Upshaw is doing. If a new director is put in place, perhaps change will come.