One of the sticking points of the new NFL collective bargaining agreement — signed last summer, after the 2011 NFL draft — was that a rookie salary cap system was implemented. A side effect of that deal was quite noticeable at Thursday night’s draft: There were a ton of trades!

Out of the top ten selections, only four teams actually selected where they were drawn. The No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 picks weren’t made by the original team that held it. Now that’s excitement.

Before the draft even started we saw the Redskins move up to No. 2 (weeks ago) and the Browns move up one slot to No. 3  less than an hour before the first pick.

But why did this all happen? Because teams are no longer affraid of being married to draft picks that will tie up their salary caps or even hold them hostage during initial negotiations. What leverage does a draftee have when he’s set to make a certain amount of money due to whatever slot he’s drafted in?

And without in-exorbitant bonuses to paid and record deals every season, teams can actually enjoy high picks without being screwed too much if they bust.

There’s more value for those picks now and more incentive to try to trade up for the guy you want. That’s what we saw last night and I hope that’s what we’ll continue to see in years to come.

Because, after all, that’s entertainment and entertainment’s the business the NFL is in.

Let’s not be too quick to ban Gregg Williams for life from the NFL.

While it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell his charges to go out and hurt the 49ers while possibly knowingly being recorded, I still don’t think that he deserves to be kicked out the game forever.

Why? Because we have no idea how often comments like these are made on an NFL sideline.

If anything, it was just the worst of timing for Williams to have this come forward mere weeks after he was indefinitely suspended for his role in the Saints bounty scandal.

I do agree with his punishment for that incident, but adding anything more for saying what he did during the Niners-Saints game would just be piling on. He’s already going to sit for a season at least and will have to follow the league’s every wish to be reinstated when the time comes. Do we need to further ban a guy who is already serving one for an unknown length?

Besides, if the NFL were to suspend every player who said they wanted to hurt the other team during a game, well I don’t think we’d have any offensive linemen or defenders left in the league.

We don’t know if what Williams said was instructions to his players or just plain trash talk — but I’d think it was closer to the latter.

So, would you suspend a guy for trash talk if he was already sitting out a season for something much worse? That would be just rain drops in the ocean.

Besides, can you really employ this guy when he comes back? Chances are his NFL career is done anyway.

Follow me on Twitter at @danbilicki

So, Peyton Manning, one of the best quarterbacks of a generation, is now a Denver Bronco. So, now what?

First, it has to be discussed what he’s bringing to this team. Even the most optimistic estimations won’t have him playing at his peak of six years ago – that’s completely out of the question after undergoing at least four neck surgeries. The guy has had three vertebrae fused together; it’s a gambling to think that he can play at starting-quarterback quality anyway.

So the next question is if the Broncos overpaid for Peyton and by how much. It’s not unrealistic to say that he won’t play out the five years of his contract. He’ll be 36 years old this week and 41 during the last year of his deal. That in itself is dicey and throwing in his health it’s even more unlikely he’ll make it.

The sheer money involved is scary too. $96 million is a lot for any player, especially one that missed an entire season. Manning will earn $18 million in 2012 alone and then a total of $40 million in the next two season. His final two years will be at $19 million apiece, but who knows if he’ll get there, right?

At least Denver was smart enough to make sure that he has to pass a physical before each season. But still, a lot of money is at stake here.

The Broncos still have some cap room to work with too – that was one of the factors that lured Manning to the Mile High city. So who will they bring in? Manning’s buddy Dallas Clark is available and offer could be made to restricted free agent Mike Wallace. What a tandem that would be! Some upgrades could be used on the defence too, plus the draft is only a month away.

Then there’s always the Tim Tebow situation. The hot rumour is that the Broncos will deal him, most likely to one of the QB-needy Florida teams, but is that really that smart? Denver had to trade up to get Tebow in the first round of the draft and now they’d likely only receive a fourth-round pick in return for him.

Denver would be better off to keep Tebow. They don’t have a backup quarterback right now and Tebow would force opposing defences to prepare for him every week. What’s the downside there? It’s not like Broncos fans will be buying up billboard space to call for Tebow over Manning.

So, does this signing make Denver the favourites to win the AFC West? It’s hard to think that it doesn’t. San Diego – the favourites for nearly a decade – are looking like they’re starting a rebuild. Oakland is well, still Oakland. The only other choice is Kansas City, but they’re coming off an injury-plagued season and are being led by Matt Cassel.

So, to say the least, it’ll be an interesting season for Denver. Especially if they hold on to Tebow – even though that’s unlikely since the karma gods wouldn’t appreciate the Broncos benching their saviour after last season.

In all sports, there is breaking the rules and then there is bending the rules. We’ve seen it happen before when teams do something that might be a bit questionable, but isn’t explicitly forbidden in the rule book. We’ve also seen teams just go way overboard and tape opponents’ sideline signals or install bounty programs. What the Cowboys and Redskins did during the uncapped NFL season of 2010 definitely falls into the former category.

As a quick refresher, with the NFL’s CBA lapsed, the league agreed to have an uncapped season, meaning that teams could spend whatever they wanted on salary during that season. Well, the Cowboys and Redskins were smart enough to realize that if they paid their guys with a lot of up-front money they would have more cap space to work with in the future once a new CBA was put in place.

How that broke any rule – when essentially there were none in place – is a mystery to me.

Well, if there’s one thing billionaires hate it’s when they’re made fools of by other billionaires. So the rest of the league obviously didn’t like the idea that those two NFC East rivals were smarter than the rest them.

So, the league clamped down a mere two days before free agency started and took away cap room from both squads, giving the cash out to 28 of the other 30 teams. How is that fair?

There two teams have been preparing plans for free agency for months and now have been hit with these sanctions? How can they adequately adjust in time?

Sure, Pierre Garcon has tweeted that he’s joining the Redskins, but nothing solid has come down. Don’t you think that team was prepared to pursue a couple of good free agents to place around their soon-to-be QB of the future, RG3?

This whole incident reminds me of the NHL’s idiotic cap system and the problems it has caused. For years it was incredibly easy to circumvent by simply tacking on meaningless seasons to the ends of large contracts that would bring down the average value per season – also known as the player’s cap number.

The NHL finally wised up when they vetoed Ilya Kovalchuk’s deal last summer, but the damage was done.

Those were two brilliant example of how smart teams can work to bend rules in their favour. Now, because everyone was too daft to follow their lead, the Cowboys and Redskins have been unfairly punished.

There might finally e something for the two rivals’ fan bases to unite about. You know, other than their hatred of the New York Giants.

Follow me on Twitter @danbilicki