The 2017 NFL Draft featured two big name players in Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey who skipped their meaningless bowl games to avoid injury so that they could collect big paychecks on draft night.
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Michigan tight end Jake Butt, who suffered an ACL injury in the final game of his college career against Florida State in the Orange Bowl that ended up costing him millions of dollars in guaranteed money.
$2.8 million: Approximate cost to Jake Butt, in money lost, from his Orange Bowl injury, including money he will get from insurance.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) April 29, 2017
Here’s Rovell with a breakdown of how Butt lost so much money.
Via ESPN
The Denver Broncos selected Butt with the first pick of the fifth round at No. 145 overall, ending a slide stemming from his torn ACL in the Orange Bowl against Florida State.
Butt had taken a $2 million loss-of-value policy that he started collecting insurance on when he wasn’t picked in the top half of the third round Friday night.
He first started collecting, at $10,000 a pick tax-free, in the middle of the third round, a source with knowledge of the policy with ISI told ESPN. By being passed over in the fourth round as well, Butt was set to receive $543,000 on the policy.
Prior to Butt’s injury, he was projected to be picked near the top of the second round, which would have grossed about $4 million in guaranteed money. As the first pick in the fifth round, Butt will receive about $380,000 in guaranteed money.
With the $543,000 of tax-free insurance money equated to about $900,000 that is taxed, that means the Orange Bowl injury cost Butt around $2.8 million.
Yeah, players who expect to get picked high in the draft should probably never play in a meaningless bowl game ever again.