It doesn't really matter. Most of these guys are like 26-30 years old. If they are signing a 3 or 4 year deal, that's likely to carry them through the duration of their career. Also, even if a guy does this and will need to sign another deal in 4 years when he's 30 years old, teams are going to have a very short memory on this (especially since this is a very unique situation), and they're not going to make that much money at that age anyway. Sorry, I just can't agree with this. You completely ignored the agent factor. Agents don't want the reputation of clients backing out on commitments. Also, teams can terminate contracts and some of these players may be free agents quicker and much younger than you infer. As a somewhat comparable example, when do you think is the next time the Ravens are going to even consider a trade with the Bears (like UMFan pointed out)?