If there was a rule I wish existed it would be "Drafted Player Status"
If you draft a player there should be some type of benefit when it comes to their contract and counting against the cap. Especially to try to help smaller market teams keep players they drafted and developed.
Maybe it's 10%...maybe it's 15% but if you draft a star player you should be able to have some type of advantage when keeping them that's more than "you can give them an 8th year".
I think if you draft the player and are re-signing them you should get a break on their cap hit. Drafted player signing for $8M, then you should get a break on that against your cap hit (aka only counts $7.2M against the cap with the 10% buffer).
That would help smaller markets keep the players they draft a lot more than them being able to offer an extra year, or reducing the contract length to a 5 or 6 year max. Also allows teams that drafted well and built a good core of players more flexibility to keep those players under the cap, instead of being forced to trade players you drafted and developed because of a cap crunch.
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