No worries, I understand what you are getting at. But your reasoning for why the rookie wage scale is different then mine. Teams (meaning front office decision makers) didn't mind paying 17 mil for the future, the rookie wage scale came more from the NFLPA and vets not deeming it fair that unproven talent got paid before they did, so they negotiated the wage scale into the CBA. I look at the wage scale being put in place by the NFLPA, whereas you are looking at GMs and owners wanting that scale to be put there. I guess it may be a mixture of both now thinking about it, which really doesn't help my point.
But, my point was that teams are still willing to go all in on future projections. In this hypothetical (and impossible) situation Luck is on the open market as a 3rd year player and would most definitely still command that type of money, if you did this last year as he was in his 2nd year he would have commanded that type of money do you agree?
If you do, that proves that teams will indeed pay for the future.