This year’s graduating Washington University football stars are expressing their discomfort with the current labor situation in the National Football League.

With the current tension between NFL owners and the former NFL Players Association, some potential draft picks are concerned that they will lose their rookie seasons to the lockout.

“I really want to take my talents to South Beach,” said starting wide receiver LeArnold Benedict, the team leader in eyes-closed catches. “The Dolphins need another wideout, and they have the No. 15 pick, so I’m really expecting to make some bank…but I don’t like the way this lockout is looking. We could be stuck here for a while. I can’t get Rookie of the Year if there’s no year to be a rookie!”

One of the disagreements between the two sides is over a “rookie wage scale,” which would restrict the amount of money a rookie could be paid while working his first contract. The potential cap does not sit well with Bears’ athletes.

“So if I’m a first-round pick, if I’m the best player at my position in the entire draft, if I am taken first overall, I can’t make as much money as Sam Bradford? That’s just not right,” longsnapper Kris Moneymaker said. “I’d rather sit this year out, play for the MLS, and make twice as much the next than give up a piece of my projected eight-figure career earnings.”

Because of the lockout, teams will be forced to address and fix deficiencies through the draft before free agency, instead of the other way around. This means that teams are more likely to reach for players at positions of need, rather than settle for players at positions with depth.

“Honestly, I am worried about my draft stock,” linebacker Mista Jones said. “A lot of teams have some quality inside linebackers, and I don’t know if a team would look to draft a backup, even though I have first-round talent.”

Another issue facing Bears entering the draft is the low marketability of the school’s name.

“Everyone asks me if I know Jake Locker (quarterback for the University of Washington),” Jones, last year’s leader in accidental tackles, said. “I’d love to have played him and sacked him, but people need to realize that Wash. U. is a different school. We’re in St. Louis, not Seattle.”

Regardless of the program’s image, some players want it to be known that they plan on getting drafted despite the gregarious situation.

“We all knew I was here to get drafted. I’ve proven myself on the field and now I’m ready to get on that stage and shake Roger Goodell’s hand,” redshirt sophomore Williams ‘Twice the Name, Twice the Talent’ Williams, the former starting tailback, said after publicly declaring for the draft at the Washington University Pro Day on Saturday. “No matter what happens, I’m still going to get drafted. That’s what really matters, right?”

A hearing on April 6 with a federal judge between the owners and the de facto players’ union will decide the fate of the lockout and ensuing season. Until then, the Bears’ standout student-athletes are looking into their contingency plans.

“There’s a reason I came to Wash. U.,” quarterback Dexter Appleton said. “I mean, why spend time worrying about the draft and making tons of money immediately when I could be going through medical school instead?”