Should One Sign Before Time? : Pro football: Tagliabue is being asked to rule whether collegians should be offered contracts before they are drafted.

The question facing the NFL this week is whether to prohibit predraft signings of college football players.

Less than three weeks before the April 21-22 draft, it is an increasingly critical question, one that is holding up proceedings on many clubs.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is expected to decide shortly whether it is illegal--or possibly simply unwise--and to rule on these two aspects of the problem:

--Should the team with the NFL’s No. 1 choice sign the player it wants before officially drafting him? In recent years, quarterbacks Troy Aikman, Jeff George and other No. 1 players have all accepted long-term, predraft contracts without objection from other NFL clubs.

--Should a club with, say, the fifth or sixth choice in the first round pick out an affordable player and sign him in the days ahead of the draft? Last year, the Chicago Bears signed USC safety Mark Carrier one week and drafted him No. 6 the next.

The Bears’ spectacular success with that ploy--which is being opposed unanimously by members of the league’s competition committee--has turned the NFL upside down, bringing on this year’s controversy and leading many clubs to follow suit with other players, if Tagliabue will allow it.

“Theoretically, you could have 300 players all signed before the draft,” Leigh Steinberg, the Newport Beach lawyer-agent, said this week.

Carrier’s success impressed NFL coaches and club owners. He played with the skill and polish of a veteran, easily winning rookie-of-the-year distinction.

The Bears impressed the league even more. They landed Carrier on the cheap, at an average $730,000 salary for five years--much less than it would have cost them if they had first drafted Carrier that high, then had to dicker with agents.

“I was tired of dealing with holdouts who kept missing training camp,” Bear President Mike McCaskey said.

But Carrier paid for McCaskey’s novel move.

“The player drafted just ahead of him (Junior Seau) got (an average of) $905,000 for five years,” said Michael Duberstein, NFL Players Assn. researcher. “The guy drafted after Carrier (Andre Ware) got (an average) $1.2 million for five years. Even the 14th player drafted (Renaldo Turnbull) got a better deal--an average 700 for four years, which is better than 750 for five.”

Even so, many believe, the Bear deal was good for Carrier.

“For the rest of his career, he’ll be paid like a high first-round choice,” Steinberg said. “In a real draft, he might have gone low on the first round or high on the second--and that would have handicapped him financially as long as he played.”

Many agents, as well as many clubs, see a lot of value in predraft contracts. So why is it an NFL problem? “The league has told the courts that it needs the draft for competitive reasons,” one source said. “When you use it for leverage bargaining, you’ve started a new game, and that might not be the wisest thing for the NFL to do.”

Why doesn’t Tagliabue simply bar predraft contracts?

“In a realistic world, it’s hard to enforce,” the source said.

At the moment, therefore, pre-draft dickering is a threat to change the whole nature of NFL player acquisition.

Said the New York Jets’ general manager, Dick Steinberg, “Instead of drafting the best athlete, we may all be going for the most affordable athlete.”

NFL Notes

Plan B signings have dropped in three years from 229 in 1989 to 184 in 1990 to 140 this year, Michael Duberstein said from the NFL Players Assn. office. But he added: “There have been more under-the-table deals than ever--more clubs illegally signing their own Plan Bs, or verbally agreeing to match any salary they’re offered. “