Hmmm. If the Pats did this, they would (rightly) be vilified as a evil and cheating team. I doubt anyone outside pathological Patriots fans would defend it. If my personal favorite team did this, I would be slamming them for it.
But the fact that argues against your point is that in the last 15 years, ONLY the Chargers have tried to screw their first round draft picks so egregiously. The Chargers.
The 2011 agreement's floor was set because of the Charger's ceiling.
The only reason the Pats don’t do this is that they don’t draft in the top 10. The 2 clauses are standard in contracts, just not for the top 10, meaning the Pats (and EVERY OTHER TEAM) are putting this in their contracts and NOBODY WHINES
The player isn’t getting screwed. They get the same amount of money. The only difference is the money gets spread across multiple years, and if the player gets cut AND resigned by somebody else they owe some of it back. In the end it’s actually good for the player, because with the payments spread they don’t actually owe any money, they just won’t get it.
The important part of rookie contracts is NOT the floor, it’s the ceiling. It was all put in place because too many players were holding out trying to get massive guaranteed money before playing a single NFL down. There is NO FLOOR, the wages are SET by draft position, the only things they really have to negotiate are how much is salary, how much is signing bonus, and the payment schedule.