The NFL Draft was one month ago this weekend and the Chicago Bears have two unsigned draft picks in first-rounder Leonard Floyd and third round pick Jonathan Bullard.
Now, there is little reason to panic because under the new collective bargaining agreement the contracts are basically cookie cutter and slotted with the pick, which means that the days about arguing over guaranteed money and signing bonus and contract length are long over.
If signing the players is so easy, in fact last season the Bears had their entire draft class signed within a week of the draft, if I'm remembering correctly, then why hasn't it happened yet? And more so, why haven't we seen any reports on it?
I can't answer these questions for sure, but I do find the lack of rumors or "NFL insider" reports connected to these contract negotiations somewhat strange, but they also lack the storylines that they held in the pre-new CBA rules.
Since the overhaul of the rookie contract system, the single biggest sticking point in contracts has been offset language. This 2012 Ian Rapoport article breaks down what offset language is and why it is a hang up:
But in the fourth year comes the debate over offset language. If there is offset language, it allows the team to save money when releasing a player. Let's say a first-rounder is due $2 million in his fourth year. If he's released, and then agrees to a $2 million deal with a new team, the original team is completely off the hook. He receives $2 million from his new club, and the team that drafted him washes its hands of the situation. If there is no offset language, the discarded player receives the guaranteed money from his original team and the full salary from his new team. The original team can't merely allow the new team to pay the remaining guaranteed money as part of the new deal.
Players want to be able to double-dip in pay, which I can't blame them considering how often teams cut them before the end of a deal. Teams, on the other hand, don't want to have to pay that final year of guaranteed money to a player that they ended up cutting.
With Bullard, it appears that his selection slot produces some of the few contested contracts between agents and teams. This Brad Biggs mailbag article from last week delves into it nicely:
As one veteran agent told me, it's the first 14 picks of Round 3 where agents and teams will dig in and battle for turf. The issue is guaranteed money. Bullard was selected in the third round (72nd overall) and was the ninth pick of the round. So he falls in that small landscape of picks where agents believe there is some negotiation room for contracts in terms of the base salaries. We're not talking about a lot of money over the life of a contract but again, Bullard is smart to have his agent maximize his contract. Looking at an overview of draft picks that have signed, only 15 of the 35 picks in Round 3 have signed (42.9 percent) and that is the lowest percentage of any round. Furthermore, the top 13 picks in Round 3 are unsigned.
The deals will surely be done, the CBA all but guarantees that the players will be signed long before the words "holdout" are mentioned come time to report for camp, but these are the likely reasons they are taking longer than in recent years.
Are you worried about the lack of movement on these two players' deals?