More than half of all draft picks have signed contracts

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Two weeks ago tonight, Commissioner Roger Goodell made 32 trips to the podium at Radio City Music Hall, announcing the various selections made in the first round of the draft.

Tonight, more than half of all 256 draft picks have signed their contracts.

The latest official update from the NFLPA shows that 141 of 256 players have signed.  But with more and more players continuously agreeing to terms, the number keeps going up.

Only seven first-round picks have signed.  The higher percentages come in the later rounds; 75 percent of all sixth-round and seventh-round selections are under contract.

The speed with which the deals are getting done proves that all of these deals should be getting done, and that all agents should be refusing to let their clients show up for minicamps or OTAs without a signed contract.  If the agents took a stand, the teams would have no choice but to get all of the players under contract.

10 responses to “More than half of all draft picks have signed contracts

  1. Or if they could just fully slot the pay rates for new draft picks then the league and the players wouldn’t have to waste so much money on agents that don’t really create much value for the money they receive on these deals.

  2. Because these contracts are so simple to complete now, shouldn’t there be a deadline for all teams to have them signed by? especially with the draft being moved later in the year. These kids can’t afford to miss any more time due to contractual issues

  3. It’s kind of ironic how the Steelers don’t have the cap space to sign the rest of their draft class since they’ve used so much money to restructure the contracts of older veteran players due to the fact that their recent draft classes haven’t worked out.

  4. I’ll be curious to see how many of these guys work out. On paper anyways, (cause its not like these guys have played a pro down yet) the AFC North appears to have had a good draft all around. With the exception of the Browns getting Johnny Foozball. As a fan of a rival team I love that move!
    Steelers got some good players, but we’ll see, as the op stated, their last few drafts have stunk and they’re old too. Big Ben won’t be like Brady and Manning. He’s gonna shut down here soon especially if their linemen keep getting hurt all the time.
    Bengals… They can win 12 or 14 games in a regular season but Dalton will Biff in the playoffs so it doesn’t matter.
    Ravens get some key players back who were injured last year, as well as the new o linemen and a healthy Pitta, and Steve Smith. A new offensive coordinator (which can only be better that what Caldwell could do last year.) And a draft with more young defensive guys. If it all clicks this team will be dangerous.

  5. This is what happens with a rookie wage scale, or more specifically when the NFL owners take the NFLPA behind the woodshed and get them to sign off on a deal that ends up with Russell Wilson quarterbacking the best team in the league for only $500,000 a year for 3 years.

    Once 1st round pick signing bonuses reached the $40million mark (Jamarcus Russell, et al.), I never would have imagined that the owners could’ve gotten the union to agree to let those figures plummet back down, but they did. And that’s just for 1st rounders. Players picked in the 2nd round and later are making peanuts, even when they carry their teams like Alfred Morris does Washington at $500K a year.

  6. signed contracts mean nothing in the NFL… except for the guarantees that some of them contain…

    many of these guys who have signed their contracts will not make the team…

  7. Under the new players agreement, pay scales for drafted rookies are pretty much predetermined and as a result there aren’t near as many hold outs of top picks as there use to be. That’s why they did it.

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