Before the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreements, not many draft picks had their contracts in place before July 4. Now, most are done well before the Fourth of July rolls around.
As of Friday, all but 31 draft picks have signed. In all, 228 draft picks are under contract.
In round one, 22 of 31 picks have signed. The unsigned first-rounders include the three quarterbacks taken in the top four picks (Bryce Young of the Panthers, C.J. Stroud of the Texans, and Anthony Richardson of the Colts). Only 18 second-round picks have signed, as players and their agents try to enhance the guarantees in the four-year deals.
All picks have signed in rounds five and seven. Two players are unsigned in rounds three and two are unsigned in round four. Four sixth-rounders have yet to sign.
Typically all players have signed when camp opens under the wage scale adopted 12 years ago, but holdouts have happened. The biggest points of contention in round one have become, for some, payment structure of the signing bonus, offset language for guarantees, and/or the specific language of the provisions that potentially void future guarantees.
