Link: Signing picks a big deal now
Big-ticket items like Calvin Pace, Kris Jenkins, and Bart Scott are the “sexy” part of the offseason, but the way to building a successful franchise, not just a team, lies in the draft. And the way to make sure the draft goes well isn’t just selecting the right talent in April. It’s getting them in camps and developing them and that takes contracts and this year, more rookies are signing quicker than ever. Len Pasquerelli explains:
As of Thursday evening, 100 of the 256 players chosen in the 2009 lottery had reached agreements, although 53 of them in the sixth (20) and seventh rounds (33) combined. Almost as important, 97 of those rookie contracts were completed by the end of June.
By league standards, that qualifies as a blistering pace.
It is easily the highest rate (37.8 percent) of pre-July contracts in this millennium. It might be the best pace in modern NFL annals, and comes at just about the slowest time on the league calendar.
Most substantive negotiations on rookie contracts don’t generally even begin until the calendar turns to July, and frequently not until after the teams’ number-crunchers return to their office calculators after the Independence Day holiday. There is no such dilatory mindset, though, in 2009. This year, both the clubs and the players have a healthy leg up on the overall signing process.
Last spring, only 63 players had contract accords by the end of the business day on June 30. So the relative signing spree this year represents a healthy increase of 57 percent.
Although not many first rounders are signed (thank you economy and growing unregulated rookie pay scale), the fact that the lower guys are getting in so quickly is an interesting turn of events. Even though the Jets only drafted four three guys, when they finished signing all four three so quickly, I did a double-take. I really could not remember a time when all picks were signed before minicamps ended. This allows teams (like the Jets) to get all their camps working out and learning the system. Yes, the big money and franchise typically lean on the big-money first rounders, but the later-round guys often take more development and time. Interesting read, folks. To quote WeeBay, you better get up in this.
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I still think a lot of first rounders will hold out. Especially Andre Smith, whose agent seems to think should get close to Mark Sanchez money despite being a lineman, not a QB. I hope Smith isn’t dumb enough to accept a huge backloaded deal with low guarantees and think he did well out of it, because that way he’ll probably never see half of the money and yet his agent will still command a huge percentage.
The Jets are lucky to have gotten over this hurdle, but it will have eaten up a hefty chunk of 2010 cap room to get there (if cap room does prove to be an issue in 2010).