Mystery Sort Of Explained

It's been amazing to watch the ease with which the draft picks of the 2014 NFL Draft have been signed. Straightening out the contracts of NFL players that have yet to take an NFL snap was one of the objectives of the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement. The contracts for rookies were getting out of control. The new CBA pretty much scripts the contracts for every pick in the draft. It's taken a couple of years but we are finally seeing the results. Training camp is still a little less than two months away and a record 12 teams have already signed all of their draft picks-Arizona, Baltimore, Buffalo, Carolina, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Orleans, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington. 18 of the first-round picks have signed. That includes the first pick of the draft, defensive end Jadeveon Clowney. Over 80% of all of the picks have signed their first NFL contracts. Unfortunately, there's a pocket of picks taken at the end of the third round that are unsigned. That's a signing status that is usually seen among the top-ten picks of previous drafts.

As a Minnesota Vikings fan, I have grown accustomed to the team getting around to signing their draft picks in July. Even with the contracts scripted by the CBA they would still wait until training camp was in sight. I was thrilled to see them immediately storm through the signings this year. Within two weeks of the draft, the Vikings had nine of their ten picks signed. Even first round picks linebacker Anthony Barr and quarterback Teddy Bridgewater were signed. They also had two picks in the third-round. The second one being the final payment from the Seattle Seahawks in the trade for receiver Percy Harvin. With the Seahawks' 32nd pick of the third-round the Vikings selected Georgia Southern running back Jerick McKinnon. After the dust cleared from the Vikings draft pick signing frenzy nearly a month ago, McKinnon remained unsigned. Did the Vikings forget that they had a second third-round pick? Is the versatile running back holding out? It's been a mystery. Well, it's not really a mystery but the Baltimore Ravens might be messing things up for some of the teams that selected players at the end of the third-round. When it comes to the draft, the Ravens are often fouling things for other teams. In 2003, they balked on a draft day trade with the Vikings. Assuming that the deal was done, the Vikings missed the window for their draft pick and have been a running draft day joke for more than a decade. The Ravens were part of a similar draft day trade kerfuffle with the Chicago Bears a few years ago. When it comes to the draft the Baltimore Ravens are a real nuisance. It appears that the Ravens have thrown a wrench into the scripted contracts for the picks at the end of the third-round:

No. 92 Carolina guard Trai Turner: four years, $2.791 million ($539,800 signing bonus)
No. 93 Jacksonville guard Brandon Linder: unsigned
No. 94 Cleveland running back Terrance West: unsigned
No. 95 Denver offensive tackle Michael Schofield: four years $2.777 million ($621,200)
No. 96 Minnesota running back Jerick McKinnon: unsigned
No. 97 Pittsburgh back/receiver Dri Archer: unsigned
No. 98 Green Bay tight end Richard Rodgers: unsigned
No. 99 Baltimore tight end Crockett Gillmore: four years $2.907 million ($606,376)

The contract numbers should be going down as picks get later, not up. The contracts signed by Turner and Schofield seem to line up, although the signing bonuses don't. As the total numbers go, McKinnon should get a contract in the $2.76 million range. Then we have the Ravens going rogue with Gillmore's contract. With the huge contracts that we normally see in the NFL it seems strange to see player and team haggling over $100,000 but that's still some nice change for these third-round picks.

Nowhere in the draft is there an area in which five of six consecutive picks are unsigned. This will get resolved soon. McKinnon even says so. The numbers are so small compared to the contract issues of draft picks just five years ago. It's only a week into June and the only draft-signing issue is found with a handful of picks at the end of the third-round. Only five years ago over half of the draft picks would still be unsigned. I don't miss those days at all.