Rookie Contract Situation No Real Concern
With two weeks to go until the start of training camp, the Bears still are not fully signed and ready to begin practices.
That's because second-round draft pick Jaquan Brisker hasn't signed off on a new contract. He can't start practices until this occurs.
The 48th pick in the draft from Penn State, Brisker was the second Bears selection and came nine picks after cornerback Kyler Gordon. However, Gordon signed a four-year, $8,682,926 contract on June 25, one Spotrac.com reports as having a $3.49 million bonus and $4.59 million in guaranteed cash.
The Brisker situation is likely to be solved soon because second-round picks are not exactly known these days for holding out of camp. Deals are slotted in, based on a team's rookie pool. The Bears have an overall rookie pool for this year of $9.87 million according to Spotrac.
The rookie wage scale put into effect in 2012 by the collective bargaining agreement included this slotting system based on the rookie salary cap within a team's regular cap. There rarely is a problem, although the Houston Texans exceeded their slot for running back Dameon Pierce, the second selection in this year's fourth round. Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported it was exceeded by $25,000.
Already the two players directly ahead of Brisker have signed their deals but there is a logjam of sorts at the top of Round 2 and this could be holding things up at the moment.
Josh Paschal, the Detroit defensive end who was chosen 46th overall, signed a four-year, $7.735 million deal with a $2.8 million bonus and $4.137 million guaranteed according to Spotrac.com. The pick directly ahead of Brisker was Washington defensive lineman Phidarian Mathis. He signed a four-year, $7.506 million deal with $2.639 million in bonus money and $3.796 million guaranteed.
However, only five of the first 15 picks in Round 2 had signed contracts as of Tuesday, according to Spotrac.com. Although there should not be a direct correlation because of the use of the rookie pool, there often is. Expect all of the unsigned in Round 2 to start coming in once after a few more at the top go.
The pick directly after Brisker is Saints cornerback Alontae Taylor, and Taylor hasn't signed yet, either.
It's actually less than two weeks until Brisker is due to report to camp. Veterans are slated to be at Halas Hall July 26 but the rookies are to report three days earlier to start work and get a jump on the playbook.
The Bears last had a holdout when Roquan Smith did not sign his rookie contract until Aug. 13 of 2018, a little more than two weeks into training camp and at the start of preseason.
Smith, the seventh pick in the 2018 draft, wasn't holding out over money directly but over wording within his contract.
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