There are 15 unsigned rookies left, and seven of them are in the top 10. The holdup for this year’s highest selections is offset language, a league source tells Mike Florio of PFT. 
Players with offset language who are cut before the end of their rookie contract have the remaining guaranteed money reduced by whatever they earns elsewhere. Without offset language, players get to double dip. Top 10 picks expect to complete their rookie contracts, but it’s an important issue for agents nonetheless.
The following top 10 players are without deals and there’s a common thread in the representation for most of them:
- Browns, 1-1: Baker Mayfield, QB (Jack Mills and Tom Mills)
- Giants, 1-2: Saquon Barkley, RB (Roc Nation Sports)
- Jets, 1-3: Sam Darnold, QB (CAA)
- Browns, 1-4: Denzel Ward, CB (CAA)
- Bills, 1-7: Josh Allen, QB (CAA)
- Bears, 1-8: Roquan Smith, LB (CAA)
- 49ers, 1-9: Mike McGlinchey, T (CAA)
As Florio notes, CAA also represents No. 6 overall pick Quenton Nelson. The new Colts guard agreed to terms back in May on a deal that contains offset language, but also includes large guaranteed training-camp roster bonuses in 2019 through 2021. The presence of those bonuses effectively offsets the presence of offsets and could be a good middle ground solution for the agency’s remaining unsigned top 10 picks.
There’s no sign of real acrimony between any of these players and the teams that drafted them, but Joey Bosa‘s situation in 2016 serves as a reminder that offset language can become a real issue that can lead to a training camp holdout.
Do your job. Earn your money. You want to make the millions that you are getting? Prove your worth. If I suck at my job, I won’t have a job. Do I get paid still? Nope.
They don’t either. The NFL doesn’t have guaranteed contracts. They also are one injury away from the team paying them nothing more and losing their ability to earn any more. The guaranteed money is the only thing they can count on.
There’s still the idea of why guarantee money when performance is not. Fine line and I totally understand both sides.
Cousins contract is 100% guaranteed!
It’s also the only multi year deal in the entire league that is fully guaranteed.
One.
Comparatively, you do suck at your job. Professional athletes are in the top 1% of all the people in the world that try to do what they do… Are you in the top 1% in your entire industry? My guess is no. Because if you were, you 1) wouldn’t care about things that have no effect on your life and 2) you wouldn’t have time to post on a message board.
Best response ever!!!!!!!
Exactly! Stop comparing your lame job to professional athletes.
Your job and their job have nothing in common.
They have one thing in common, the fact that Brad hates both
If you get hurt on your job, you collect disability…Why can’t they just collect disability like everyone else? Why do they need to be paid millions if they can’t contribute anymore?