The Jaguars made maybe the biggest move in the draft when they traded up to take Colorado athlete Travis Hunter with the No. 2 overall pick. Now, they just need to get the move over the finish line, but Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tells us that a signed contract is not expected soon. Rapoport says that he expects “Hunter will probably be the last first-rounder to sign.” 
There really isn’t much room for negotiation in rookie contracts, as Rapoport points out, and this makes them notoriously difficult to negotiate. Hunter will end up making around $46.6MM with an approximately $30MM signing bonus, and Hunter can’t really do anything about those numbers. What he can do is negotiate the structure of payments like the signing bonus. Whereas quarterbacks tend to receive a good amount of their signing bonus fairly early on in their initial deals, other players usually need to negotiate those early bonuses up as much as they can.
It sounds like Hunter is using every bit of leverage he has to try to maximize his deal. While it would make sense to try and receive as much money as you can as soon as possible, this process also includes the process of trying to set up the third and fourth years of his rookie deal in a way that makes the team consider giving him an extension sooner rather than allowing him to play out the whole contract.
While Rapoport sees this deal taking some time to get done, he doesn’t anticipate a holdout from Hunter, like we’re seeing in Cincinnati with Shemar Stewart. In fact, we’ve already seen plenty from Hunter at Organized Team Activities this summer, and if he plans on playing both cornerback and wide receiver as a rookie, he’ll need as much offseason practice as he can get, which will also extend contract proceedings.
That infamous two-way ability is, perhaps, his greatest bargaining chip, as the team is essentially getting two players for the price of one. In the early days following the draft, it was reported Hunter’s primary position in Jacksonville would be wide receiver, and we saw him work out there during rookie minicamp. But so far in OTAs, Hunter has been spending most of his time at cornerback.
Hunter is going to have to be one of the hardest working players in the NFL in order to play two ways on Sundays. At the moment, though, he’s making the Jaguars front office work hard to earn his signature. He’ll almost certainly be playing with a signed contract in September, but by the look of it, that signature will only be coming on his terms.
Ironic, isn’t it? The Hunter has become the hunted.
link to youtu.be
Prolly wants some Tik Tok clause or something.
You trade up for the guy and then decide to welcome him to the organization by trying to bust his balls on his rookie contract? What kind of message is that sending to free agents or other players on the roster that have expiring contracts?
If everyone took that approach with every first rounder they were excited to add to the team, then there would quickly end up being just a standard, 4 year, fully guaranteed, full bonus upfront contract for 1st rounders.
Then of course the 2nd rounders would start pushing for the same thing.
Unless you are advocating for all draft picks to get the above structure, then this is just part of the business.
It’s really not about the money. If the player becomes as valuable as the team hopes, he still ends up being a bargain on the rookie deal. The organization should be thinking more about the culture they are trying to create. You rarely get good production from employees if you are always trying to crush their morale.