2023 Draft Class signings

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

With the last 2 CBA's, most of these rookie contract negotiations are more formalities rather than hard extended negotiations. I believe 3rd rounders seem to have the most terms to negotiate so they can sometimes take the longest to settle.


So far the Colts have signed:

CB Darius Rush (5th Round)
S Daniel Scott (5th Round)
TE Will Mallory (5th Round)
RB Evan Hull (5th Round)
DE Titus Leo (6th Round)
CB Jaylon Jones (7th Round)
T Jake Witt (7th Round)

https://www.colts.com/news/will-mallory-evan-hull-darius-rush-jake-witt-draft-picks-signed-2023

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

WR Josh Downs officially signed his contract today.


Four players remained unsigned from the draft class - Richardson, Brents, Freeland and Adebawore.



https://www.colts.com/news/josh-downs-signed-2023-nfl-draft-pick-wide-receiver-third-round

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

DT Adetomiwa Adebawore signed today.

9 down, 3 to go.....


https://www.colts.com/news/adetomiwa-adebawore-signed-2023-nfl-draft-pick-fourth-round-dline

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

Elsewhere around the NFL - it appears the amount of guaranteed money is going up for second round picks.

Info for Picks 37 and 38 (Brents was 44):

Derick Hall - Pick 37

https://twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL/status/1666235064538001409

First of two precedents set by Seahawks second-rounder Derick Hall contract negotiated by NSA Football: a $100,000 fourth-year guarantee of base salary with first three years fully guaranteed for skill, injury and salary cap

https://twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL/status/1666236540547211264

Second of two precedents set by Seahawks second-rounder Derick Hall: to be paid $3.08 million of his $3.629 million signing bonus (85 percent) prior to training camp, including $2.94 million by June 16, 2023, $144,528 by July 15, 2023 and $545,000 by April 1, 2024.

https://twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL/status/1666596707327520768

Total value of Derick Hall Seahawks deal: $9.115 million, 79.23 percent total guaranteed, up from 76.21 percent at slot in 2022, includes $3.629 million signing bonus, Year 3 gtd 100 percent, up from 90.26 percent in 2021, Year 4 guarantee up 5.02 pct from 0 in 2022

Matthew Bergeron - Pick 38

https://twitter.com/AaronWilson_NFL/status/1666599475861700608

Falcons deal for second-round pick Matthew Bergeron: $8.978 million total, including $3.529 million signing bonus, total guarantee of 78.12 percent, up from previous year guarantee total of 74.8 percent

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

Negotiations are moving along slowly this year for the Colts.


Below are the dates when the draft signings were complete for the Colts over the past few years:


2022 - May 20
2021 - May 19
2020 - June 16 - signings across the league were really slow in 2020 due to the pandemic


However, if you look at the placement of the Colts first two draft picks - they are in clump of several un-signed players.


Of the Top 5 draft picks in Round 1, only 1.03 (Anderson) has signed.

1.01 (Young), 1.02 (Stroud), 1.04 (Richardson) and 1.05 (Witherspoon) have yet to sign their contracts.


As I mentioned earlier, the NFLPA is really pushing for more guaranteed money for 2nd Round draft picks for this year's class.

I listed the contract guarantees for Picks 37 and 38 in an earlier post. Carolina followed suit with Jonathan Mingo at Pick 39 guaranteeing the first 3 years with a partial guarantee in Year 4.

Picks 40 through 48 remain unsigned (Brents is Pick 44) with the agents hoping to get similar guarantee money as Pick 39.


The "deadline" is training camp. Rookies cannot participate in training camp without first signing their contract. So the Colts + players have about another month to wrap negotiations up.

[AlwaysSunnyinIndy]

The Colts signed CB JuJu Brents and OT Blake Freeland today.

That leaves Richardson as the last rookie to ink his contract.


https://www.colts.com/news/juju-brents-blake-freeland-2023-nfl-draft-pick-sign

[YDFL Commish]

Richardson signed.

https://sports.yahoo.com/colts-wrap-rookie-class-signing-185608165.html?src=rss