In June, the Bears and Mitch Trubisky each downplayed the possibility that a contract impasse might keep the rookie quarterback from reporting to the start of training camp. But that scenario continued inching closer to reality Tuesday night.
Trubisky remained unsigned while rookies prepared to report to Halas Hall on Wednesday for a week of meetings and strength and conditioning work. They will head to Bourbonnais, Ill., to join the veterans July 26. Full-squad practices don't begin until July 27.
By rule, Trubisky cannot participate in any part of the Bears' program until he is under contract. The team would begin without him Wednesday if an agreement cannot be reached. However, it would not be surprising if he reported, signed and joined his teammates on time.
Trubisky has been the Bears' only unsigned draft pick since May 19. As of Tuesday, he was one of five unsigned rookies who were drafted in the top 10. Both sides kept a low profile as Wednesday approached, but Trubisky did say on June 3 that he wasn't worried about his contract status.
"I'm going to be out here at practice every day," he said. "My agent and the Bears organization is going to handle that. But I'm not really sure how that stuff works. I'm here to play football."
Trubisky is represented by Rep1 Sports, an agency based in Irvine, Calif. It also represents Marcus Mariota and Carson Wentz, quarterbacks who, like Trubisky, were drafted second overall by teams who traded up to pick them.
So this is the third straight year in which agent Bruce Tollner is doing the contract for the quarterback drafted at No. 2. That's a helpful constant in analyzing what to expect in Trubisky's situation with the Bears.
Now, the rookie wage scale implemented in 2011 by the NFL and its players' union removed a lot of wiggle room from rookie contracts. But negotiable details still exist, and one of those is offset language.
It's common for salary guarantees to have offset language associated with them. It allows a team to recoup guaranteed money if a player is cut and signs with another team.
More specifically, an offset clause stipulates that if a team cuts a player to whom it has guaranteed money, the team would owe the player only the difference between the original guarantee and the amount of his new deal with another team.
Without an offset clause, a player could double-dip, so to speak: Earn his full guarantee from the first employer, plus the full amount from his next employer.
In 2015, Mariota signed with the Titans eight days before they reported to camp. His deal reportedly included offsets on his annual base salaries, but there were no offsets on $6.06 million in roster bonuses _ a victory for Rep1. Ultimately, there was compromise, but only after both sides dug in.
In Wentz's case last year, the Eagles signed him to a contract that included offset language. In fact, ProFootballTalk.com reported that the Eagles received pre-draft assurances from Wentz and quarterback Jared Goff (another Rep1 client) that they would be OK with offset language in their contracts.
Of course, offset language applies only in a worst-case scenario that is unlikely to occur. If the Bears wanted to cut Trubisky before his contract expired, they would have bigger problems than the remainder of his guaranteed salary.
By the end of Wednesday, it will be easier to see how important that unlikely scenario is to the Bears and their future franchise quarterback.
