Detroit Lions rookie safety Will Harris is the only player on the 90-man roster who is not currently under contract, but that’s not uncommon for third-round draft picks under the league’s current collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
The current CBA was updated in 2011 and set to expire after the 2020 NFL season. It’s most notable adjustment was the implementation of the rookie wage scale, where draft picks fall into slotted tiers eliminating inconsistencies in rookie pay scales.
“One aspect of the rookie wage scale that receives relatively no criticism is the lack of holdouts,” said Nick Kostara in a 2013 Bleacher Report article, Everything You Need to Know About the NFL’s Rookie Wage Scale. “In the most basic sense, deals only include base salaries, signing/workout bonuses and any performance incentives that may be included. Couple these factors with the already set length of every contract and the work of player agents has been made much easier.”
Despite the improved uniformity in contracts, the players selected in the third round still have some wiggle room in their base salaries in years two through four and therefore typically leads to them being among the final rookies signed throughout the league.
As we can see in the Tweet from Miguel Benzan of the Boston Sports Journal, 29 of the 57 unsigned players from the 2019 draft class were all drafted in the third round.
When the Lions and Harris do eventually settle on a deal, the contracts are still so relatively predictable in their structure that Over The Cap has created a system that can closely predict what it will look like. Here’s how Harris’ deal is expected to land:
Total value: $3,472,248
Signing Bonus: $952,248
Cap hit in 2019: $733,062
2020: $823,062
2021: $913,062
2022: $1,003,062
With over $23 million left in available cap space for the 2019 season, according to Over the Cap, even if Harris’ cap hit fluctuates a bit from the projected $733,062 it’s not likely to impact the team significantly.
It’s only a matter of time before the Lions and Harris reach a deal and in the meantime, Harris is still participating in organized team activities and this delay shouldn’t impact his ability to integrate into the NFL.
