Rookie contracts are standard in their base value as tied to draft slots, but there are a few ancillary elements that players can negotiate.
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00:00Here in Chicago, a lot of consternation over the fact that Caleb Williams and Roma Dunzey
00:05both are unsigned with about 10 days before the training camp begins.
00:11How concerned should they be?
00:13It's just a week until the rookie's report.
00:16I think I said last week that if we get to one week removed from the 4th of July and
00:21they're still not signed, you get to the point where you're like, what's going on here?
00:26Because there isn't much to negotiate in these rookie contracts.
00:31After the 2011 CBA, the dollars are what they are.
00:35There's three categories for potential dispute.
00:37One, when do I get my signing bonus money?
00:39Do I get it all now?
00:40Are you going to try to defer it later this year, into next year, whatever?
00:44Two, what does it take to avoid my ongoing guarantees?
00:47That was the Roe Quinn Smith holdout six, seven years ago.
00:51What is it that I could do that potentially allows you to say, we're wiping out your guarantees
00:55and we're cutting you because you're one of the first round picks that didn't work out
00:59because we know roughly half of them don't.
01:00And then finally, if the full guarantees are in place and we cut you, can you double dip?
01:07Do you get offsets attached to whatever you would make if you go to another team?
01:12Those are the three, that's it.
01:14There's really nothing else that you can haggle about.
01:17So I don't know.
01:21And the complication for Caleb Williams is he doesn't have an agent.
01:25So this may be something that whoever is advising him has to learn on the fly, which could slow
01:29the whole process down.