The reason why no first round draft picks have been signed

We are pretty late in the game for no 2010 First Round draft picks to have signed their rookie contracts. It looks like there is a very good if not complicated reason why. It looks like the main issues beyond Sam Bradford wanting a record deal, may be the language of the option bonus. Sure this is kind of hard to wrap your hear around, and it really is a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo, but it all boils down to this. Most rookie NFL deals have an option bonus payable in year two of the deal, the problem is there probably will not be football in year two of contracts signed this year.

I speak of course of the impending lockout in the NFL. So here is how most rookie deal work. An option bonus usually adds a year to a deal, with a bonus paid in year two. For example say a players signs a five year deal with a 20 million signing bonus and a option bonus of 5 million bucks. In year two the player gets the 5 million dollar bonus, and the contract gets extended for another year.

So now NFL teams and player agents are having to find creative ways to get that money. Most teams seem unwilling to pay big payroll expenditures if there happens to be a lockout, and it looks like there will at least be some form of labor strife following the 2010 season. The teams are looking for a big window in which they would need to pay out these bonuses and the agents want it more set in stone. This is just another one of the dominoes that had to fall in the current disagreement between teh NFL and its player union.