Saturday, May 18, 2013

Update on 1st round pick signings: Kyle Long, the 20th pick in the draft, signed with the Bears late last night

Here's a link:

Kyle Long, Chicago Bears agree to four-year contract | NFL.com | Published: May 17, 2013 at 10:45 p.m. | Updated: May 17, 2013 at 11:28 p.m.


Long was picked with the selection right after the one that the Giant used to select Justin Pugh. So far there are 3 players who were picked in the first round who have signed with their teams (see the link below):

2013 NFL Draft first-round picks' signing status | NFL.com | Published: May 10, 2013 at 12:52 p.m. | Updated: May 17, 2013 at 09:56 p.m.


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The 3 players who have signed so far, as can be seen below in the screen shot from the article titled "2013 NFL Draft first-round picks' signing status" linked directly above, are Ziggy Ansah (5th pick), Kenny Vaccaro (15th pick), and Kyle Long (20th pick).



With the signing of Vaccaro and Long, Justin Pugh's agent now has two signings to analyze as his client was sandwiched in between them. As I wrote on an earlier blog entry, dated May 11th, 2013 (linked HERE), the issue with signing Pugh will be that picks #17 to #22 will have only a partially guaranteed salary in the 4th year of their deals. Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com did a great job breaking this down in the article I linked below on my blog entry on May 11th, but I'm going to link it again for it's outstanding informational value:
"A Primer on Some Rookie Contract Negotiating Sticking Points " by Jason Fitzgerald from overthecap.com | May 10, 2013


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With news coming down last night of 20th pick Kyle Long reaching a deal, Pugh's agent, Andy Ross, will want to see if Long's deal contains clauses that somehow shouldn't be there, to make sure that he's doing all that he can for his client. Ross has done a fantastic job for Pugh so far, as per this excellent article below that I suggest people check out:
'Back in the first round!' Selling an NFL future - by Brendan Porath | May 6 2013, 12:28pm

It'll be interesting to see when Andy Ross and the Giants come to terms on a deal for Justin Pugh. I suspect it won't carry on very long since salary slots are predetermined as a result of the newly agrred upon CBA from almost 2 years ago.