Flacco agrees to terms with the Ravens

[fyo]

Hopefully, Flacco's signing will get the ball rolling on the top draft picks. It's been a while since there's been any action.

Only 4 players in the first round have signed (or agreed to terms) so far:

#1: Jake Long (5y, $58M, $30M guaranteed)
#3: Matt Ryan (6y, $72M, $35M guaranteed)
#4: Darren McFadden (6y, $60M, $26M guarranteed)
#18: Joe Flacco (5y, $30M, $9M guaranteed)

The second round has also seen movement recently, with the Redskins signing Malcolm Kelly, 20th pick in the second round, a few days ago - almost immediately followed by the 49ers agreed to terms with their second round pick, Chilo Rachal (OG). Rachal was the 8th pick in the second round. The Bears had signed Matt Forté, 13th pick in the second round, two weeks ago.

AFAIK, no other players in the first two rounds have been signed.

[fyo]

I had hoped the recent spate of signings meant that the contract problems caused by the owners opting out of the CBA had been resolved. Sadly, that doesn't appear to be the case. The NFL Players Association filed a "Special Master proceeding" (as defined in the CBA) Tuesday last week, but a result is not expected until next week.

The problem in a nutshell is that agents have been using a loophole in the rookie salary contract regulations that has slammed shut without a CBA in place for 2011. While a rookie salary (for cap purposes, at least) cannot increase more than 25% per year, it was possible to include a one-time fully guaranteed bonus payable in the last year of the contract, without having it count against the rookie pool (or the cap in other years).

That makes signing 4-year deals problematic, which is the typical length of second round pick's contract.

The NFLPA has advised agents not to agree to any contracts until the Special Master issues his findings, which is expected to happen next week.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

Hopefully Chad Henne and Phillip Merling will take this cue and sign their contracts.