Four quarterbacks drafted early in 2026 still haven’t inked their first NFL deals, and that’s not all. Seven total selections are waiting to put pen to paper, including the first overall pick, Fernando Mendoza, and the Rams’ own Ty Simpson, taken 13th overall. Carson Beck (65th) and Drew Allar (76th) are also on that list of top-three round signal-callers chilling without a contract. Now, before you freak out, it’s way too early to hit the panic button on this. But it absolutely tells us something crucial about where rookie contracts are headed.
The New Contract Standoff
Look, we’ve been in the rookie wage scale era since 2011 for a reason. Back in the wild west days before the lockout, draft picks could demand insane cash, chewing up salary cap space before they even played a down. Remember Matthew Stafford getting a whopping $72 million over six years, with $41.7 million guaranteed, from the Lions in 2009? The salary cap was a tiny $123 million then! Or Sam Bradford’s massive contract after his 2010 holdout, which essentially slammed the coffin lid shut on that old way of doing business. That kinda chaos? It ain’t happening now. The total value of every pick’s contract is set even before the draft, giving teams a clear financial roadmap.
The Money’s There, So What’s the Hold Up?
Today, the money’s locked in. Fernando Mendoza’s eventual contract, for example, is gonna be fully guaranteed, but it’s “only” $57.3 million total value over four years. Ty Simpson, the #13 overall pick from Alabama, is looking at a fully guaranteed four-year deal worth around $25.4 million, including a sweet $14.9 million signing bonus. He even reportedly turned down a $6.5 million NIL offer to stick around. So if the big money is already determined and guaranteed, what’s causing these hang-ups?
The source tells us it’s all about the “relatively minute details.” Think things like offset language, those nitty-gritty clauses that determine how much a team might save if they cut a player and he signs elsewhere. These might seem like tiny footnotes, but they can be massive for teams and players alike over the life of a contract. We even saw a holdout last year with Shemar Stewart of the Cincinnati Bengals who missed part of training camp. This isn’t the pre-2011 world of massive salary negotiations, but it’s definitely a new, minor twist in the rookie wage scale saga.
What It Means for Future Classes
The top-overall picks, like Mendoza and Simpson, have seen their contracts fully guaranteed since Cam Newton signed for $22 million when the scale started. That hasn’t changed. But these fine-print details? They are the battleground now. These current unsigned deals, especially for those first-rounders, aren’t just about the 2026 class. What gets agreed upon now is gonna set a huge precedent for the 2027 draft class and every single one after that. Teams and agents are laying down markers, defining the acceptable boundaries of those “minute details.” It’s not a full-blown crisis, but it’s a peek behind the curtain at the evolution of NFL contracts, and trust me, we’ll be watching how these play out to see the future of rookie deals.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Leave a Reply