Seattle Seahawks draft picks already starting to sign

The NFL is constantly evolving. The game is becoming safer. Offenses are increasingly pass-happy. Defensive backs can barely breath near a receiver without it being a penalty. Some of these changes have been great, others leave us remember the “good old days” a bit too fondly.

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One thing that I bet we can all agree is better today than in the past is the lack of rookies holding out as a part of contract negotiations. The current collective bargaining agreement sets the terms of all rookie contracts. There is almost nothing left to negotiate.

That is why we’re already starting to see reports of Seahawks draft picks signing. Kristjan Sokoli and Tre Smith have already signed according to Stephen Cohen over at the Seattle PI. The rest of the draft class will likely be under contract before the next team OTA is over.

Draft pick signings used to be a major story. There was also this weird waiting game while picks waited until the guys picked before and after them signed to set market value. The problems was that everyone was waiting for everyone else, and no one wanted to be the guy who signed first.

There would be this general anxiety around the league waiting for a few picks to sign to set the market so the rest could begin negotiating. Inevitably all the non-first round picks would get signed, but at least half of the first rounders would show up late to camp every year.

That changed in 2011, but the lockout and labor dispute made that year so weird no one noticed. The 2012 post-draft period was this weird anti-climatic period of quick draft pick signings. Bruce Irvin signed his rookie contract on May 7th of that year, leaving fans smiling and sportswriters wondering what we were going to be writing about in July.

Even without the cool storylines to write about in June and July, the current system is clearly better.

Next: Very early 53-man roster projections

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