Berry Signing Could Come Late

The closer  training camp gets, the less likely it is the Chiefs will have top pick Eric Berry present for the first practice.

On July 1st we did a poll asking you if Pioli would get Berry to camp on time. Out of the 616 votes recorded, an optimistic 435 of you voted “yes.”

19 days later, only Kendrick Lewis and Cameron Sheffield have signed and the Chiefs are less than 2 weeks away from their arrival in St. Joe’s.

The problem, however, is not localized to Kansas City. None of the 32 first round picks have signed with their teams. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

The reason for this is that player agents do not want to be the first ti sign a contract for fear of losing out on available dollars.

For example, if  lets say we were drafting AA staff writers. Randomly, let’s say Randy gets picked first, Merlin 2nd and Jeremy 3rd. Let’s say Merlin gets a contract offer of $5. Merlin’s agent doesn’t want to sign the contract because what if after, Randy signs for $10 and Jeremy gets $7. Merlin’s agent would look like a fool for signing early and not waiting for a frame work to fall in to place. His client would be making less than a guy drafted after him and that could cost him clients and money in the future and slap him with a bad agent label.

That is essentially what is going on right now with the NFL 1st round picks. Since Bradford, the #1 pick hasn’t signed, Suh, the #2 pick hasn’t signed. The chain reaction is rippling all through the first round. It is one big starring contest and until Bradford signs or someone blinks, Berry’s arrival in St. Joe’s could be delayed.

What do you think Addicts? With the first NFL training camp set to begin in 6 days (Cleveland) should the agents and GM’s get their act together? Could all this be solved if there was a rookie pay scale in place? Sound off!