Chiefs Rookie Contract Roundup: Three Down, Five to Go

On June 23rd I noted that the Kansas City Chiefs were one of ten teams yet to sign a 2009 draft pick.  Coincidentally, that day the team made the first official signing of the 2009 offseason with Mr. Irrelevant, Ryan Succop.  A week later and the Chiefs are sitting on three rookie contracts completed.  Here's a quick rundown of the signing status of all the team's draft picks.

The contracts appear to be in line with what other players in similar draft spots are signing.  The players selected directly before and after 5th round pick Colin Brown had a duration of four years, while his is only three years.  I'll defer to Pioli and Co. on this one but I do wonder why a four year deal wasn't done.  The goal of the player in rookie contract negotiations is to hit free agency ASAP while the goal of the team is to lock up who they feel is a good player for several years under a cheap rookie deal.

The timing on a couple of those signings is interesting to note.  As we've mentioned before, after a contract is agreed upon it must be sent to the NFL Management Council within two days.  Then it must be sent to the NFLPA within two days of that.  Thus, a contract should be "complete" within four days of the signing.  Still, though, the Chiefs have been dragging their feet on the official announcements.  This appears to be the exception, not the rule (More on that in just a bit).

All three players have the same base salaries over three years ($310,000, $395,000, $480,000) with only their signing bonus differing.

• Brown: $153,800
• O'Connell: $35,127
• Succop: $25,250

As always, much of this rookie signing information comes courtesy of Mac's Football Blog.  Click through for a quick rundown on the rookie signing status for the rest of the league.

The first and last pick in the draft have a different of $41,674,750 million in guaranteed money. Seven teams have not signed any of their picks yet.  Two teams (Chicago Bears and New York Jets) have all their picks signed.

Click here to see the information on the Chiefs UDFA contracts.

The end of June and majority of July are the slowest times of the year for the NFL.  Many players are conducting kids camps while the only "official" business at One Arrowhead Drive is the completion of rookie contracts so keep an eye out for those.

Only five more players to sign until the Chiefs can consider the 2009 team sealed, signed and delivered. The big one, of course, is #3 overall pick Tyson Jackson.  45% of you think he and his agent Eugene Parker will miss at least some part of training camp while negotiations take place.