Just one New Orleans Saints draft pick hasn’t signed their rookie contract — second-round defensive end Isaiah Foskey, selected at No. 40 overall out of Notre Dame in the 2023 draft. So what’s the holdup?
There aren’t many factors to negotiate under modern collective bargaining agreements, but one thing players and teams can haggle over is contract guarantees. Because contract values are already established, players and agents have to work hard to look for wins. How those are structured and paid out is linked to draft slots, and Foskey sits right in the middle of an important fulcrum. We saw the same thing happen with Alontae Taylor last summer.
The first two years of second-round contracts are typically guaranteed, but that tapers off in the third year of those deals, and the fourth year isn’t guaranteed at all. Based off current trends, NFL contract expert Daniel Salib projects Foskey to get a fully-guaranteed third-year salary as the No. 40 pick, which is what he should be negotiating for with the Saints. But what context informs that prediction?
Derrick Hall, the Seattle Seahawks’ pick at No. 37, signed his rookie contract and received a fully-guaranteed third year salary as well as an unprecedented $100,000 in guarantees for the fourth year; that lines up with what the No. 35 pick got last year, meaning Foskey could push for a little lower than that. The Atlanta Falcons signed Matthew Bergeron, their No. 38 pick, just hours after Hall put pen to paper in Seattle. His guarantees structure is unclear just yet, but it’s reasonable to think it follows the trend Hall established.
And Foskey could be next. The No. 39 pick is Carolina Panthers wide receiver Jonathan Mingo, who has yet to sign his contract. It shouldn’t take long for these details to get ironed out, and then conversations shift to what really matters: the product on the field. How soon these rookies earn snaps and start to develop into pros is what will be on everyone’s minds, not how much money they’re making.
