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We may never know the reasons for the hold up in negotiations, but few will really care after it was announced that first-round draft pick Terrell Edmunds had finally signed his rookie contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Tuesday. A move confirmed by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette beat writer Ed Bouchette via Twitter.
Steelers come to terms with first round draft pick Terrell Edmunds. 4 years, virtually $10.8 M with nearly $6 M sign bonus
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) July 24, 2018
With players set to report to training camp on July 25, concern had been growing among fans about the cause of the delay, but thankfully, Edmunds will now be able to report on time with the rest of his new teammates.
Per Bouchette, Edmunds signed a 4-year deal worth close to $10.8 million and one that included a signing bonus of almost $6 million dollars. This is pretty much as expected, based on projections from OverTheCap.com, and the cap hit for his rookie season should come in at around $1.945 million.
Although a rookie wage scale implemented under the terms of the CBA has reduced the level of negotiation required to finalize rookie contracts, the Steelers clearly had some stumbling blocks with Edmunds and his agents CAA. However, it is worth noting that of the seven players who remained unsigned at the start of the week, six of them were represented by CAA. They are also the agency that represented rookie Joey Bosa during his training camp holdout in 2017.
The issue last year for Bosa and his representatives was the percentage of his signing bonus the Los Angeles Chargers wanted to defer to 2018, and also the offset amounts the team wanted to include. Ultimately, the Chargers agreed to pay him a slight higher percentage of his signing bonus up front to get him into camp, and it would not be a surprise if these were the same sticking points that have held up negotiations with Pittsburgh.
Regardless, Edmunds is now under contract and any delay in coming to terms has in no way impacted his involvement with the team this offseason. Hopefully, fans will be able to look forward to talking about his on-field accomplishments rather than worry about his off-field contract negotiations for the next few years.