Though both sides in the negotiation are being tight lipped about the details of the contract signed Tuesday night by Bengals linebacker Keith Rivers, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2008 draft, we’ve managed to piece together some information via our network of sources, including folks who have access to some of the info about the deal Rivers signed.

Here are a few tidbits, and then we’ll talk about what it all means to the No. 8 pick in the draft, who remains unsigned.

The Bengals fought hard to tie the contract to the deal signed by linebacker Jerod Mayo with the Patriots at the tenth overall spot.  Mayo received an increase in the neighborhood of eight percent over the tenth overall pick in 2007, and the Bengals believed the same increase should apply to Rivers.  (Frankly, we agree — eight percent is a more-than-fair increase, given that the salary cap increased by less than eight percent from 2007 to 2008.) 

In the end, the Bengals kept the contract from featuring the ridiculous increases we’ve seen this year in the sixth and seventh slots; but they’ll still pay a lot more for Rivers than the Pats will pay for Mayo.  In the end, Rivers will potentially earn more than $5 million more than Mayo over five years.

Rivers’ guarantee (excluding the so-called “log” bonus based on minimum playing time) is roughly $15.6 million.  It’s a double-digit percentage increase over Ted Ginn’s contract with the Dolphins from 2007.

But Rivers won’t get the huge bump that Vernon Gholston of the Jets (the No. 6 pick) or Sedrick Ellis of the Saints (the No. 7 pick) will receive based on achieving minimum playing time.  For Rivers, it will push him over $20 million; Ellis will be north of $30 million.

So while Mayo’s agent, David Dunn, wasn’t able to pull the typical top-five structure down to the ninth pick, it looks like they broke, to an extent, from the Mayo/Ginn formula on which the Bengals were relying. 

The bigger question is what does this mean for the last unsigned first-round pick, defensive end Derrick Harvey of the Jags?  It all depends on whether CAA insists on trying to get the Gholston/Ellis deal at the No. 8 slot.

The difference is that, unlike the Jets and the Saints, whose coaching staffs had disappointing sophomore seasons and thus might have been inclined to do whatever they could to get their first-round picks into camp, coach Jack Del Rio has a high level of job security and can afford to take a hard line.

Meanwhile, Harvey could be this year’s Brady Quinn.  Because as Harvey is out of camp, second-round pick Quentin Groves could be taking his job.