Stage Set For Top-Five Holdouts?

With the first overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft signed to six-year deal with $41.7 million in guaranteed money (i.e., $6.95 million per year) and the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft signed to a five-year deal with $28 million in guaranteed money (i.e., $5.6 million per year), the agents for the second, third, and fourth overall picks are tapping their fingertips lightly together and muttering “excellent.” The teams who drafted the players might be using different language -- possibly words that start with the next letter in the alphabet and that rhyme with the likes of buck, chuck, duck, luck, muck, puck, suck, truck, and/or yuck. The agents will argue that the ceiling and the floor are now set for Rams tackle Jason Smith, Chiefs defensive end Tyson Jackson, and Seahawks linebacker Aaron Curry. The teams likely will argue that the deals are skewed because they were paid to quarterbacks, and that the three contracts for Smith, Jackson, and Curry should be closer to Sanchez’s deal. The Seahawks might even take the position that Curry’s deal should come in lower than Sanchez’s contract. The fact that Sanchez undoubtedly received a “quarterback premium” likely made his agent, Dave Dunn, more willing to pull the trigger on the transaction now, without fear of being leapfrogged by the package paid to the sixth overall pick. We’d previously heard that no progress would be made regarding the Smith, Jackson, and Curry contracts until Sanchez is signed. It now remains to be seen whether the magnitude of Sanchez’s contract will make it even harder for the other players to be signed.