The Redskins and Robert Griffin III have 24 days to come to a contract agreement before the rookie quarterback starts missing classroom and practice time.
Traditionally, the deadline for a draft pick to come to contract terms with his new team has been the start of training camp, which is on July 25. That is 33 days away.
However, in a new provision to the CBA, rookies will report before that, on July 16. The idea is to have a mix of classroom and on-field activities to give the rookies a chance to get in a little extra work prior to the veterans reporting. It makes up for some of the time they didn’t get during the shortened slate of OTA’s, also provided for in the new CBA.
That is valuable time for any rookie and it certainly would be for a quarterback like Griffin. However, rookies can participate in OTA’s and minicamp without being signed to a contract.
That is not the case for this pre-training camp period. If you are not signed you can’t go. And as of now, RG3 has not signed.
There is no indication that there is any snag in the talks between the Redskins and Griffin’s agent. Both the player and Mike Shanahan have said that they expect a deal to get done. The new CBA’s wage restrictions leave very little to negotiate over.
That said, until there is a signed contract there is no deal. And until there is a deal Griffin can’t set foot in Redskins Park after July 15.
In the NFL, deadlines create action. The Redskins and their fans hope that this deadline is no exception. It is fast approaching.
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