Caleb Williams recently signed his NFL rookie contract. That means three NFL first-round rookies have yet to sign their contracts. Bengals rookie Amarius Mims and both J.J. McCarthy and Dallas Turner for the Minnesota Vikings have yet to come to agreements with their teams.
It appears a big holdup with former Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy is the signing bonus. Under the new NFLPA rules, rookies can’t do much negotiating regarding the contract terms, but they can negotiate how much of their signing bonus they get upfront. It sounds like McCarthy’s camp wants his entire signing bonus when he signs, but that’s not the Vikings’ way of doing things.
Outside of a couple of instances—like Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson—Minnesota pays the signing bonus off in installments.
According to Pro Football Talk‘s Mike Florio, the Vikings haven’t engaged McCarthy about his contract. He believes Minnesota was waiting on Caleb Williams to sign his contract and see how the Bears would handle it. Now that Williams is signed and has his bonus upfront, it will be interesting to see how the Vikings handle it.
Minnesota will begin training camp on July 21, and we’re pretty positive the Vikings would like to get both McCarthy and Turner under contract sooner rather than later.