Teams are moving quickly on inking their Day 3 draftees to their four-year rookie deals, with this process involving a slot system that does not feature many complications for late-round players. Here are the latest such agreements to commence:
Cincinnati Bengals
- RB Chase Brown (fifth round, Illinois)
Denver Broncos
- C Alex Forsyth (seventh round, Oregon)
Detroit Lions
- OL Colby Sorsdal (fifth round, William & Mary)
Jacksonville Jaguars
- OLB Yasir Abdullah (fifth round, Louisville)
New England Patriots
- G Atonio Mafi (fifth round, UCLA)
Seattle Seahawks
- DE Mike Morris, (fifth round, Michigan)
An additional quintet of fifth-round picks is now under contract. Last year, the slot system pegged Round 5’s contracts between $4.1MM and $3.9MM over four years, with full guarantees ranging from $361K to $243K.
Brown finished his Fighting Illini tenure with back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, including a 1,643-yard slate as a senior. He joins a Bengals team that did not outbid the Broncos for Samaje Perine and had been expected to ask Joe Mixon for a pay cut. Post-draft, Zac Taylor issued a vote of confidence for Mixon to be back. Abdullah combined to tally 19.5 sacks and 31 tackles for loss during his final two seasons at Louisville.