Graham's contract includes some concessions from the Bills, like base salaries that are slightly higher than the league minimums in 2014 and 2015 and $90,000 total in offseason workout bonuses for the final three seasons of the deal, but falls short of the goal articulated by many agents with clients representing top nine players in the round. The Sports Xchange reported two weeks ago that the unusual impasse at the outset of the round was a result of players and agents attempting to maximize the 25-percent annual salary bumps permitted by the CBA.
Agents for most of the unsigned third-rounders acknowledged that as the primary hang-up to agreements.
All 32 teams will be in camp by the end of the month.
According to the formula for determining the maximum 25 percent raises -- 25 percent of the player's signing bonus, added to his first-year base salary, and then 25 percent of the total of the two -- Graham was eligible for annual increases of $139,453. Based on his first-year league minimum base salary of $390,000, Graham would have subsequent salaries of $529,453 (for 2013), $668,906 (2014) and $808,559 (2015) if the 25 percent was "maxed out." Instead his bases for the final three seasons, 2013-2015, were $480,000, $580,000 and $690,000 respectively.
The salary of $580,000 for 2014 is actually $10,000 higher than the NFL minimum for a player in his third season ($570,000), and the $690,000 base for 2015 is a $30,000 bump over the fourth-year minimum of $660,000. The Bills sweetened the pot as well by including workout bonuses of $30,000 each for 2013-2015.
Including the workout bonuses, the Graham contract totals $2,901,252. Had he been able to "max out" the 25-precent salary increases, the total would be $3,068,170 even without the bonuses, a difference of $166,918.
The last of Buffalo's draft choices to sign, Graham received a signing bonus of $671,252, exactly the bonus pegged for his slot under the rookie wage arrangement that is part of the new CBA, and a $4 increase over the signing bonus for the player in the same slot last year, Kansas City linebacker Justin Houston. Graham's per-year average of $725,313 represents a healthy 12-percent increase over Houston's deal, a function, in part, of the increase in minimum salaries from a year ago and also the workout bonuses, which Houston did not receive.
But the contract numbers on the Graham deal, disseminated to the agent community this week, were greeted less than enthusiastically by some of the representatives with unsigned players in the third round. Said one: "It's a nice enough deal, definitely, but it doesn't get done what we've been shooting for."
Notable is that only one player in the third round, Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, has received maximum 25-percent salary increases so far. The 12th player chosen in the round, Wilson clearly received a "quarterback premium" on his deal, but agents for other players above him want the same accommodation. It has created a sticky situation in the round, where such impasses are unusual.
