No. 2 pick signs deal for $29M
CHICAGO — Ryan Pace delivered the Bears a franchise quarterback by trading up in April's NFL draft. Then on Wednesday, Mitch Trubisky signed his contract in time to begin training camp with his fellow rookies at Halas Hall.
Trubisky's four-year deal is expected to be worth approximately $29 million, fully guaranteed, including a signing bonus of about $19 million. It was not immediately known whether it includes offset language, stipulations that enable the team to recoup guaranteed money in a worst-case scenario involving Trubisky being cut and signing elsewhere.
The deal includes a fifthyear option for 2021 that the Bears could exercise after 2019. Trubisky was the last member of this year's Bears draft class to finalize his deal. Before he signed, he was one of five unsigned top-10 picks.
By signing, Trubisky was able to begin the rookies' week of strength and conditioning at team headquarters before they travel to Bourbonnais on July 26, when the veterans — including ex-Bucs quarterback Mike Glennon — report to camp.
“I'm going to come out here and compete,” Trubisky said. “But we know Mike is the starter, so it's my job to support him and make sure everything I do I can help him as well. I'm just here to be a great teammate, continue to get better and make sure the Chicago Bears are winning.”
Trubisky started 13 games for North Carolina last season, setting singleseason school marks for passing yards (3,748), passing TDs (30) and total offense (4,056) while completing 68 percent of his passes.
The terms of Trubisky's contract mostly were predetermined by the NFL's rookie wage scale, which has been in place since 2011. However, negotiable details do still exist, one of which is offset language.
It's common in the NFL for salary guarantees to have offset language associated with them.
An offset clause stipulates that if a team cuts a player to whom it has guaranteed money, the team would owe the player only the difference between the original guarantee and the amount of his new deal with another team.
Without an offset clause, a player could double dip, so to speak — earn his full guarantee from the first employer, plus the full amount from his next employer.
Quarterback Marcus Mariota and the Titans haggled over offset language in 2015 before he signed eight days before training camp.
Mariota, who, like Trubisky, was drafted second overall and is represented by Rep1 Sports, had no offset language associated with his roster and signing bonuses but did have it attached to his smaller annual base salaries.
Quarterback Carson Wentz, who also was drafted second overall and is a Rep1 client, has offset language in the rookie contract he signed last year.
Consider Sam Bradford's contract after the Rams drafted the Oklahoma quarterback first overall in 2010: $50 million guaranteed as part of a sixyear, $78 million deal.
Such mega-deals for unproven rookies fueled momentum for implementation of the wage scale, which has since turned rookie contract negotiations from headline-grabbing dramas into formalities.