When the Kansas City Chiefs signed second-round pick Kingsley Suamataia at the end of May, that brought their total up to six of seven 2024 NFL draft picks signed.
Only the team's first-round draft pick, WR Xavier Worthy, remains unsigned at this time. However, Worthy's unsigned status isn't some aberration from the rest of the NFL right now. As of Tuesday morning, 18 first-round picks in the 2024 NFL draft remain unsigned.
Why is it taking so long for NFL teams to sign first-round draft picks this year?
The first and most frequent is the signing bonus flow. In the NFL, the players receive a certain amount of money to sign the deal, but it's not necessarily paid at the moment of the signing.
So, the payment schedule of the bonus is a huge topic of conversation between teams and players. This is more extreme because the signing bonus is a huge tool for teams to spread the cap hit through the four years of the deal, so a large portion of the contract is a signing bonus. Therefore, the cash flow is extremely relevant for players.
The second topic open for negotiation is the language of voiding salary guarantees. Teams might want to include offsets and voids if a player gets suspended for a certain amount of games or does something detrimental to the franchise. The topics that pull the trigger on the offsets and voids are up to discussion.
What's slowing things down for Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy?
The payment schedule of the signing bonus could certainly be something holding up negotiations between Worthy and the Chiefs.
Of the seven wide receivers selected in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, only Marvin Harrison Jr. (No. 4 overall), Malik Nabers (No. 6 overall), and Xavier Legette (No. 32 overall) have signed their deals. Receivers selected in close vicinity to Worthy such as Brian Thomas Jr. (no. 23 overall) and Ricky Pearsall (No. 31 overall) haven't yet signed their deals. His agent could be waiting to see what those deals look like before attempting to negotiate the payout of Worthy's signing bonus.
The Chiefs could also have a very specific idea of what they want his signing bonus to look like to spread out the cap hit. The next offseason is looking like a very expensive one for Kansas City, so if they can somehow avoid an inflated cap number for Worthy in 2025, that'd be ideal.
Another potential hold-up could be the offset language related to salary guarantees. Obviously, Worthy is already dealing with a hamstring injury that has kept him out of OTAs. So, there is a chance that injury-related offsets could be a sticking point. After the offseason that Kansas City has endured off the field, I wonder if they're taking a hard stance on offset language related to off-field transgressions. Maybe they're not stressing it so much as being unwilling to relax that offset language.
Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy's contract projection
According to the folks at Spotrac, Chiefs WR Xavier Worthy is expected to receive a four-year contract totaling $13,790,264. He'll earn $3.447 million on average per year and receive a $6.849 million signing bonus. They're expecting a fully guaranteed deal. He'll also get a fifth-year option as mandated by the CBA. It's not too dissimilar from the deals that Thomas Jr. and Pearsall are expected to sign.
There's no reason to believe this deal won't get done, and if it isn't done by the conclusion of OTAs or mandatory minicamp, there is still no reason for alarm. Look for it to get done ahead of training camp in July at the very latest. Should the two sides agree to the minor details mentioned above, it could happen even quicker. However, look for deals for Thomas Jr. and Pearsall to potentially accelerate things.
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