Oliver is the first pick to sign his deal this weekend, but he likely will not be the only one.
The Green Bay Packers are wasting no time inking their 2025 NFL Draft picks to their rookie contracts. With the rookie class reporting to Lambeau Field on Thursday for the start of rookie minicamp on Friday, the players had their first opportunities to discuss contract terms with the team, and one has already put pen to paper as of Friday morning.
That player is Collin Oliver, the Packers’ 5th-round draft pick. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Oliver, an edge rusher out of Oklahoma State, is now locked in on his four-year rookie deal, which will be worth $4.6 million in total value.
Contracts for rookies, especially day-three draft picks, generally have minimal room for negotiation since the NFL’s 2011 collective bargaining agreement was approved. This number lines up cleanly with the projection of the 159th overall pick at Overthecap.com, which puts the total value of the deal at exactly $4,604,084. $404,084 of that number is projected to come in the form of a signing bonus, with the remaining $4.2 million in league-minimum base salaries over the four years.
In 2025, this deal therefore should have a base of $840,000, the rookie minimum, with 1⁄4 of the bonus, or $101,021, counting against the salary cap for a total of $941,021.
For day-three draft picks, the only notable difference in compensation is in the signing bonus, which is larger for earlier selections. Players drafted in the first three rounds of the draft typically have higher base salaries than the league minimums in years two through four of the rookie deals, while the contracts for first-round picks offer teams an option to add on a fifth year at a significantly higher salary.
Stay tuned for more news coming out of rookie minicamp as Friday goes along.
UPDATE: Moments after this article was published, Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reported that 6th-round pick Warren Brinson also signed his rookie deal. Brinson’s deal is reported at $4.4 million, which matches the OTC projection with a signing bonus of approximately $226,000.