One Down...Broncos ink first '09 Draft pick, C Blake Schlueter

It’s mostly for liability reasons per the CBA, etc.

Remember Training Camp is when they are first allowed to don pads and hit each other.

so if you had a rookie who hasn’t signed a contract get hurt, well there would be some serious fallout/issues with that.

that they will not allow any OTA injuries to influcence normal contract negotiations. It is also assumed that because there is no contact, there is less probability of injury as well.

By the same token, training camp is also covered by leagure rules and a signed contract is a requirement for participation in those.

are rookies allowed to attend minicampos(mandatories) and OTAs (voluntaries) but there is no limit to the number of minicamps (mandatories) that they can be required to attend. Veterans can only be required to attend one mandatory offseason workout (except when there is a headcoaching change, which allows two extra minicamps to be called).

And while everyone gets paid for OTAs Minicamps and training camps, no one gets paid acording to their salary. Players make about $130 a day for attending OTAs (plus some expenses) and for minicamps and training camps vets make $1225 a day in 2009, while rookies make around $800 a day.

As to being able to participate in training camp, rookies are not required by the CBA to be signed in order to attend training camp. In fact, all of our rookies are tendered right now, and if they don’t sign a different contract, they will be making the equivalent of a $215,000 contract (this is automatically tendered to them at the time they are drafted).

The only deadline really in place is that if rookies aren’t signed within 30 days before the first sunday for the regular season (that woudl be aug 14th this year, also the date of our first preseson game vs. niners) then the team loses some leverage in terms of being able to trade negotiating rights or any first year contract. Where it gets really funky, is if a player isn’t signed by that date, the player also loses any possibility of being able to be traded to another team, and if a deal still cannot get done by week ten of the regualr season, then the palyer is disqualified from league play for the remainder of the year, and can be drafted again in the following year (but not by the team that drafted them originally).

How wierd would that be?

i don’t think he is here as his immediate replacement. to me he seems like the guy who rides the bench 2-3 years, and gets a chance if wiegmanns immediate replacement fails. i don’t think it really does anything.

Broncos under Xanders ahve been signing there rookies in reverse order, so Schlueter was simply first to get signed. Next shoudl be Tom Bra….