The Eagles have signed guard Danny Watkins, the 23rd overall pick in the draft. Howard Eskin of WIP and NBC 10 reported that only the first three years of the deal are guaranteed. This means that, in the stare down between the team and the player regarding the question of whether three years or four years would be guaranteed, the player blinked.
Agent Eric Metz explained via text message to PFT that the Eagles “sweetened the package” to close the deal. Per Metz, the deal is worth $7.936 million over four years, with a signing bonus of roughly $4.3 million. That’s roughly $25,000 more than the allotment for Watkins’ draft slot, as determined by the pick-by-pick formula that was inadvertently disclosed to agents by the NFLPA, and then given to all teams by the NFL.
Metz also said that Watkins was willing to miss only three practices in order to get his contract fully guaranteed. In the end, he was appreciative of the team’s gesture to increase the total money in order to get the deal done.
