In the high stakes game of chicken that has been ongoing with this year's top eight draft picks, the Washington Redskins were the first to blink. The contract No. 2 overall pick Robert Griffin III signed on Wednesday does not include offset language.
That means that if Griffin is released before his fully guaranteed fourth season with Washington, and then picked up by another team, he would draw a full salary from both clubs.
It also means that the other dominos in the draft's top eight draftees should begin to fall shortly, including the Cowboys' only unsigned selection, No. 6 overall pick Morris Claiborne. Though the parameters of each contract are essentially set in stone by the league's rookie wage scale, teams and agents have been in some disagreement over whether offset language should be included among the earliest selections.
It's possible that some bargaining could continue, but once one team budges, a precedent is more or less set.
"I think everybody wants to be consistent, at the end of the day," Stephen Jones said of the negotiations in June. "I think that's probably what's holding everybody up, to kind of see what's going to be the flavor of the day."
Tyron Smith, last year's first-round pick (No. 9 overall), received a contract which did include offset language, protecting the club.
Washington signed Griffin after he missed the first two days of their rookie and quarterback camp, a three-day affair that the Cowboys will begin next week, leading up to their departure for Oxnard, Calif. Griffin being the Redskins' expected starting quarterback, it was important that he get at least some amount of work before joining the veterans.
For the Cowboys it would be nice to have Claiborne on the field as soon as possible, after he missed all of the offseason on-field-work while recovering from wrist surgery.
