Packers Sign First Draft Choice
Seventh-round draft choice Ryan Taylor, a tight end out of North Carolina, was the first Packers draft choice to sign on the dotted line.
Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette was the first one to report it on Twitter:
We have our first #Packers draft pick signed: Agent for seventh round draft pick Ryan Taylor said his contract is done.
Details of Taylor's contract details were provided by Bill Huber of Packer Report:
According to the new CBA, Taylor’s contract was basically etched in stone. As the 218th overall pick, he was eligible to make $389,794 in first-year pay and a four-year total of $2,143,866.
Taylor will join a crowded position group in Green Bay that also includes Jermichael Finley, Andrew Quarless, Tom Crabtree, D.J. Williams and Spencer Havner. But it's also a group with a good amount of talent and there's a decent likelihood the Packers will keep more than three of them.
The seventh-round draft choice's calling card could come on special teams where he was a standout at the University of North Carolina. The special teams of the Packers have been regarded as one of the team's low points.
Demovsky also recently wrote on Twitter that sixth-round draft choice Ricky Elmore's deal should be done momentarily. By the end of tomorrow, there's a good chance all the rookie contracts will be done.
Comments (7)
July 28, 2011 at 06:29 pm
By my count:
61 players under existing contracts (assuming Barnett, Poppinga, and Harrell gone).
15 FAs signed
10 draft picks
= = = 86
If no UFA from other teams are pursued, we can keep 4 of these 8 (also assuming Jenkins, College, and Jones are gone):
Jackson
Kuhn
Spitz
Hall
Smith
Bigby
Wilhelm
Bell
July 28, 2011 at 06:31 pm
BREAKING NEWS: (7:37 PM) Packers offer 3 year contract to Jamarcus Russell. 17.1 Million
July 28, 2011 at 06:57 pm
please dont scare us with jokes like that.
July 28, 2011 at 06:36 pm
Can you see them keeping 5 TE especially if taylor is a special teams demon and the likelyhood of loseing hall and possibly swain to make room for shaky or another UDFA WR? Are any of the other draft picks or UDFA's meant to excell at ST?
July 28, 2011 at 07:06 pm
I could, if you're counting Taylor a TE and not a FB. Because he will be a FB. So when they keep 3 FBs and not 5 TEs, it's not a shock. After all, Packers fans EXPECT us to lead the league in FB numbers.
July 28, 2011 at 08:00 pm
FB/TE numbers.
July 28, 2011 at 09:17 pm
Come on RS, you know that this is a FB driven league :)