A "Madden 10" rendering of Eagles rookie Jeremy Maclin.
For the Philadelphia Eagles, rookie training camp begins on July 26th, exactly one week from today. So for guys like LeSean McCoy, Cornelius Ingram, Macho Harris, and the rest of the draft picks, it means it is time to officially start their NFL careers.
Well, except for maybe Jeremy Maclin.
Maclin remains the only Eagles rookie without a deal heading into training camp, and without one, he more than likely will not participate until he in fact receives a contract.
According to Adam Caplan of Scouts.com, contract talks are about to start heating up. They've been having discussions, but I think training camp is sneaking up on them at this point, and they realize that it's time to get something done.
Last year, the 19th overall pick (Jeff Otah) received a five-year deal worth $14.4 million and nearly $9 million in guaranteed money.
Considering that the pay for most other players has gone up about 20 percent, then figure that the Eagles have already spent most of their money for the rookie pool, knock that down to about 15 percent and the contract would look to be about a five-year deal worth somewhere around $17 million with around $10 million in guarantees.
Not bad for your first salary right out of college.
Expect the Eagles to get something done with Maclin before the weekend. I would guess around Thursday this will go down because the Eagles want Maclin thinking about football, and not about his contract.
If not Thursday, probably sooner. I don't expect it to go past Thursday.
So it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, don't expect a holdout from Maclin.
