Joe Burrow Making Adjustments Like a Veteran

[George Cantstandya]

Here is something I have been wondering about as far as Joe mania recently. Joe has not signed his contract yet as well as many other 1st and later round picks. I read somewhere that some draft picks are waiting to see what happens with Covid-19 before signing. Say the 2020 NFL season ends up being canceled due to Covid-19 and Joe has not signed by then. From what I understand NFL teams only retain signing rights of those drafted during the current season. So... If he doesn't sign before then and the season is canceled he could have a reason not to sign since he would not be playing in 2020 anyway. I guess the main reason to still sign during a canceled season would be the guaranteed 1st round 1OA money. But if for some reason he isn't really sold on being a Bengal and wanted to take a chance being drafted by another team, maybe he'd pass and wait for the 2021 draft where he would most certainly be taken in the top 3 anyway.

Then of course there is the question of what the 2021 draft would look like if there is no 2020 season. Many suggest it would be a lottery system weighted on the 2019 standings. That certainly does not give the Bengals a guaranteed 1OA pick by any means to redraft him. It could be very complicated. I guess in the case of a canceled 2020 season the NFL could try to make arrangements with the NFL Players Association to do something to make sure NFL teams retain the signing rights of their 2020 draft picks. Maybe in the case of a canceled season, teams would still hold signing rights to 2020 drafted players through 2021 season. Otherwise there may be a lot of players that were drafted in 2020 that didn't sign before the season was canceled entering the 2021 draft again. Many of those would have a lot more value than current college players that may not get to play this year to prove themselves more and were planning to play this year and enter the 2021 draft.

So I'm thinking one way or the other, if the 2020 season is canceled, the NFL would have to find a way for teams to retain the signing rights of their 2020 draft picks through 2021.