Washington Redskins rookies were scheduled to report to Redskins Park for pre-training camp workouts Monday. According to Alex Parker of WJLA.com, one member of the rookie class not in attendance was No. 2 overall draft pick Robert Griffin III.
RG3 is among 14 first-round picks from the 2012 NFL Draft without a signed contract. Therefore, he is not required to report to the pre-camp workouts and should not be considered a "holdout" or "no show."
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Griffin had expressed a desire last week to have a deal in place before Monday, but that always was a bit of a long shot. While the new collective bargaining agreement has removed a lot of the intrigue over rookie contracts -- we've known for months that Griffin's four-year contract will be worth more than $22 million with a signing bonus of around $13.8 million -- there still are structural issues to negotiate as well as "offset language," a buzz phrase of the rookie signing process we'll gladly take over "true up" from the lockout.
Griffin might be disappointed that he's not with his teammates at Redskins Park, but the real deadline the two sides should be shooting for is July 25. That's the day veteran players on the Redskins are scheduled to report to training camp and the day before actual on-field work begins.
