The Eagles were totally amazed and frustrated last year when wideout Jeremy Maclin - who also had no intention of missing valuable learning time - didn't arrive until a week into drills. Maclin's agent, Jim Steiner, needed to see certain other deals get done around Maclin, who was drafted 19th overall. Steiner simply wasn't signing Maclin until he saw those deals.
So, this year, rookies reported to Lehigh with exactly one first-rounder signed in the entire NFL, Dallas wideout Dez Bryant, taken 24th overall. There is no structure on which to base a deal for Graham, a defensive end who was the 13th overall pick. Getting him here could take a few days, a week, or much more. Right now, nobody knows. Eagles sources aren't even willing to guess.
"Nobody around him has done anything," Reid noted. "There's one first-round pick that's really signed. To me, it's crunch time, but I'm not sure that urgency is there, and I'm not saying with Brandon, but with the agents that are involved with all of these first-round picks. To me, it's third-and-2. I've got to make that call right now. It's a shame for these kids. Every day that they get is a good day for them."
Segal did not respond to a request for comment yesterday on why the first round has been so hard to sign this year. Other sources close to the situation have said that the lack of a collective bargaining agreement past this season makes structuring future bonus payments problematic. Indeed, very few second-rounders had signed before a flurry of signings yesterday, mostly players taken in the 50s and 60s overall. The Eagles seemed to think - and Reid indicated - that their second-rounder, 37th overall selection Nate Allen, will sign very quickly and could even be on the field today.
