Watch: Carson Beck on video
The Arizona Cardinals have every draft pick under contract except one. Third-round quarterback Carson Beck remains unsigned with the team’s July 22 report date less than two weeks away — and the club’s own reporting suggests nobody in Tempe is treating that as a crisis.
Darren Urban of azcardinals.com laid out the picture on July 10: of the seven draft picks league-wide still without contracts, four are quarterbacks, and they are the first four quarterbacks selected in April — No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza in Las Vegas, Rams first-rounder Ty Simpson, Beck, and Steelers third-rounder Drew Allar. Yahoo Sports reported this week that Arizona signed defensive lineman Kaleb Proctor, leaving Beck as the roster’s lone holdout. Even in a slotted rookie-wage system, quarterbacks have slightly more room to negotiate terms, and guarantees are the term that matters.
Why it matters
Beck’s draft position makes that negotiation genuinely interesting. He went 65th overall, the first pick of the third round. The selection directly ahead of him, Seahawks safety Bud Clark at No. 64, had 70 percent of his deal guaranteed. Last year’s No. 65 pick, Giants defensive tackle Darius Alexander, got roughly 24 percent. Beck’s representatives are negotiating inside that gap, and there is little incentive to hurry while the rest of the league’s top rookie quarterbacks are doing the same math.
Arizona has been here before, recently. Second-round cornerback Will Johnson didn’t sign his rookie deal last year until July 22 — the day the team reported to camp. The Cardinals report on July 22 again this year, and Urban wrote that he’d be surprised if Beck isn’t signed before practice starts. Beck attended OTAs and mandatory minicamp without a contract, per Yahoo Sports, so the delay hasn’t cost him development time on the field.
That development is the part worth watching once the paperwork clears. Beck sits behind Jacoby Brissett, whose own push for adjusted guarantees remains unresolved as camp approaches. A rookie quarterback’s first training camp sets the tone for his entire developmental arc, and Beck’s starts in nine days. The contract will almost certainly be done by then. The reps are what count.
