Bear Digest

Bears Get Past Potential Stumbling Block

First-round pick Darnell Wright has signed his rookie contract, and the team has only three to sign after two more players also signed Monday.
Gene Chamberlain|
Bears Get Past Potential Stumbling Block
Bears Get Past Potential Stumbling Block

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Chicago Bears

The Bears are getting pretty good at this signing thing, at least when it comes to rookies.

First-round pick Darnell Wright, the 10th pick overall in this year's draft, was among three draft picks to sign on Monday. Their last first-round pick to sign was Justin Fields in 2021 and he didn't get his contract completed until just before minicamp in June.  

In 2018, the last Bears first-rounder before Fields, Roquan Smith, went through a month-long holdout over what amounted to simple wording in a contract before he signed just before the end of preseason.

The other two picks to sign with Wright were fourth-round receiver Tyler Scott from Cincinnati and third-round defensive tackle Zacch Pickens from South Carolina.

The only players unsigned as of Monday afternoon are second-round picks Tyrique Stevenson from Miami and Gervon Dexter from Florida, and fourth-round running back Roschon Johnson from Texas.

Cash terms are not yet known on the deals but Spotrac.com projects the Year 1 slotted amount for Wright at No. 10 overall to be a prorated signing bonus of $3.062 million with the base salary of $750,000. It's a projected cap hit of $3,812,412 for the first year, which would be the 12th highest cap figure on the team for 2023.

Pickens' is a projected signing bonus of $297,962 with the $750,000 rookie salary and Scott is $165,863 with the $750,000 salary.

The remaining Bears draft picks had signed just prior to or just after the rookie minicamp. Overthecap.com had the Bears at $30.9 million in effective cap space available starting the day.

Twitter: BearDigest@BearsOnMaven

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.

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