Standoff Reported for Jaquan Brisker

Penn State rookie safety Jaquan Brisker remains unsigned as rookies are set to begin work Saturday at Halas Hall, but a Tribune reports says it could be a while before the draft's 48th pick arrives.

Bears rookies report Saturday ahead of veterans and it's questionable whether safety Jaquan Brisker will be among them.

In fact, according to a Tribune report by Dan Wiederer, there's a chance Brisker might not even be signed by the start of practices on Wednesday, July 27.   Wiederer labels talks as being "stalled but fluid," but in his story for the Tribune Wiederer quoted an unnamed source, and he reported the holdout could conceivably last into August. 

A reason cited is insufficient bonus money for the deal's third year.

The second-round draft pick from Penn State is the only unsigned Bears draft pick. He participated throughout offseason work but signed contracts are not required for OTAs and minicamp.

Brisker has been impressive in the offseason, so hopes were high for him. Coach Matt Eberflus had cautioned about going overboard with any rookie.

"When you're dealing with players in their first year and you're dealing with these young guys, man, they learn fast and there's so many things that he needs to see in the deep part of the field, down close," Eberflus said at the close of minicamp. "There's so many things that he has to experience and go through to get the knowledge and learn and put it in his file, in his rolodex there so he can come back to it, so: "I've seen that, I've done that before." So we're just trying to put him in as many experiences as we can.

Rookies and quarterbacks will begin reporting to Halas Hall on Saturday. Safety Jaquan Brisker, however, doesn’t figure to be among the early arrivals.

With contract negotiations stalled but fluid, Brisker‘s ETA to training camp remains indefinite.https://t.co/Z4Y9Z8j1FR

— Dan Wiederer (@danwiederer) July 22, 2022

"Sometimes it's good. He's going to fail some and he's going to succeed a lot. But sometimes that failure teaches you a lot more than all of the successes he's going to have, which he's already had a lot of too."

Brisker's competition for the starting spot comes from a pair of veterans who really haven't attained starter status in the past—DeAndre Houston-Carson and Dane Cruikshank. With Tennessee, Cruikshank started only four games in four years, all of them last year. Houston-Carson's three Bears starts last year were the only ones he has made in six NFL seasons.

There is one other possibility at safety and that's seventh-round pick Elijah Hicks. However, Hicks hasn't practiced at all. He had an injury during OTAs and minicamp, the extent to which wasn't revealed by Eberflus. So he has yet to be on the field.

Brisker's salary as a rookie is $705,000 and bonus money is what is undecided.  

The slot Spotrac.com projected for the 48th pick in the draft is a $632,370 signing bonus. Kyler Gordon, the 39th pick and the first Bears pick of the draft, had a $873,714 bonus according to Spotrac.

The Bears last had a rookie holdout in 2018 when Roquan Smith missed almost a month. But he was a first-round pick.  A later-round pick holding out is rare.

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