The Birds got their first-round pick to ink his new deal, and with time to spare. After much hand-wringing over “offset language,” Lane Johnson agreed to a four-year contract worth close to $20 million late Saturday night.
Johnson was the club’s last rookie left to sign. He will report to training camp on Monday, along with the rest of the Eagles’ 2013 draft class and selected veterans. The full 90-man roster arrives on Thursday.
The reason for the delay with Johnson's contract was this offset language business, which basically boils down to whether or not the team would owe him the full amount in the event he is released. The Miami Dolphins won that battle with third-overall pick Dion Jordan earlier on Saturday, so it was only a matter of time until No. 4 followed suit.
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Reuben Frank explains the details behind offset language.
Offset language has become a buzz word in recent weeks as teams signing first-round draft picks to fully guaranteed contracts work to protect themselves in the extremely unlikely event that they release a rookie draft pick with a guaranteed contract before that contract expires, and he's claimed on waivers by another team.
Without offset language, the player would then be paid by both teams -- the first team would pay the remaining pro-rated portion of his deal, since the contract is fully guaranteed, and the second team would assume weekly pro-rated payments of the remaining base salary as well.
That’s all very exciting, but here’s the important part: the Eagles will have their projected starter at right tackle in camp in time for the first practice on Tuesday. Finally the Chip Kelly era is about to begin in earnest.