The Only Two Unsigned First-Rounders Are Both Quarterbacks. The Fight Isn't About Money.

Thirty of the 32 players taken in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft signed their rookie contracts without incident. The two who have not are the two quarterbacks: Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick of the Las Vegas Raiders, and Ty Simpson, taken 13th by the Los Angeles Rams on a pick acquired from Atlanta. Raiders rookies report to training camp on July 23. Rams players report July 25.

The reason both are unsigned is not a disagreement about how much money to pay them. Under the rookie wage scale installed in the 2011 CBA, there is nothing left to argue about there. Mendoza's terms have been settled for weeks: four years, $57,270,598, fully guaranteed, with a $38,111,344 signing bonus and a fifth-year option, an average of roughly $14.32 million per season. The fight is about when the Raiders write the check.

A Payment Schedule, Not A Price

Las Vegas has historically disbursed first-round signing bonuses on a staggered schedule: 77.5 percent within 15 days of signing, 12.5 percent in mid-September, and the final 10 percent in mid-October. Applied to Mendoza, that structure puts roughly $29.6 million in his account inside of two weeks and holds back about $8.5 million until the season is underway.

Mendoza's representatives want the full $38.11 million at signing. Their argument is precedent rather than principle: the No. 1 pick in 2025 received his entire signing bonus within a month, and all six quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 2024 draft were paid in a single installment. From that vantage point, the Raiders are asking their franchise quarterback to accept a structure the rest of the league has quietly abandoned.

The money is guaranteed either way. What is actually at stake is the time value of about $8.5 million and, more durably, whether Las Vegas preserves a template it can point to with the next player it drafts high.

Why Simpson's Deal Matters To Mendoza

That the other unsigned first-rounder is also a quarterback, and is negotiating with the Rams specifically, is not a coincidence. Nearly every team in the league requires offset language on guaranteed salary, even at the top of the first round. The Rams and the Jacksonville Jaguars are the exceptions. Offsets determine whether a team gets credit against its guarantee if a released player signs elsewhere, and they are one of the few genuinely contested terms left in a rookie deal.

If Simpson signs with no offsets and collects his bonus in a lump sum, the two concessions Mendoza's camp is seeking will both have been granted to a quarterback drafted twelve picks later in the same class. Agents on both sides understand this. It is a reasonable read that neither deal gets finished entirely independently of the other.

What It Costs If Nobody Blinks

Not much yet, and that is precisely why it has dragged. An unsigned draft pick cannot practice, but rookies reporting July 23 have days of walkthroughs and meetings before pads matter. Mendoza is not competing for a Week 1 start in any case; he spent the spring working behind Kirk Cousins, taking most of his OTA reps with the second and third teams, and drew reviews praising his preparation while noting real growing pains, particularly under center. Simpson sits behind Matthew Stafford on a roster that never intended to start a rookie in 2026.

Mendoza is not the only unsigned Raiders draftee. Edge rusher Keyron Crawford and cornerback Jermod McCoy were also reported without contracts. Speaking publicly in late June, Mendoza put it plainly: "I haven't even signed my Raiders contract yet."

Rookie holdouts of consequence have become nearly extinct since 2011 because the wage scale removed the thing worth holding out over. What remains is this: a fight over a payment calendar, conducted between a franchise protecting a template and a No. 1 pick who has watched every recent comparable get paid all at once. Camp opens Thursday.

Both deals, and every other notable 2026 signing in both leagues, are tracked with their guarantees and bonus structure on our 2026 contract tracker.