Why hasnât Bryce Young signed his first NFL contract?

The Carolina Panthers’ rookies are scheduled to report for training camp on Saturday. Will quarterback Bryce Young be with them?

Chosen with the first selection in the NFL Draft on April 27, the former Alabama All-American has not signed a contract with Carolina.

What’s the holdup?

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That is not known. There hasn’t been any public grousing about the lack of a signed deal by either side.

But Young’s representatives and the Panthers aren’t haggling over the size of his contract. The values of the contracts of draft picks are predetermined, based on the NFL’s salary cap of $224.8 million for the 2023 season and this year’s rookie compensation pool in a formula spelled out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and its players association.

Young’s draft status comes with a four-year contract worth about $37.955 million, with around $24.604 million of that in the form of a signing bonus. Like all first-round selections, Young’s rookie deal also will include a team option for a fifth season.

Young’s contract will be fully guaranteed, too. That’s not even a negotiating point for first-rounders after every choice in the first round got a guaranteed contract in 2022.

Without amount and guarantee to negotiate, the sticking points for draft picks under the current structure usually involve offsets and signing-bonus payments.

The large signing bonuses commanded by the players who go early in the NFL Draft have typically been paid in two or more installments. For example, Young’s Crimson Tide teammate, linebacker Will Anderson Jr., already has received 85 percent of his $22.609 million signing bonus after signing with the Houston Texans as the No. 3 selection in this year’s draft. He’ll receive the remaining amount on Oct. 15.

But the past three No. 1 picks in the NFL Draft have received their signing bonuses in a single payout — $23.88 million to LSU quarterback Joe Burrow by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2020, $24.119 million to Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021 and $24.36 million to Georgia defensive end Travon Walker by the Jaguars in 2022.

The Panthers haven’t previously made a lump-sum payment on a signing bonus to an early draft choice, but Carolina also hasn’t made the No. 1 selection since 2011, the first year of the rookie-wage scale, when Auburn quarterback Cam Newton came aboard for four-year, $22.025 million contract that included a $14.519 million signing bonus.

The Panthers picked North Carolina State offensive tackle Ikem Ikwonu at No. 6 last year. He got 70 percent of his $17.23 million signing bonus after signing and the rest on April 1, 2023.

An offset in a contract means if a team releases a player while owing him money, it can subtract his salary from that amount if he signs with another team. Players don’t want offset provisions in their contracts because they can get paid by two teams at the same time without it.

Almost all teams are requiring offsets in guaranteed contracts.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.