Given the short shelf life of NFL players, the number that matters most on contracts is the guaranteed number. How much money are you guaranteed to get out of the deal regardless of what happens on the football field?
That number was considerably higher for some of the New England Patriots' undrafted rookies this year, which means they likely had some competition for some of those options. On Sunday, ESPN's Mike Reiss noted that Alabama tight end CJ Dippre signed a contract with $264,000 in guaranteed money, which is the highest total of all the undrafted rookies for New England.