BREAKING: Chargers sign 1st round pick WR Mike Williams

Well well well. After learning the hard way last year how top 10 rookie contracts under the new CBA work, the Chargers were able to sign their top pick in the 2017 draft and avoid any holdout.

This is great news for a few reasons.

First and foremost Mike Williams will not miss any valuable practice time this summer. Practice will be even more crucial for Williams than it was for last year’s 1st round pick Joey Bosa, because getting the timing down between a QB and a receiver is hugely important. Philip Rivers can spend all the CBA allowed practice time this summer getting a good rapport going with Williams.

Secondly, Williams can just go out and practice without the distraction of a holdout or contract negotiations. I know his agent would be doing 95% of that, but we saw last year how much of a distraction it is. Every press conference is about the holdout. Fans throwing all sorts of hate at the player on social media. None of that matters now, and Williams can just focus on being the best WR he can be for the Chargers.

Finally, it shows that the Chargers can actually learn from their mistakes. There were no completely innocent parties in the contract dispute last year, but the majority of the blame falls on the Chargers. Getting things done this quickly this year showed they can learn from mistakes and make the team better. This is very encouraging.

We don’t know details yet, other than the contract being 4 years and $12.5M signing bonus being fully guaranteed, so it will be interesting to see if the offset language has been removed or whether the full signing bonus was paid up front, or both.