Ed Ingram reportedly “not close” to signing rookie contract

As they prepare for this weekend’s mandatory mini-camp, the Minnesota Vikings have inked seven of the ten members of their 2022 NFL Draft class. The three that have not yet signed are second-round picks Andrew Booth and Ed Ingram and fourth-round pick Akayleb Evans. According to reports, it doesn’t sound like one of those players is going to be putting pen to paper anytime soon.

According to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, “it doesn’t sound as if” Ingram is close to signing his deal.

Ingram was a bit of a controversial pick for the Vikings given his checkered past during his time in Baton Rouge. However, following the selection the team gave reassurances that they had done their due diligence and were comfortable with the selection of Ingram at that point in the draft.

I’m not sure what the hold-up would be with getting Ingram to sign his deal. With the way the CBA has worked for over a decade now, contracts and salaries for every slot in the draft are pretty well set and non-negotiable. It’s not as if a holdout will give Ingram any leverage or anything like that.

My best guess is that there’s really nothing to panic over at this point in time and that Ingram will sign his deal at some point here in the next few weeks. However, in this day and age of teams signing picks in relatively short order, it is a bit unusual to see that the team is having difficulty getting a player signed, particularly one that was drafted outside of the first round.