St. Louis Rams Sign 4th-Round Pick WR Chris Givens

No sooner had I hit publish on my last post than I hope over to Twitter and see a report that the St. Louis Rams have signed 4th-round pick Chris Givens. The news comes via Pro Football Talk, citing league sources.

Earlier on Friday, 7th-round pick linebacker Aaron Brown announced that he had a deal done with the Rams. News of players signing on Friday should come as no surprise. General manager Les Snead said that the team was likely to start working on the deals following last week's OTAs.

The new rookie wage scale has made signing draft picks a breeze this year, using a strict slotting system and taking out almost all areas of negotiation. More than half of the 253 players picked in the 2012 NFL Draft have signed already. The bulk of draft classes used to not be signed until much later in the summer. Top picks usually did not get a deal worked out until the last minute before training camp started.

Givens signed a four-year deal, as did Brown, which is the norm for rookie deals.