The Giants announced that they have signed first-round pick Ereck Flowers. Flowers, a product of the University of Miami, was selected with the No. 9 overall pick in the draft. According to his slot, Flowers should earn $14.4MM with a healthy $8.7MM signing bonus.

Flowers negotiated his own rookie contract with the Giants, which may have contributed to the delay in signing. Had Flowers hired an agent and been charged the maximum allowable 3% fee on his $14.4MM guaranteed contract, the fee would have worked out to $432K. Instead, he decided to keep that fee and use his family for guidance. Flowers’ camp did hire an attorney to review the contract, however.

Flowers was already expected to play a big role for the Giants, but when Will Beatty tore his pectoral muscle lifting weights on May 18th, he became even more crucial to the team’s immediate success. Many expected the Giants to go hard after Iowa tackle Brandon Scherff, who is widely believed to be more NFL ready, but he was off the board by the time it was their turn to pick.