Injury waiver within Gabe Jacas’s contract is unique, and leaves some unanswered questions

FOXBOROUGH ― The Patriots finally got their second-round draft pick under contract on Sunday when outside linebacker Gabe Jacas signed his rookie deal.

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Jacas’s absence from the offseason program was an unexpected mystery. All that was known was that he missed almost the entire offseason and the first two days of training camp because of a surgical procedure. Jacas and the Patriots spent nearly three months negotiating, and he was the 256th of 257 draft picks to sign.

Late Monday, the Globe obtained the key terms of Jacas’s contract via an NFL source. It answers some questions about the delay, but also creates others.

The upshot: Jacas still gets the full value of his rookie contract and the full guarantee slotted for the 55^th pick. But he signed an injury waiver for his left knee covering the 2027 and 2028 seasons that would allow the Patriots to void his guarantees should he reinjure that knee.

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel won’t confirm much else ― the nature of the injury, when it happened, when the surgery happened, or whether the Patriots knew about any of it when they traded up to draft Jacas.

The four-year deal is worth $8.66 million, with $6.95 million fully guaranteed. The first three years are fully guaranteed, and about 17.5 percent of his salary in the fourth year. It’s the same general structure that all mid- to late-second round picks received this year.

But the injury waiver is unique, and gives the impression that the Patriots were caught by surprise by Jacas’s injury. The waiver expires if Jacas is on the Patriots’ 90-man roster on the last day of the 2028 league year (in March 2029).

Injury waivers are rare because most injured players are drafted with their injuries already known, and/or they simply fall down the draft board. Two AFC teams said Jacas had no sign of a knee injury during his medical check at the NFL Combine in late February. Jacas played in all 50 games over four years at the University of Illinois, with 43 starts.

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“Usually teams flag injuries before the draft and they draft guys later if they have an injury, since the guaranteed salaries pretty much end after round 2,” said salary cap expert Jason Fitzgerald of overthecap.com.

The issue appears to be two-fold – a “large osteochondral defect and medial meniscus tear” as described by Dr. Michael Banffy in a May 11 evaluation and May 12 operative report. The osteochondral defect, like a pothole in the knee that usually occurs over time, creates knee swelling and can make it hard to run and be explosive and can shorten a player’s career.

But this information now creates more questions. Did Jacas hurt his knee during the Patriots’ minicamp on May 8-10? He was present that weekend, but watched practice from the sideline in the session open to media.

Or, did Jacas hurt his knee before arriving to Foxborough for minicamp and the Patriots discovered it then? Did it happen before the draft, or after? Was it a degenerative injury that the Patriots’ doctors missed?

And why did Jacas choose Banffy, a Los Angeles-based surgeon who is part of the Rams’ medical team, instead of someone more local? Did Jacas tell the Patriots he was going to get surgery?

Jacas has started training camp on the non-football injury list.

Jacas’s agent, Reggie Johnson, did not respond to a request for comment. Vrabel also declined to comment about the specifics.

“The most important thing is that Gabe is here, that we are all on the same page and that we are excited to move forward with Gabe,” Vrabel said Monday. “He, by all accounts, has been working hard and is ready to go, and we will evaluate that here over the next couple of days and be able to acclimate him as quickly as possible.”

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