Unable to strike a trade deal that would have sent Patrick Ramsey to the Chicago Bears late Tuesday night, the Washington Redskins finally got a deal of another kind, reaching a contract agreement with the first-round quarterback in the wee hours Wednesday.

The final choice in the draft's first round, Ramsey signed a five-year contract worth $5.7 million. It includes a signing bonus of $3.1 million and the value of the deal could reach between $2.5 million and $3 million per year based on his playing time and performance over the life of the contract.

The Redskins and Bears could not agree on the components of a trade that would have sent the unsigned quarterback to the Bears and, as ESPN.com reported, ended negotiations on the proposed swap Tuesday -- about two hours before an NFL deadline for completing the potential trade.

The Redskins were left to deal with Ramsey, a player miffed that the franchise which drafted him made a substantial attempt to trade him before it ever got him into camp. Sources said that the two sides dug in on the issue of a first-round draft choice, a pick the Redskins demanded, and one the Bears were not about to include in any trade.

"Both sides were serious about the trade, but (Washington owner Dan) Snyder wouldn't come off the first-rounder, and Jerry Angelo (the Bears' general manager) would not cave in on the issue," said a source familiar with the discussions.

Sources said the Bears offered third- and fourth-round draft choices for Ramsey and might have gone as high as a second-rounder if the talks had advanced to the point where a trade was in sight. League officials actually stayed in their New York offices until close to 11 p.m. in case a deal was struck.

Sources said that, in the final hours of the discussions, Redskins first-year coach Steve Spurrier took an active role. They also said that Redskins vice president of football operations Joe Mendes, who met with Spurrier for much of the evening while Snyder dealt with Angelo, was opposed to a trade.

After Saturday's performances of quarterbacks Sage Rosenfels and Danny Wuerffel in a preseason rout of the San Francisco 49ers at Osaka, Japan, some club officials decided the Redskins could swap Ramsey and go into the season with their current quarterback contingent.

The Redskins also felt they might be able to create interest in Ramsey from several other teams, including the Cincinnati Bengals, but that did not occur.

Ramsey, 23, started 32 of 35 games at Tulane and completed 798 of 1,355 passes for 9,205 yards, with 72 touchdown passes and 51 interceptions. He threw for over 2,800 yards and 22 touchdown passes in each of his final college campaigns.

The Ramsey agreement leaves four first-round draft choices without contracts.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.