Going back a few years, I can't really think of many good players that weren't extended before their rookie deals were up. Wilfork and Mankins come to mind, but there were extenuating circumstances in those cases. For Wilfork, the franchise and transition numbers for DT were fairly low, so the Patriots could always use that option, giving them less incentive to give him a new deal before his contract was up. They tagged Wilfork shortly before signing him, but his tag number ($6.53M) was actually less than the AAV of the contract he signed (5yr/$40M). Mankins was a RFA after his contract was up because of that weird CBA deal, so there was very little incentive to sign him to a new deal before his rookie contract was up. Here are the recent guys I can think of that got new deals before the end of their rookie contracts: Mayo, Ahern, Gronk, Vollmer. Solder's option has been picked up--I don't know if you count that or not. Next year, you'll probably be able to add Chandler Jones to that list.