Mike already told us last week:

"TRAD rookie and FA draft schedule: The original plan was to start rookie draft on 3/5 but I am guessing that it will be more like 3/11 or 3/18 with the FA draft starting a week later."

As for your statement about the contracted teams still in the rookie draft order...that's not true in any of the 4 leagues that I'm a part of. All 4 were contracted and all 4 have only 20 teams in the draft order (the numbers weren't bumped up, just removed, so you'll the last pick will still be labeled "24th" even though it's the 20th).

Jon