A standoff between the NFLPA and NFL teams over second-round contracts may be coming to an end.
Over the last 10 weeks, there’s been a roadblock standing in the way of 30 NFL teams — including the Kansas City Chiefs — signing their 2025 second-round picks. Thankfully for the Chiefs (and their second-round defensive tackle Omarr Norman-Lott), the situation now appears to be on the way to a resolution.
It started on May 8, when the Houston Texans signed wide receiver Jayden Higgins, who was the draft’s 34th selection. The former Iowa State wideout became the first-ever second-round pick to sign a fully guaranteed rookie contract. The next day, former UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger (who had been picked 33rd) signed a fully guaranteed contract with the Cleveland Browns.
And then… the signings of second-round players ground to a halt.
Why has this been happening?
“We work alongside the players and their agents to help them secure the best deal possible, while acknowledging that our members can organize as they see fit for the collective benefit of their financial futures,” an spokesperson for the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) told Yahoo! Sports.
To put it another way: the players’ union had organized the second-rounders to push for fully-guaranteed contracts — something that became standard for first-round selections in 2022, the first year that all opening-round picks got them.
You may wonder why this is happening, since the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the league and NFLPA was supposed to end these holdouts with its rookie wage scale. Teams and players, however, may still negotiate contract guarantees. The natural effect has been that players taken later and later in the draft are getting all of the money promised to them at signing.
Now, however, things have been coming to a head. Last Saturday, former Mississippi wide receiver Tre Harris became the first rookie holdout of the season, as he remained unsigned when the Los Angeles Chargers’ rookies reported for camp.
(Note: Rookies can participate in OTAs without being under contract, but cannot report to camp while unsigned.)
This week, nine more joined Harris, as rookies for the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions and Las Vegas Raiders were all due to report.
Then, on Wednesday night, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that “the next big domino” had fallen in the standoff, as 43rd overall pick Alfred Collins — who had not reported with the rest of the 49ers’ rookies on Tuesday — signed a $10.3 million deal with over $9 million guaranteed. That works out to 88% of his total compensation, compared to the 78% that cornerback Max Melton received as the 43rd pick in 2024. And on Thursday morning, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that the Chicago Bears’ second-round pick — defensive tackle Shemar Turner — has also signed his contract.
Now, agents across the league are getting out rulers and graph paper, drawing lines that will connect the dots to determine how much money their second-round clients can have guaranteed to them.
We can expect many of these players to sign their deals over the next few days. Hopefully, one of them will be Norman-Lott, who will report to training camp with the rest of his rookie teammates on Sunday.