Earlier this week I wrote about the contract stalemate between NFL teams and rookie second rounders. Just days ago 30 of 32 draftees remained unsigned, including Los Angeles Rams TE Terrance Ferguson. The dilemma was mostly caused by the Houston Texans fully guaranteeing the four-year rookie deal for receiver Jayden Higgins.
The dominoes are starting to fall. The Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions are the first two teams to report to training camp as they are the participants in this year’s Hall
of Fame Game—the first preseason contest of the year. LA WR Tre Harris was officially holding out of camp but finalized his deal Thursday according to reports. Lions OL Tate Ratledge also appears to have come to terms on his rookie deal in addition to Alfred Collins of the San Francisco 49ers.
We’ve gone from 30 remaining second round rookies to 27 in less than 24 hours.
The stalemate appears to be over. We have to wonder if Ferguson’s contract is soon to follow. The Rams report to training camp at Loyola Marymount on July 22nd, which gives the better part of a week to hammer out the details.
Remaining questions:
What we don’t know from reports is whether Harris and Ratledge received fully guaranteed deals. This information will likely surface in the coming days. Collins did receive $9M guaranteed out of his total $10.3M contract with the 49ers according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. While that’s not 100% it is awfully close.
Did the Chargers and Lions fold in order to get their highly drafted rookies in training camp relatively on time, or did the players decide to give up their stand? Time will tell.
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