Alfred Collins received $9 million in guarantees from the San Francisco 49ers months after the last second-round rookie inked a deal.
Up until Wednesday night, only 2 of the NFL’s 32 second-round rookies had signed contracts with their teams, due to the changing market in guarantees. While rookie contracts operate under a wage scale based on draft position, per the NFL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, that only legislates the overall money in the deal. Other aspects of contracts, like how much is guaranteed or the types of clauses in these deals, are still fully up for negotiation.
Shortly after the draft, the top two picks in the second round, Cleveland linebacker Carson Schwesigner and Houston receiver Jayden Higgins, signed fully guaranteed contracts with their teams — the first of their kind for NFL second-round picks. But then the market came to a screeching halt, as every second-rounder behind them had still yet to sign going into Wednesday night.
The Los Angeles Chargers, who are participating in the Hall of Fame Game, already had their rookies report to training camp, which led to their second-round pick, receiver Tre Harris, officially holding out after participating with the team in voluntary organized team activities and mandatory minicamp. The fear, from the NFL’s side, was that this lack of movement in the second-round market going into training camp would mean that many of their teams’ high draft selections would not be suiting up for training camp, which starts next week for the clubs who aren’t scheduled to play in the Hall of Fame Game.
Then, a deal finally got done. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported on Wednesday night that the San Francisco 49ers signed their second-round pick, Alfred Collins, to a four-year, $10.3 million deal that fully guarantees him 88 percent of his deal. For perspective, Collins was the 43rd overall pick in the draft. Last year’s 43rd overall pick was Arizona Cardinals cornerback Max Melton, who received just $6.9 million in guarantees at signing compared to Collins’ over $9 million. So, at minimum, Collins and his team negotiated an increase in guarantees of around 30 percent over the lifetime of his contract.
This means that the unsigned second-rounders ahead of Collins — Nick Emmanwori, Quinshon Judkins, Jonah Savaiinaea, TreVeyon Henderson, Luther Burden III, Tyler Shough, T.J. Sanders and Mason Taylor — will all likely receive 88 percent or more in guarantees in their contracts. That’s not great news for clubs that tried to stretch this out with the hopes of someone else signing their pick to a lower number, but at least there’s clarity on the market as we approach training camp.
For reference, the Green Bay Packers’ second-round pick, tackle Anthony Belton, was picked 54th overall, so there’s still a good bit of difference between Collins and Belton, but players in between the two should begin to sign deals and fill out the gulf between them over the next couple of days. Any movement is seen as a good development, considering that the market completely froze for over two months.