Late on Wednesday night, the collective sigh of relief could be heard across nearly every front office in the NFL.
Over the last few weeks, one of the biggest topics of conversation in the NFL world has centered around the second-round picks of the 2025 NFL Draft and the unspoken agreement to alter how rookie contracts are being structured.
If you're unfamiliar with the topic, prior to this year only first-round rookies received fully guaranteed contracts. That changed when Cleveland Browns' LB Carson Schwesinger and Houston Texans' WR Jayden Higgins signed fully guaranteed deals.
By setting an unprecedented action into motion, every other second-round pick dug their feet into the sand in hopes of securing similar benefits on their rookie contract, with one player even holding out of training camp already.
Finally, the stalemate has been lifted (somewhat) and it was a major win from a team's perspective. San Francisco 49ers' rookie Alfred Collins, the 43rd overall pick, signed his rookie deal on Wednesday. It was a four-year, $10.3 million deal that included over $9 million guaranteed. So, not a fully guaranteed deal, thus setting the table for other deals to follow.
Latest signing helps the Bears speed up two negotiations
No team faced more pressure in this second-round dilemma than the Chicago Bears. With rookies set to report back to team facilities on Saturday, three members of the Bears' rookie class remain unsigned and all three were second-round picks.
With Collins now breaking the ice in San Francisco, the Bears can speed up the process for at least two of those negotiations.
Based on Collins not getting fully guaranteed deals, we can assume a similar structure will happen for every second-round pick following his selection, which includes Bears' offensive tackle Ozzy Trapilo (56th overall pick) and defensive lineman Shemar Turner (62nd overall pick).
Even though Collins didn't receive a fully guaranteed deal, he did get 87% of it guaranteed, a 10% increase from last year's 43rd overall pick. So, Trapilo and Turner still have something to fight for, and that's landing a higher guarantee percentage compared to last year's number.
For Trapilo, that magic percentage to jump is 54.26% and for Turner the percentage to jump is 52.57%.
What about the other second-round pick left unsigned? That player is wide receiver Luther Burden III (39th overall pick). Technically speaking, Burden could still possibly receive a fully guaranteed deal. Nothing about Collins' contract should impact his negotiations since he was a higher draft pick and closer to Schwesinger and Higgins.
So, the battle can still continue for Burden until more players start reaching agreements with their respective teams.
It might be in the Bears' best interest to cave in
For Chicago's front office, the best course of action this close to training camp might be to cave into the players' demands.
Burden has already missed extensive time during OTAs and minicamp due to a soft tissue injury and can't afford to miss even more time due to a contract hold out. The same goes for Trapilo as well, someone who will be competing for the starting left tackle position throughout camp.
No one wants to deal with hold outs and getting these deals done as soon as possible is the best thing for all parties. But, it's not a perfect world and when money is involved, nothing can ever be handled in a timely fashion. We'll soon see which other dominoes start to fall and how it impacts the three Bears' rookies with training camp right around the corner.
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