New Details Leaked On Why Seahawks Rookie Nick Emmanwori Will Not Sign Contract

The Seattle Seahawks wrapped up their mandatory minicamp on Friday, bringing their spring practice program to a close. But with about a month to go before the Seahawks open their official training camp for the 2025 season, one of their top draft picks remains unsigned.

That rookie is second-round pick Nick Emmanwori, a strong safety who played three college seasons for the South Carolina Gamecocks before entering the NFL draft. Seattle grabbed him with the 35th overall pick — the third selection in the second round, which the Seahawks obtained in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.

Under the current collective bargaining agreement, there are no negotiations for the value of rookie contracts. As the 35th pick, Emmanwori will receive a contract paying him $11,598,288 over four seasons, according to the sports business site Spotrac.

What Does it All Mean For the Seahawks’ Rookie?

So why, almost two months after he heard his name called in the draft, has the 21-year-old still declined to put his name on the dotted line of his first pro football deal? Earlier this month, some answers to that question emerged. But it now turns out that situation is even more complicated than it seemed two weeks ago.

The root of the problem is that, since 2022, all first-round draft picks have received fully guaranteed contracts. That means if, at any time in their first four seasons, their teams decide they don’t want them after all, and they are cut from the roster, they will still be paid their full salaries.

Without full guarantees, a player who suffers a roster cut will not be paid his full remaining salary. Or, depending on his contract, he may not be paid any of the money otherwise owed to him at all.

So, first-round picks had it pretty good. But second-rounders were a different story. No second round pick was ever offered a fully guaranteed deal. Until now.

Texans Set a Precedent For Second-Rounders

After drafting Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins at No. 34 overall — the second pick in Round Two — the Houston Texans bestowed a fully guaranteed contract upon him.

That put pressure on the Cleveland Browns to do the same for their second-rounder, UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger. After all, Schwesinger was taken one slot before Higgins, so once the Texans made Higgins the first second-round pick in NFL history to get all four years of his rookie contract completely guaranteed, Cleveland had little choice but to make Schwesinger the second.

Which they did, one day later.

But what about the No. 3 second-round pick, Emmanwori? The Seahawks could have simply told him to forget it, that the trend of fully guaranteeing second round deals stops with the first two picks. But that’s not what happened. And the reason has just emerged, revealed on Thursday by former NFL sports agent Joel Corry, now a columnist for CBS Sports.

According to Corry, the problem extends at least until the seventh draft slot, which went to the New Orleans Saints who used it to select Oregon quarterback Tyler Shough.

Saints QB is Reason Emmanwori Hasn’t Inked Deal

Shough believes, Corry wrote, that with the sudden retirement of Derek Carr, he will now be handed the Saints’ starting QB job by default.

“Occasionally, quarterbacks are able to extract structural concessions from teams that players at other positions can’t,” Corry wrote. “Agents representing the players taken with the third through seventh picks in the second round are in a holding pattern given that they are well aware of Shough’s contract demands.”

At the No. 3 slot, Emmanwori is one of those players now holding out to see whether the Saints will meet Shough’s demands. For that reason, he remains unsigned.

As for the picks after Shough, none of them have signed contracts yet either. Their agents believe, Corry wrote, that though they may not be able to obtain fully guaranteed deals for their clients, if the top seven all get fully guaranteed deals, the other second-rounders — including Seattle’s other second round pick, former Miami tight end Elijah Arroyo, taken at No. 50 overall — would be entitled to guarantees covering greater percentages of their contracts than has even been the case in the past.