The 2025 NFL Draft was more than a month ago. The rookie mini-camp has passed, and the Detroit Lions are reporting to OTAs this week before the team takes a break and heads to training camp early this year, since the Lions play in the Hall of Fame game at the end of July.
Tyleik Williams, Isaac TeSlaa, Miles Frazier, Ahmed Hassanein, Dan Jackson, and Dominic Lovett have all signed their rookie deals. Second-round pick Tate Ratledge has still not signed his. What's going on?
First off, Ratledge is not alone. 30 of the 32 picks in he second round of last month's draft have yet to sign their rookie deals, while most of the picks in the later rounds are done, and a good deal of the first round picks have.
The 33rd Team's NFL Insider, Ari Meirov, and his co-host Ben Allen, have an explanation as to what's happening, and it has a lot to do with what happened with the Texans and Browns and their second-round picks.
"It all started when Jayden Higgins, the rookie wide receiver for the Houston Texans, taken with the 34th overall pick, got a brand new deal, a brand new thing that's never happened for a second-rounder, he had a fully guaranteed contract. Carson Schwesinger, the player taken right before him by the Cleveland Browns, the UCLA linebacker. He then also got a fully guaranteed contract. Since then, none, zero, nada. Not one second-rounder has signed any contract at all since that took place. I assume that's got to be the holdup with all these agents now trying to work with teams saying, 'we want fully guaranteed contracts."
Meirov and Allen go on to say that the league is basically glued to what's going to happen with 25th Nick Emmanwori and the Seattle Seahawks to see if this trend is going to continue. If Emmanwori gets a fully guaranteed deal, then maybe the 36th pick, Quinshon Judkins, is going to want one too, and then it'll just go down the line that way.
This could hold up Ratledge signing his deal for a while as teams and agents navigate what might be the new normal for second-round picks. The Lions would be wise to wait things out with the rest of the league because giving out fully guaranteed deals is something that teams are a little leery of doing since injuries do happen in the NFL.
This won't stop Ratledge from participating with the Lions. He was with the team during their first day of OTAs on Wednesday, and he'll continue to be with them, but they do have to get this deal done sooner rather than later.
