As a new NFL season takes its first steps this week with rookies reporting to training camps around the league, many eyes are focused on Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori.
But maybe not for the reason you’d expect.
Emmanwori, selected by the Seahawks with the 35th overall pick of the NFL draft last April out of South Carolina, and the rest of their 29 rookies are scheduled to report on Tuesday, a week before veterans reporting on July 22.
All will gather for the first practice of training camp on July 23 at the VMAC in Renton.
As of Monday afternoon it remained unclear whether either Emmanwori or fellow second-round pick, tight end Elijah Arroyo of Miami, will be present when Seahawks’ rookies report on Tuesday.
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They are the only members of the Seahawks’ 11-man draft class who have yet to sign their contracts and each is among 30 second-round picks around the NFL who have yet to sign.
The issue is not total years or overall compensation.
Since the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement and the implementation of a rookie wage scale, the years and values for all rookie contracts are slotted based on draft order.
All draftees get four-year deals that include a signing bonus that is fully guaranteed and annual salaries.
Those amounts cannot be negotiated, and because they are mandated in the CBA, most rookies typically sign contracts quickly, with training camp holdouts rare.
However, some aspects of rookie contracts can be negotiated, such as how much of the signing bonus is paid upfront (which was why Devon Witherspoon waited a few days into training camp in 2023 to sign) or how much of salaries are guaranteed. Salaries in most NFL contracts are not fully guaranteed.
The amount of the total guarantee is what is at the heart of the standoff between teams and their second-round picks.
Since 2022, salaries for all four years of first-round picks have been guaranteed.
In that time, second-round picks have asked for an increasing percentage of their salaries to be guaranteed, with many getting the first two years fully guaranteed, and some of the remaining two years.
In May, the Houston Texans set a precedent when they guaranteed all four years of the salary for receiver Jayden Higgins, the 34th overall pick, for $11.7 million overall.
The Cleveland Browns followed suit by guaranteeing all four years for the 33rd pick, linebacker Carson Schwesinger.
Previously, the highest guarantee given to a second-round pick was Buffalo’s Keon Coleman in 2024, the 33rd overall pick, who got 95.7% of his total rookie deal guaranteed.
Once Coleman signed a year ago, the rest of the contracts followed a predictable pattern of each draft pick getting less of a guarantee.
But Schwesinger and Higgins’ full guarantees changes the equation and leaves the question of how many of the second-round picks will ask for full guarantees, or at which point the line stops.
Evidence that second-round picks seem prepared to play hardball came over the weekend when the Chargers’ rookies reported. L.A. is playing in the Hall of Fame Game and able to ask players to report earlier.
Second-round pick receiver Tre Harris, the 55th overall selection out of Ole Miss and one of the 30 second-round picks yet to sign, did not report along with the rest of the Chargers rookies on Saturday.
That speculation is that other second-round picks who remain unsigned will not report.
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That puts the focus on Emmanwori at 35, the highest of the unsigned second-round picks.
Emmanwori’s deal calls for a $5.077 million signing bonus, which as noted is fully guaranteed, though the order of payments can be negotiated. It also includes salaries of $840,000 (in 2025), $1.367 million (2026), $1.894 million (2027) and $2.421 million (2028) for a total of $11.6 million.
That the salaries ascend in value is one reason there is negotiation.
While the obvious hope is that a player taken in the second round turns into a long-term contributor, teams want the ability to move on from a player who may not be performing by the third or fourth years of their rookie deals and not have to pay their salaries (contracts can be renegotiated after the third year).
A recent study from OvertheCap.com showed that 78.1% of players taken in the second round in 2022 are still with their original team, meaning almost a quarter are not.
The Seahawks’ second-round pick in 2021, receiver Dee Eskridge taken 56th overall, was cut before the final season of his four-year deal.
Eskridge had only $3.2 million of the $5.9 million total value of his deal guaranteed, with the Seahawks saving almost $2 million by releasing him.
The Seahawks had no second-round picks in 2024.
But in 2023, the Seahawks guaranteed 80.4% of the $9.115 million value of the rookie deal of rush end Derick Hall, who was the 37th overall pick, or $7.22 million, according to Spotrac.com.
That included his signing bonus of $3.629 million and his 2023, 2024 and 2025 salaries ($750,000, $1.1 million and $1.5 million) and $100,000 of his $1.9 million salary for 2026.
It is, of course, the job of agents to get the best deals possible for their players.
And Emmanwori is listed as having one of the league’s heavier hitters, David Mulugheta.
Among Mulugheta’s long list of clients are former Seahawks Earl Thomas and Bobby Wagner (he negotiated Wagner’s 2015 extension with the team before Wagner decided to represent himself on future deals).
Agents are likely to try to fight as hard as they can to keep the 100% guarantee precedent going down the line of second-round picks.
There are also two wild cards at play — the status of running back Quinshon Judkins, the 36th pick by Cleveland, and quarterback Tyler Shough, the 40th pick by the Saints.
Judkins was arrested over the weekend on a misdemeanor battery charge. Pro Football Talk speculated that could impact his contract negotiations.
“Some in league circles are predicting that Judkins will become the first second-round pick to take a deal with less than 100 percent of it guaranteed,” wrote PFT’s Mike Florio. “Which will then trigger all contracts after his slot — 36th overall — to follow, with agents finding cover to do those deals in the Judkins arrest.”
Shough is thought to be asking for a fully guaranteed deal, in part because he is expected to be New Orleans’ starting QB this season following the retirement of Derek Carr.
Agents for the players drafted Nos. 35-39 may not want to sign their clients to deals until seeing what happens with Shough.
Arroyo (who is represented by noted NFL agent Drew Rosenhaus) at 50 could also well wait to see what happens in front of him before agreeing.
Arroyo is slated for a contract worth a total of $8.8 million that includes a $3.049 million signing bonus and salaries of $840,000, $1.2 million, $1.64 million and $2.04 million.
Emmanwori, Arroyo and other unsigned rookies took part in their team’s offseason programs after signing participation agreements, which provide insurance in case of an injury before a rookie contract is signed.
Answers will start coming soon as rookies begin reporting — rookies from four other teams as well as the Seahawks are due to report Tuesday and more teams will follow throughout the week.
While the unsigned rookies will be called holdouts, they are not subject to any fines since they are not yet under contract, unlike veterans who are signed but do not report, as was the case with Thomas in 2018.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout the year.