The Seahawks finally got one of their two unsigned second-round draft picks under contract Thursday night, reaching an agreement with safety Nick Emmanwori.
To get the deal done, they gave Emmanwori, a South Carolina product, a fully guaranteed four-year deal worth $11.6 million.
It is the first time the 35th overall pick in the draft has gotten a fully guaranteed deal.
ESPN first reported the news.
Seattle’s other second-round pick — tight end Elijah Arroyo of Miami taken 50th — remains unsigned. He is the only member of Seattle’s 11-man 2025 draft class that is unsigned.
The length and overall values of rookie contracts are agreed to in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement and slotted based on where a player is taken in the draft.
But only the signing bonus of the deal is fully guaranteed, and players can negotiate how much of the annual salaries are guaranteed.
Before this year, no second-round pick had gotten a fully guaranteed deal. But that changed in May when the two players taken ahead of Emmanwori (linebacker Carson Schwesinger with Cleveland and receiver Jayden Higgins with Houston) got fully guaranteed deals.
That led to an apparent standoff entering this week as no other second-round pick had signed.
But with training camps set to begin around the league next week, that standoff had begun to thaw and some picks in the later part of the round had agreed to deals over the last 24 hours, though none fully guaranteed.
Some wondered how avidly Emmanwori would fight for a fully guaranteed deal and if it might lead to him to holding out of camp next week.
Instead, the deal got done with Emmanwori, whom the Seahawks made a deal to trade up for to take, having regarded him as a first-round talent.
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.
Teams in recent years had generally been guaranteeing at least the first two years of salary for second-round picks and often the third and some of the fourth. But the ascending value of the salaries has made teams resist guaranteeing all four years, wanting the option to not have to pay that money depending on how that player’s career unfolds.
All players in the first round have been getting fully guaranteed deals for the last four years and players at the top of the second round have increasingly demanded to be treated similarly. Seattle’s agreement with Emmanwori will help set a precedent for players in future years taken at the top of the second round to get fully guaranteed deals.
Now that he has reached an agreement with the Seahawks, Emmanwori can join the rest of the Seahawks’ rookies in working out at the VMAC in Renton. Rookies reported Tuesday and have been holding meetings and doing conditioning and some light on-field workouts. Veterans report Tuesday and the team will hold its first practice Wednesday afternoon at the VMAC to pen 2025 training camp.
Emmanwori, who is wearing Russell Wilson’s jersey No. 3, is one of the most intriguing members of Seattle’s rookie class, if not the most intriguing. He stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 220 pounds, which has led to many comparisons to former Seattle standout Kam Chancellor.
Emmanwori spent the offseason program working mostly in a third safety role in five- and six-defensive back sets, with veterans Julian Love and Coby Bryant holding down the starting safety spots. But the Seahawks won’t complain if Emmanwori plays well enough in camp to force them to find ways to get him on the field even more than in specialty packages.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He provides daily coverage of the team throughout the year.