The Steelers are one of very few teams who actually have their draft class signed, thanks to relinquishing their second-round pick via trade. Unintentionally, they picked a good year to part with their second-round pick, the battleground of the latest contract skirmish. Of the 32 players drafted in the second round in 2025, 30 are unsigned as of now.
That includes WR Tre Harris, the 23rd selection in the second round. Drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers, he did not report to training camp and is unofficially a holdout. I say unofficially because, absent a contract, he is not technically yet an employee. The Steelers would have drafted five slots earlier at 50, the Seahawks selecting TE Elijah Arroyo. Seattle drafted two players in the second round, the other S Nick Emmanwori.
And it appears that neither reported to the Seahawks’ training camp with the other rookies yesterday. So the player drafted with the Steelers’ second-round pick is also not reporting to training camp absent an actual contract. What exactly is the problem?
For those who might not be aware, while NFL draft pick contracts are “slotted”, meaning they roughly fall in line with where they fall in the draft, there are nuances for each team, even for each contract. One also affects the other, and over time, later and later draft picks are earning fully guaranteed deals.
All first-round contracts are now fully guaranteed at signing, minus some language pertaining to forfeiture conditions. Fully guaranteed contracts are now creeping into the second round. The only second-round picks to sign so far are the earliest ones, both with fully guaranteed deals. No other second-round pick has signed a contract yet, but the Steelers have WR DK Metcalf.
Granted, this is a minor headache in the grand scheme of things. If somebody wanted to hand the Steelers a second-round pick, I have no doubt they would have gleefully accepted it. But if there were a year to trade your second-round pick to avoid a dispute, this would be it.
Not that it will end here, of course. We don’t even know how the current situation will develop. How many other second-round picks will receive fully guaranteed deals, if any? Emmanwori is the highest pick yet to sign at 35th overall. Will the Seahawks give him that, and how would Arroyo—selected with the Steelers’ second-round pick—react to that?
Although rookies are earning more guaranteed at signing, it’s worth remembering that rookie contracts were much different before the 2011 CBA. Sam Bradford signed the last first-overall contract before the new rules, a six-year, $78 million deal with $50 million guaranteed. In 2025, first-overall pick Cam Ward signed a four-year, $48,839,604 contract. In other words, he has less money guaranteed at signing than Bradford did 15 years ago. The NFL had an uncapped year in 2010 due to the expiration of the CBA, but in 2009, the cap was $128 million.
The Steelers will have a second-round pick next year, unless they use it to trade up in the first round. If they do that, however, it won’t be to avoid a contract face-off. It would be in effort to acquire a new franchise quarterback, for whom they would back up the Brink’s truck.
