A logjam of stalled negotiations with NFL second-round draft picks cleared in time for the Green Bay Packers to have all eight of the players they selected signed in time for training camp.
After the Packers signed first-round pick Matthew Golden on May 19, the lone drafted player still unsigned was second-round pick Anthony Belton. Nearly two months passed after Golden’s signing before the Packers reached an agreement with their only unsigned draft pick.
Rookie holdouts have been rare in the NFL since the it instituted a rookie wage scale in 2011, but when the Houston Texans guaranteed the entire amount of second-round receiver Jayden Higgins’ contract, it broke a general policy of teams giving fully guaranteed deals only to first-round picks.