With just days to go before the Chicago Bears open training camp, one issue continues to linger and has become a problem. It's the league-wide conundrum with second-round picks having yet to sign their rookie contracts.
Up until Thursday, only two of them had signed: Jayden Higgins (Texans) and Carson Schwesinger (Browns). But, the San Francisco 49ers just announced the signing of their second rounder, defensive tackle Alfred Collins, to a 4-year, $10.3 million deal with $9 million guaranteed.
Now, that gives Ryan Poles a much better outline for the Bears' three second-round picks in Luther Burden III, Ozzy Trapilo and Shemar Turner.
The big question, now, is whether or not Poles can get all three of them signed in time for camp.
Ryan Poles is now under pressure to ensure his second-round picks are on the field for training camp
Let's look at Burden, first. Collins was the 11th pick in the second round, while Burden was taken 7th. Knowing Collins got about 84 percent of his money guaranteed and the first two picks had fully-guaranteed deals, let's say Burden could realistically ask for 89-90 percent of his money guaranteed.
Burden's projected contract is a four-year deal for $10.95 million, which means he'd get roughly $9.75 million guaranteed.
Now, Trapilo and Turner are a bit tougher, but should still be relatively simple to get done. It would help if one of the back-end second rounders were signed by now, but let's look at the last pick in the second round of 2024, 49ers defensive back Renardo Green.
Green got a 4-year, $6.4 million deal with just over $3.3 million guaranteed. The 16th pick in last year's draft, Mason Smith, received a 4-year, $8 million contract with $5.7 million guaranteed.
If this year's second rounders are wanting an uptick in guaranteed money, and Trapilo and Turner were in the back half of the round, we could estimate that they'd like at least 65-70 percent of it guaranteed. Smith received 71 percent of his money guaranteed last year, so being in the back half of the second round, Trapilo and Turner probably want something similar to that.
Again, this is all assumption, but Poles is the expert and likely has a much better outline for the three of his picks at this point.
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Can he get them on the field for training camp? There is work to be done. Let's find out.