When the New England Patriots opened their rookie minicamp on May 11, their second-round draft pick was nowhere to be found. In their rebuilding effort after three straight losing seasons, the six-time Super Bowl champion franchise have high expectations that 22-year-old former Ohio State running back TreVeon Henderson can add the the explosiveness that its offense has lacked since the departure of legendary quarterback Tom Brady before the 2020 season.
Henderson was the Big Ten leader in yards per rushing attempt last year with 7.1. In four years with the Buckeyes, he battled injuries as a sophomore and junior. But in his first and final years at the college football powerhouse, he gained over 1,000 yards â including 1,248 in 2021 when he also led the conference in yards per attempt.
The speedy (4.43 40) back “brings energy to the Patriots offense that it hasnât had in years,” wrote Athletic Patriots correspondent Chad Graff. “Heâs a home run threat every time he touches the ball.”
Haggling Over Specifics of Rookie Contract
So where was Henderson that first day of rookie camp?
“This could’ve been down to some haggling over the specifics of Henderson’s rookie contract. He wasn’t listed when New England announced a batch of first-year signings,” Joseph Zucker of Bleacher Report speculated at the time. “Though the collective bargaining agreement lays out the broad contractual terms for every draft pick, there can occasionally be some tough negotiating over the finer details.”
But May turned to June and Henderson still had not signed. At the time, information emerged not only on Henderson, but on all of the second-round picks. Only two had signed by June 1.
The reason, apparently, was that the top two picks the 2025 NFL draft second round â Cleveland Browns No. 33 overall pick Carson Schwesinger, a linebacker out of UCLA, and former Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins, taken by the Houston Texans at No. 34 â were signed by their teams to fully guaranteed four-year rookie contracts.
Blame Reportedly Goes to Saints’ Pick Tyler Shough
According to former NFL player agent Joel Corry, this was an unprecedented move by the two teams (the Texans did it first, followed by Cleveland the next day). Four full years of guaranteed money had previously been reserved for first-round picks.
Now, nearly another three weeks have gone by and neither Henderson nor any of the other 29 unsigned second-rounders have come to terms.
Initially, it appeared that those 30 second round picks were holding off signing their deals until their teams agreed to match the four-year guarantee provisions handed out by the Browns and Texans. But according to Corry, in a report published Thursday by CBS Sports, while the precedent-breaking deals handed to Higgins and Schwesinger sparked the problem, the situation is a bit more complex than that.
The real culprit at this point is New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough.
Shough at No. 40 was the eighth pick of the second round. But Corry reports that the former Louisville, Texas Tech and Oregon signal caller believes he will be the Saints starting QB in 2025 â after Derek Carr’s surprise decision to retire â and wants a fully guaranteed contract befitting his anticipated role.
Players Taken Ahead of Shough Waiting on His Deal
What does that mean for Henderson, the sixth second-round pick at No. 38?
“The agents representing the players taken with the third through seventh picks in the second round are in a holding pattern given that they are well aware of Shough’s contract demands,” Corry reported. “The same type of coordination by NFL teams is collusion, which is prohibited by the CBA.”
Players taken after No. 40 in the second round may not expect full guarantees over four years, but are nonetheless waiting for any “trickle-down” effect of Shough’s negotiations with New Orleans.
While they may not receive fully guaranteed money in their fourth years, agents for the players believe that they can get larger percentages of that fourth-year cash secured than they otherwise would have â if Shough succeeds in winning a full four-year guaranteed contract from the Saints.
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