The Jets’ and Raiders’ recent rookie signings could have an impact on what the Lions do with Derrick Moore
The NFL’s latest trend in the second round looks to be continuing, and it could pay off big for Derrick Moore
The Detroit Lions finally went out and got their edge rusher in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft when they selected Michigan edge rusher, Derrick Moore.
You might remember that the Lions didn’t wind up signing last year’s second-round pick, Tate Ratledge, to his rookie deal until July 17th. That was just three days before they started training camp on the 20th.
The holdup was all based on the Houston Texans and Cleveland Browns giving Jayden Higgins and Carson Schwesinger fully guaranteed contracts, respectively. That caused the agents in the rest of the second round to see if they could get their clients the same type of deal.
The expectation is that this is going to be a thing again to a degree. There have been a few second-round picks who have signed their rookie deals since the draft, and they both point to Moore being one of the second-round rookies who could get their deals fully guaranteed.
The Raiders signed Treadyn Stukes to his deal on May 1st, and he got a fully guaranteed deal. He was the 38th pick in the draft this year. Last year, the fully guaranteed deals went with players picked from 33-40. This year, it’s expected that the number will grow a bit.
But not too far. The Jets signed the 50th pick, D’Angelo Ponds, to his rookie deal, and it’s not fully guaranteed. The thing is that it’s pretty close to it. Like, close enough to where you might think that some of the picks right before him might get it.
This places Moore kind of in the middle of it all. He might be right near what the cutoff could be. Let’s spitball here for a second. If it went to 40 last year, you have to expect that it could maybe go to 45 this year. Just inching closer and closer to what we believe will be the eventual outcome, where every second-round pick gets a boilerplate fully guaranteed deal.
We’re going to find out soon enough. The good thing is that it might not take as long as it did last year, since the Raiders sort of set the market. Last year, it was the first two picks of the second round, and then the 36th pick held everything up. Now we wait to see what happens after the 39th pick. One of the teams that started this trend last year.
Detroit Lions News