The Lions may have trouble getting Derrick Moore signed to his rookie deal
The Lions might have to play the long game with second-round pick Derrick Moore, much like they did with Tate Ratledge last summer
Now that the 2026 NFL Draft is over, the next stop for the Detroit Lions is to get these rookies signed to their rookie deals ahead of training camp.
The Lions could have some trouble getting Derrick Moore signed to his initial contract
Here’s the thing: this isn’t a “Derrick Moore wants more money thing.” Well, it’s not necessarily that. Let’s take a quick trip back to last year after the draft to understand what could happen here.
You might remember that the Lions didn’t wind up signing Tate Ratledge to his rookie deal until July 17th. That was just three days before they started training camp on the 20th. This wasn’t a Ratledge problem. It was an entire second round of the 2025 NFL Draft problem.
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.
Ultimately, Ratledge didn’t wind up getting the fully guaranteed contract. But every team sat there and waited for the Seahawks, who had Nick Emmanworri right behind Higgins and Schwesinger, to see what they would do. They eventually gave him a fully guaranteed contract, and that started a chain reaction.
The Patiots also gave TreVeyon Henderson a fully guaranteed deal, and the Miami Dolphins gave one to Jonah Savaiinaea. That was the extent of fully guaranteed deals last year. But that is not the end of this being a thing.
The fact is that again, multiple players who were expected to go in the first round wound up going into the second, and their agents are going to try to swing this for their guys. I’d keep an eye on the Texans with Kayden McDonald, the Browns with Denzel Boston, the Bengals with Cashius Howell, and the Dolphins with Jacob Rodriguez.
I’d even put the Lions with Moore in that group because the thing about trends in the NFL is that they grow. For a long time, teams did not want to fully guarantee the contracts of second-round picks; now it’s starting to lean towards some teams being willing to do it, and eventually, all teams will do it, and it will be standard procedure.
Until then, what you’re likely to see is that some teams will do it, and other teams will have agents waiting things out with their players to see what the team and player in front of their guy will do. Chances are, if they guarantee a deal, the agent can then go to work trying to get the same thing for his client.
It doesn’t mean he definitely will, but it does mean that it could slow up the players behind that, and some teams might not get their guys signed until July. So be on the lookout for this to be a possibility with Moore this year.
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