To the extent that NFL teams collude regarding fully-guaranteed contracts, the Texans didn’t get the memo. Or, if they did, they ignored it.
On Wednesday, the man who started the trend of second-round picks getting four-year fully-guaranteed deals downplayed the development that resulted in more than a few second-round picks getting every penny of their rookie contracts guaranteed in 2025.
“I would say it’s really much ado about nothing,” Texans G.M. Nick Caserio told reporters regarding the dynamic sparked by the decision to give receiver Jayden Higgins, the second pick in round two, a fully-guaranteed contract. “It was kind of [a] fabricated story. Let’s take a step back. Again, when you’re reading about this in the Wall Street Journal you know everybody has too much time on their hands.”
In defense of those of us who may or may not have too much time on their hands, the reality is that the Higgins deal created a protracted standoff for the 30 second-round picks taken after Higgins. And the logjam didn’t begin to break until camps began to open.
"[P]hilosophically, when you look at, say, contracts in the second round specifically,” Caserio said. “So when you look at the top of the second-round last year, I want to say like those contracts were 92, 93 percent fully guaranteed. Let’s just fast forward, adjust for inflation, probably going to be some marginal increase. Let’s say the number is three to five percent, right? So that small margin that’s left, it’s a difference of -- it’s not that much. You’re all smart. You can do the math. Again, we’re trying to get ahead and stay ahead on trends. Eventually probably going to get there anyway, so we just felt like that was the right thing for us to do.
“I think what happened after that honestly, was a non-story that was made into a story, but everything kind of worked itself out. I think all of us in the league, myself included, have anticipated at some point, probably the first four, five you’re going to end up at that spot anyway, so why wait around? Why bicker back and forth? Get to a resolution. I think people that know me and negotiate with me, I’m a bottom-line guy. Let’s get to the bottom line. Let’s not ‘hem’ and ‘haw.’ If we think we’re all comfortable, we’ll move forward. . . . When I start reading about it in the Wall Street Journal, this is -- it is a nothing deal.”
While it’s not nearly the same as the Browns giving quarterback Deshaun Watson a five-year, $230 million, fully-guaranteed contract, the Texans definitely broke from the existing trend by taking the percentage of the guarantee for the second pick in round two all the way to 100. And it’s not about adjusting the value of the deal for inflation; that’s already part of the slotting process. The percentage that becomes fully guaranteed is a different thing.
For Higgins, it went from 91.9 percent to 100 percent. That’s not nearly as insignificant as the three-to-five-percent bump Caserio suggested.
In fairness to Caserio, it makes sense for him to act like it’s no big deal. Given that the league and the Management Council do indeed care about the proliferation of fully-guaranteed deals, Caserio doesn’t need to become the guy whom 345 Park Avenue shoots a side-eye for sparking the spike in fully-guaranteed contracts for players taken in the second round.
