Bear Digest

Examining signing holdup for second-round picks including Bears trio

Shemar Turner, Luther Burden III and Ozzy Trapilo remain unsigned with almost all other second-rounders and a cap expert reports a holdup which seems insignificant.
Gene Chamberlain|
Shemar Turner goes through warmups at Bears spring practices. Turner and the other two Bears second-rounders are unsigned.
Shemar Turner goes through warmups at Bears spring practices. Turner and the other two Bears second-rounders are unsigned. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

Leave it to the Bears to have three second-round picks for the first time in their history and have it happen in a year when there is a signing issue with guys taken in Round 2.

It probably should have been foreseen by everyone in the league considering the reason, but it still means as June is about to arrive there are only two signed second-round picks in the entire NFL. For the Bears, it means Ozzy Trapilo, Luther Burden III and Shemar Turner are among them.

The issue started with the fully guaranteed contracts the first two Round 2 picks received, and it seems only natural the other second-rounders would want the same. 

Will the Bears get their picks signed by training camp? It's two months away and that's plenty of time, but sides can dig in and trench warfare is always ugly. Even though they can work out at OTAs, they can't practice in training camp without contracts.

SI.com's Andrew Brandt more clearly defined the exact holdup. Brandt, a former player agent and general manager, wrote a column about comments made by commissioner Roger Goodell on the future of the NFL's CBA and it included a line about Round 2 picks. It was about the holdup of picks signing in Round 2 after the signed, guaranteed contracts for Cleveland's Carson Schwesinger and Houston's Jayden Higgins.

"The teams below the Browns and Texans are trying to hold the line on guaranteeing only three years, or part of the fourth year at most, while agents will certainly press for the full four-year guarantee," Brandt wrote.

So part of a fourth season guaranteed could be the big holdup, not even those first three years?

This seems like complete greed on the part of owners except those who already have given up the ship with the first two picks. If the other owners are willing to give the rest of the second-rounders 3-point-something years guaranteed, they look like a total army of Mr. Potters. It's not that much more money to add the rest of Year 4 into it. The last salary cap came in higher than expected and it always happens except during or because of COVID.

The players also seem pretty stupid if they're all unsigned because they can only get 3-plus years guaranteed instead of four, considering how little that extra half year really is.

Also, that is an awful lot of money going from totally unguaranteed to entirely guaranteed. There would appear plenty of room for compromise, anyway.

From the Bears' standpoint, if there is no end to the logjam coming, they should just break it themselves and give their three second-rounders fully guaranteed deals. Big deal. But when you're a part of a unified group trying to stick together to not guarantee the extra half-season, it becomes much more difficult to get your guys into camp. You're betraying the brethren by bailing.


The Bears will be able to complete OTAs and minicamp with the three second-rounders practicing, but if this standoff continues without resolution into training camp then they stand to lose more than anyone else with picks in Round 2.

Practice reps in offseason work are valuable but when they're padded up and practicing in training camp against quality NFL players across the board, they're losing the kind of experience that can't be recovered during their rookie years. It would be lost all for half a season on four-year contracts that range from $11.8 million total at the top of the round to a projected $7.15 million total at the bottom.

The Bears should be pushing hard behind the scenes for teams to give up that extra half of a guaranteed year on those contracts. Just draw the line at the start of Round 3 now.

It only makes sense considering very few second-round picks ever get through three years without being on their team's roster. Most are capable of getting to that fourth year.

Barring a career-ending injury, if a team picks a player so bad in Round 2 that they must be cut after three rounds, then the team probably ought to be penalized by eating that last extra half season anyway.

So guaranteeing a deal for four instead of 3 1/2 years only makes common sense.

What doesn't make sense is key players losing vital practice time because of very little money.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.