The Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, was already more than capable of screwing up contract negotiations on his own. He really didn’t need any help making things worse.
But that is what has happened, courtesy of the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Texans.
The only good news is, Jones is in the same boat as the other 29 owners too.
Houston, You Made A Problem
The Texans, for reasons unknown, will probably not be a popular team among the NFL’s owners for a while. They just made history, not in a good way as far as the owners are concerned.
Houston signed rookie wide receiver Jayden Higgins to a full guaranteed contract of just under $12 million.
Where it gets annoying for the owners is that Higgins was a second-round pick and this is the first time in NFL history a second-rounder has inked a fully guaranteed rookie contract.
One day later, on May 9th, the Cleveland Browns decided that was a great idea. They signed their second-rounder, Carson Schwesinger, to his own fully guaranteed deal.
The two players were the first two taken in the second round of the NFL Draft back in April.
Since they signed those history-making deals, none of the remaining second round picks have signed a contract with their NFL team.
There is some concern around the league that many of them will remain unsigned as camps open this month. An even greater concern is how many may not show up for training camp.
Where Is Ezeiruaku?
The Cowboys second-round pick was the 44th overall, Donovan Ezeiruaku. He was projected to be taken in the first round.
His agent is likely salivating at the recent news out of Cleveland and Houston, along with the agents for the other 29 players who just hit the lottery.
To his credit, despite still not having a signed contract, Ezeiruaku appears to be focusing on the field and letting his agent and the Cowboys hammer out the money.
Cowboys rookie DE Donovan Ezeiruaku is not concerned about when his rookie contract is done: “I’m here doing what I have to do every single day. That’s between the organization and my agent. I have full faith that they’re gonna get that done. When it’s ready, it’ll be ready and… pic.twitter.com/yGrxa7IGQn
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) June 10, 2025
Which is good for both sides. But now that the genie is out of the bottle, it gives the Cowboys’ front office one more opportunity to bungle a contract.
They really didn’t need an extra chance to screw things up.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat
Which is what they appear to be about to do yet again regarding a contract extension.
Dallas played around and ended up paying Dak Prescott an extra $15 million a year or so by playing around for two full years.
They did the same thing with CeeDee Lamb’s extension. They’re likely going to do it again with Micah Parsons.
Instead of wrapping these guys up, they let other players reset the market and then end up overpaying.
They’ll do it in a few weeks with Parsons. They’ll probably do it sooner rather than later with a future second-round pick too.
Wattt just signed for 41 a year -3 years . Teams are heading towards about 6 guys making 30-60 a year and 47 making under 5.