00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid, NFL training camp set to open all across the country this week.
00:05Rookies, in fact, are reporting, although some are not, and I do want to get to that topic here
00:09because Adam's got to dive into this whole second round, not rookies signing stuff here.
00:14I don't really understand it, but I'll get to that here in a minute.
00:16Let's first start off, Adam, with right of passage, which is a 49ers receiver looking for a new contract.
00:22Is this three years in a row? I got Debo on one, I got Ayuk on another, and now Jawan Jennings on a third.
00:27What's going on there?
00:28Yeah, so really, Craig, last year, it started when they drafted Ricky Pearsall, which was a surprise.
00:36And Pearsall had his unfortunate off-the-field issue, which threw no fault of his own, by the way.
00:41But the bottom line is, Pearsall was really not a factor until late last season.
00:45Ayuk tears his ACL after getting his contract extended.
00:49And Ayuk has owed $27 million in total cash this season, so that's a big number.
00:53They don't know exactly when Ayuk will be back.
00:55Jawan Jennings has kind of come out of nowhere.
00:57He's been a great story.
00:58His cash number is $7.5 million.
01:01He'd like a greater commitment to him instead of the nickel and diming going season to season.
01:06This guy's been a great story of development as a number four receiver, then number three.
01:09Then he had his start last season.
01:11Very productive.
01:12And he'd like a greater commitment.
01:14And by the way, he's got Drew Rosenhaus, I believe, as his agent.
01:17Rosenhaus got Jono Smith out of Miami.
01:19He got Jono Smith a better deal.
01:21With that trade at Pittsburgh, got a lot more money.
01:24And you just follow the money with these situations.
01:25You know in baseball, you follow the money.
01:27It's the same situation here.
01:28So with the Niners, they have a complex situation because they have to get through who's going to be available.
01:33What's Pearsall's role going to be this season?
01:37He's got a full offseason now under his belt.
01:40They've got to get through that.
01:41But Jawan Jennings has been a great story of development.
01:43They like to make this work, but they have to work through it.
01:46And I always tell people, these things come to a head when players start missing training camp practices.
01:53Then they really know that the player is serious.
01:56So let's see what happens here.
01:57But the big story for them is to get Ayuk right physically, get Pearsall going and taking the next step.
02:03They're not very deep, by the way, at wide receiver.
02:05That's another problem where people think that they want to wind up trading them.
02:08I'd ease off on that one.
02:10They don't have the depth right now to be able to do that.
02:12But they've got to make it right with Jennings here.
02:15It's not easy because you've got Pearsall, Craig, and you're paying Ayuk $27 million.
02:21How do you make it work?
02:22But, again, with Ayuk's contract, they can get out of it now that not this season, the $27 million is fully guaranteed.
02:28But after the season, they can get out of it without owning them any of that.
02:32Yeah.
02:32And Jennings has filled in nicely every time one of those receivers has been out.
02:36It seems like he's come in.
02:37And, by the way, he's had some of the bigger games over the season in the NFL, I believe, several times or at least a couple times having two or three touchdowns in one game.
02:45You know, before we get to the quarterback stuff, I do want to ask you this.
02:48Because with training camps opening, we're seeing a dynamic play out that I believe we've never seen before, which is pretty much every second-round pick in the NFL is, like, not signing.
02:57And, you know, in sort of reading this, trying to understand it, I saw that Houston signed their pick and gave them guaranteed money.
03:03And somehow this is causing all the other picks to want money.
03:07And so how does this play out with so many players, just specifically in this round, not showing up for camp?
03:13Yeah, correct.
03:14So Jaden Higgins was the one you're talking about.
03:16So he, and I give the Texans credit, they went against the grain.
03:20Typically, you don't see second-rounders getting more guaranteed money later in the contract.
03:25But they did that, and that sets a precedent.
03:28So, of course, every agent in the second round wants it.
03:30And that's the holdup, that's the slog, you know, as some people are calling it.
03:35It'll eventually break because the agents are not going to want these players to miss time.
03:40And that hurts them, obviously.
03:41When you're not a first-round pick, you have to really earn your role where it's kind of handed off in the first round.
03:47But that's it.
03:47It's the guaranteed money as the contract progresses.
03:52And the Texans did something that, look, I give the agent credit, that's typically not done.
03:57And that obviously does not make clubs happy.
04:02Because once they see it, they know they have to do it.
04:04And so far, these clubs have been unwilling to do it.
04:07Yeah, no, they definitely have.
04:08There was also, I'm not even talking about anything that you wanted to talk about on the show today, Adam.
04:14It's just reminding me of everything.
04:16So, look, a legal issue, we really don't know what's going to happen here.
04:20But I was stunned to see the running back on the Browns, Judkins, from Ohio State here in my area get arrested.
04:26I don't know if he's out of jail or not.
04:29But, you know, certainly the Browns can ill afford to lose any young player going into the season.
04:35I know there's a more serious issue probably that we should be talking about here, which is domestic violence.
04:38But the NFL is, you know, very, very cognizant of these sort of issues happening.
04:43And, I mean, at this point, I would say it's fair to say that I wonder if he'll start the season with the team.
04:49Well, first of all, he hasn't signed his contract.
04:51So that's one thing you have to look at.
04:53And you talk about Quinchan Judkins, their second-round pick.
04:57By the way, they're pretty much building their running game around.
05:00That's the way they saw.
05:01That's why Nick Chubbs did not come back.
05:03So, yeah, that's something to keep an eye on.
05:05And what video is there?
05:08What could the NFL make of it?
05:10And then what happens is if they feel like there's a real issue here, he could go on the special exemption from the NFL.
05:18So you've got to keep an eye on this one.
05:19It's a big deal, by the way, for the Browns, no question.
