Sports

The latest second-round draft pick to get his rookie contract done just before training camp is Cowboys defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku.

Although there hasn't been an official announcement, the Cowboys' website notes multiple reports saying Ezeiruaku has agreed to terms.

The pace of second-round draft pick signings has been slow this year amid disagreements between teams and agents about how much of each pick's rookie contract will be guaranteed. There's no immediate word on the guarantee Ezeiruaku got, but suffice to say it will be less than the full guarantee the top three picks of the second round received, but more than the 44th overall pick last year got.

Ezeiruaku played his college football at Boston College and last year was the ACC defensive player of the year, a first-team All-American, and the winner of the Ted Hendricks Award for the best defensive end in college football.

Another second-round draft pick got his rookie contract done just in time for training camp when the Bills signed T.J. Sanders on Thursday night.

Sanders' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, announced that Sanders agreed to a four-year, $10.645 million contract with $10.073 million guaranteed.

That means 95 percent of the contract is guaranteed, and that has been the big sticking point keeping second-round picks from signing their rookie contracts this year. The first two picks of the second round, Browns linebacker Carson Schwesinger and Texans wide receiver Jayden Higgins, both got unprecedented fully guaranteed contracts in May. That led the agents for the other 30 second-round picks to demand bigger guarantees, and that's why for two months no other second-round picks signed their deals.

But with training camps opening a sense of urgency set in, and in the last 24 hours a flurry of second-round picks have signed. Sanders is a defensive lineman from South Carolina who should play plenty as a rookie this season, and the Bills wanted to get him in the fold before camp opened. Now they have.

Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt is now the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history. He'll hold that title until the moment Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons signs his next contract.

It's unclear when that will be. Still, barring something completely unforeseen and unexpected, Parsons will get a deal. And it will be worth more than Watt's $41 million per year in new money.

The question is whether Parsons will set the new standard by a little — or by a lot. Will he get $41.1 million? $42 million? $45 million? More?

Our guess is it'll be closer to $45 million, if not more than that. He's well younger than the edge rushers who have gotten to the $40 million mark (Watt and Myles Garrett). And, again, the longer the Cowboys wait, the more expensive the final deal likely will be.

It's actually good for the Cowboys and Parsons that Watt's deal was done. Parsons and his agents may have wanted to wait for Watt before doing a deal. Even though Parsons might exceed Watt and Garrett by a significant margin, the Watt deal remained a key data point for Parsons.

Now, Parsons has the information. He can do a deal.

If and when the Cowboys decide to finally do it.