GREEN BAY, Wis. – On June 7, 2024, the Cleveland Browns signed defensive tackle Mike Hall, their second-round pick and the 54th overall selection of the draft.

On June 19, 2025, Green Bay Packers second-round pick Anthony Belton – the 54th pick of this year’s draft – remains unsigned. The Packers aren’t alone. Other than the first two picks, the entire second round remains unsigned with rookies due to report for training camps in about a month.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, draft picks are locked into the basics of their contracts. In Belton’s case, the four-year contract will be worth a bit more than $8.01 million and will include a $2.466 million signing bonus.

The holdup is the amount of guaranteed money. As CBS Sports’ Joel Corry wrote about, it all stems from the New Orleans Saints’ selection of quarterback Tyler Shough at No. 40 overall.

Each year, the bar slides a little more in favor of the players. Last year’s No. 40 pick, Eagles defensive back Cooper DeJean, had all of his first three seasons and a little of Year 4 fully guaranteed. Being a quarterback – and potentially the Saints’ starting quarterback – Shough “is insisting” on having the entire four-year contract guaranteed, according to Corry’s sources.

That would be an enormous shifting of the contractual bar, which would impact everyone else in the round, including Belton.

As the 54th pick last year, Hall’s contract was fully guaranteed for Year 1 and Year 2, and 35.2 percent of Year 3 was guaranteed. How much will Shough’s contract raise the bar?

That’s the reason behind the league-wide waiting game. As one agent with an unsigned pick late in the second round told Packers On SI, “No one wants to look bad since it’d be setting a precedent, so that’s the issue. But someone’s deal will get done and then I’m sure it will start a domino effect.”

Who will set the precedent, though? Considering it’s only mid-June, there’s no sense of urgency. It would be unlike the Packers’ respected negotiator, Russ Ball, to be the one to write the contract upon which other contracts are based.

Presumably, he will wait. Once Shough signs, everything will fall into place based on how much guaranteed money he will get in Year 4.

Well, not so fast. If Shough gets it all guaranteed at No. 40, then what? Last year’s No. 41, Saints cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry, got 8.25 percent of Year 4 guaranteed. Will the agent for this year’s No. 41, Bills defensive tackle T.J. Sanders, want 100 percent of Year 4 guaranteed, as well? Or 95 percent? The Bills no doubt will argue the quarterback is an outlier position; the agent will no doubt argue the opposite.

That makes Sanders’ contract perhaps more important when it comes to Green Bay finalizing a deal for Belton.

Whatever the Year 4 percentage for Shough and Sanders, it will be a huge step forward for the players.

The Year 4 fallout probably will end before Belton’s spot at No. 54. Nonetheless, it should significantly impact the amount of guaranteed salary he’ll receive in Year 3.

Just how much is anyone’s guess, especially toward the latter half of Round 2. Either everyone will wait and build upon precedent, or someone will be the one who sets the precedent.

Time is on everyone’s side. Given the date on the calendar, there might be more pressure to make sure all the toiletries are packed for vacation than to get a second-round pick signed. At some point, with the potential for a training camp holdout getting real, the agent said, “it’ll all culminate into these deals getting done just before camp starts, I’m sure, when there’s pressure to get deals done.”

Even without a contract, Belton was a full participant in the offseason practices. A starting left tackle at North Carolina State, he played mostly right tackle during OTAs and the minicamp.

“He’s a big guy but he moves really well,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “Just watching him in drills, I was really pleased with watching him move laterally and things like that. So, I was impressed with him getting my first glimpse of him on the field in person.”

For a big man, Belton is a “freak athlete,” his coach at NC State said.

“We really liked Anthony’s film at North Carolina State,” Packers offensive line coach Luke Butkus said. “During last year, I believe he was around 360-plus. He’s a little lighter now, but he was really athletic, and now it’s showing even more as he starts to shed some pounds. So, for a big man to be able to move like that, it’s pretty cool.”