How Browns, Texans ruined it for Chargers with rookie Tre Harris

Were this a normal offseason, the Los Angeles Chargers would have Tre Harris under contract and there wouldn’t be any contract drama around the rookie as camp gets going. 

Yet it’s not a normal offseason, as the Chargers continue to find out as rookies report to training camp this weekend. 

The Chargers aren’t unique in their inability to get Harris under contract. Most second-round picks in the NFL this year haven’t signed deals thanks to the teams that made picks at the start of the round. 

Both the Cleveland Browns with linebacker Carson Schwesinger and the Houston Texans with wideout Jayden Higgins gave out fully guaranteed contracts to their second-round picks. Technically, Houston did it first, so Cleveland didn’t really have a choice. 

Now the rest of the NFL waits. That includes the Chargers with Harris. 

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk explained that there’s more going on than simply whether Harris or other second-round picks get fully guaranteed deals or not: 

Beyond the question of how many second-round picks will receive fully-guaranteed deals is the percentage of guarantees the rest of the players in the round will have in their deals. Tre Harris’s slot had 60.24 percent last year. It’ll be higher this year. The amount is TBD.

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) July 12, 2025So far, this impasse hasn’t stopped Harris from working out with rookies and teammates this spring. 

But the summer is a different beast. And the Chargers would like to have him in the loop for preseason games, too, not just practices so he can get on the same page with Justin Herbert. 

For now, it’s a game of who blinks first between Harris and the Chargers, all thanks to the teams at the start of the second round. 

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