The unusual reason the Jets haven't signed their entire draft class

The New York Jets were one of the most proactive teams in the league this offseason. They retooled their roster, brought in a new regime to hopefully change their culture, and quickly locked in nearly every member of their 2025 draft class. Nearly.

Second-round rookie tight end Mason Taylor remains unsigned, the lone holdout from the team’s seven-man draft haul. This isn't a Jets-specific issue, however.

Taylor’s delay is tied to a quiet but growing standoff that’s affecting essentially the entire second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. And when the dust settles, it has the potential to change how rookie contracts are negotiated moving forward.

So why is Taylor still unsigned when nearly 90% of the 2025 class is already under contract? The answer has less to do with the Jets and more to do with league-wide precedent and one quarterback in New Orleans.

Why have the Jets not signed Mason Taylor yet?

Under the current CBA, rookie contracts are tightly slotted by draft position. Since 2012, when the rookie wage scale took effect, there’s been little room for negotiation.

Every rookie signs a four-year deal (with a fifth-year option for first-rounders), and contract values fall within a preset range based on where a player was picked. That’s why most rookies tend to sign rather quickly. There's been a hiccup this year, however.

Of the 257 players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, 223 have already signed. Of the 34 remaining unsigned players, 30 of them were selected in the second round.

That includes Jets tight end Mason Taylor, who was selected No. 42 overall. We haven't seen a logjam like this since 2020, when the pandemic wiped out offseason workouts and delayed signings across the board.

So what’s causing the holdup this time? A massive shift in how second-round picks, and their agents, for that matter, view guarantees.

It started with the Houston Texans, who gave 34th overall pick Jayden Higgins the first fully guaranteed contract ever for a second-rounder. One day later, the Cleveland Browns matched it for No. 33 overall pick Carson Schwesinger. That opened the floodgates.

Now, players taken just a few picks later, like Taylor, are holding out for similar deals, especially when it comes to full guarantees in the third and even fourth years of their contracts.

The problem is that teams are pushing back, especially with players taken further down the round. More specifically, the entire second round is essentially frozen while agents wait to see how the Tyler Shough situation plays out.

Shough, selected 40th overall by the Saints, is demanding a fully guaranteed deal, per former NFL agent and current CBS Sports analyst Joel Corry. Shough believes he’ll be the Saints’ Week 1 starting quarterback following the retirement of Derek Carr.

His camp wants his contract to reflect that, including full fourth-year guarantees. That standoff is now affecting everyone picked around him. That includes Taylor, who falls just two picks after Shough.

Taylor’s camp isn’t asking for a quarterback premium, but they’re likely holding firm on a fully guaranteed third year and possibly partial security in Year 4.

The precedent is already in place, as the Jets themselves were part of this trend two years ago when they fully guaranteed the third year for 2022 second-round pick Breece Hall, after the Texans did the same with Jalen Pitre.

The difference now is how deep those guarantees extend. Even players taken in the middle of the second round in recent years, like Tyler Nubin, Max Melton, and current Jets defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis, began pushing for partial third-year and fourth-year guarantees.

With each draft cycle, the bar moves higher. What makes this standoff even more unique — and ideally less problematic — is that it’s not contentious.

Taylor has been a full participant in offseason workouts despite not being under contract. He hasn’t held out or made public demands. But behind the scenes, both sides are clearly waiting for a resolution to the situation, and that hinges on how the Shough negotiation unfolds in New Orleans.

Eventually, as training camp nears, teams and agents will feel more pressure to get deals done, regardless of Shough's situation. But for now, Taylor remains unsigned, not necessarily because of anything the Jets have or haven’t done, but because of a leaguewide issue.

This isn't a standoff between the Jets and their rookie tight end. It's a standoff between NFL teams and agents.

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