The Lions have until Wednesday to sign Tate Ratledge to his rookie deal, or there could be some problems

The Detroit Lions are starting up training camp on Wednesday when rookies report, and they still have not signed second-round pick Tate Ratledge to his rookie deal. 

It's not just a Lions problem at the moment. Only two of the 32 players drafted in the second round have been signed to their rookie deals as of this moment. 

The reason those 30 guys haven't been signed has a lot to do with the two guys who actually did get signed. Both Jayden Higgins and Carson Schwesinger have started a new thing where second-round players are getting fully guaranteed contracts. Clearly, not every team is comfortable with that at this juncture, and everyone is waiting to see what happens with the next guy off the board to act accordingly.

So what happens if the Lions get to training camp on Wednesday and Ratledge is still not signed to his rookie deal? He has to sit out. It's not like OTAs or minicamp, where he can sign a rookie participation agreement that would protect him against injury. If he's not under contract, he can participate. 

If things got really bad, the Lions could lose Ratledge altogether. Not any time soon, but if they never sign him within the next year, they lose their draft rights to him and he becomes a free agent. Do not worry about this happening. This is like the worst-case scenario, and it hasn't happened since 1986 when Bo Jackson refused to sign with the Buccaneers because they didn't want him to play baseball. That's not what's happening here.

Rookie holdouts are pretty rare, and there are a lot of second-round picks who are dealing with this problem right now. The big thing that's so different with a lot of them is that they aren't reporting to camp early like the Lions are and have more time to get it done. But does that time then affect the Lions if they're waiting on the teams ahead of them? We'll see soon.