The Los Angeles Chargers will be the first NFL team to kick off training camp on Thursday, after rookies and select players reported last Saturday and veterans arrived on Wednesday.

The Chargers and the Detroit Lions — with rookies reporting on Thursday and veterans on duty starting Saturday — will be the first two teams with their entire squads on site. The Chargers, who hold camp in El Segundo, Calif., and the Lions (Allen Park, Mich.) open the preseason with the NFL/Hall of Fame Game on July 31 in Canton, Ohio.

Chargers starting linebacker Daiyan Henley, who had offseason shoulder surgery, said on Wednesday that he expects to be a full participant at training camp. Henley, 25, tore his labrum early in the 2024 campaign and still started all 17 games as well as the lone playoff game. He totaled 147 tackles, one interception, one sack and eight passes defended during the regular season.

Running back Najee Harris likely will begin camp on the active/non-football injury list as he is treated for what his agent called a “superficial eye injury” from a Fourth of July fireworks incident, Chargers general manager Joe Horitz said Wednesday.

Harris was expected to report on Wednesday to the team’s facility in El Segundo after remaining in the Bay Area following the incident in Antioch, Calif., and treatment at Stanford hospital, Horitz said. Harris’ agent, Doug Hendrickson, said following the mishap that the running back is expected to be ready for the 2025 season.

The 27-year-old signed a one-year deal, $5.25 million deal with the Chargers in the offseason that could be worth up to an additional $4 million if he meets all incentives for rushing yardage. Harris and first-round draft pick Omarion Hampton (North Carolina) are expected to be the team’s main ball carriers.

Harris topped 1,000 rushing yards in all four of his seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has 4,312 yards and 28 rushing touchdowns in 68 NFL games (all starts). The Steelers selected him 24th overall in the 2021 NFL Draft, and Harris made the Pro Bowl and the NFL All-Rookie team that season. He became a free agent after the 2024 season.

The 2025 regular season starts on Thursday, Sept. 4 with the Dallas Cowboys against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Cowboys will have their full squad on site on Monday, while the defending Super Bowl champions will do the same on Tuesday.

The Kansas City Chiefs, who face the Chargers in the league’s second regular-season game in Brazil on Sept. 5, will have their full squad on site on Monday. There will be 30 clubs fully reported by Tuesday, while the Atlanta Falcons and Steelers are having players report on July 23.

This year’s training camps will feature 29 clubs scheduling joint practices with other teams, and 26 clubs (81.3 percent) will hold the majority of camp at their practice facility, home stadium or at a site within 10 miles of team headquarters. By comparison, 10 of the 31 teams in 2000 chose to stay home.

Six clubs are holding camps away from their facilities: Buffalo Bills (Rochester, N.Y.), Cowboys (Oxnard, Calif.), Indianapolis Colts (Westfield, Ind.), Chiefs (St. Joseph, Mo.), Rams (Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles) and Steelers (Latrobe, Pa.).

–Field Level Media

Only two of 32 second-round picks in the 2025 draft are under contract with NFL training camp set to begin when Los Angeles Chargers veterans report Thursday.

Wide receiver Tre Harris, the second-round pick of the Chargers, was a no-show when rookies reported to training camp earlier this week.

A total of 30 players selected between picks 33 and 64 are unlikely to report without contracts in a standoff centered around one team’s decision — the Houston Texans — to hand out the first ever fully guaranteed contract to a second-round pick.

Iowa State wide receiver Jayden Higgins signed the four-year, $11.7 million contract in May and would receive every penny of that deal even if he’s released or injured.

Team president Nick Caserio said the Texans moved up to get Higgins in part because they were surprised he wasn’t selected in the first round as their team draft board projected.

“Watch him play. Here is a guy that basically made himself into an NFL football player,” Caserio said of Higgins, who began his career at Eastern Kentucky. “I mean, go watch him play. He went down to the Senior Bowl and he had a good week. Why did we pick him? Because he’s a good player, he’s a great kid, he’s got the right mindset.”

The precedent of the guaranteed checks pushed the Cleveland Browns to do the same with the only player picked in the second round before the Texans drafted Higgins 34th overall. Cleveland, which began the trend of fully guaranteed deals for quarterbacks when they acquired Deshaun Watson from Houston (and handed him $230 million over five years), guaranteed the four-year contract with UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger. He’ll pocket $11.8 million over the next four years.

Portions of pay to NFL second-round picks have been guaranteed since the rookie pay pool and slotting wage scale went into effect in 2011. In last year’s rookie class, four-year deals were anywhere from 50 percent to 95 percent guaranteed.

The 35th overall pick in the 2025 draft, Seahawks safety Nick Emmanwori (South Carolina), and No. 36, Browns running back Quinshon Judkins (Ohio State), are extremely unlikely to fold in negotiations without elevated guarantees. From the 2024 draft class, the first pick in the second round — Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman — signed a contract that is all but fully guaranteed (at just under 96 percent) for four years.

But despite Judkins’ recent arrest, Cleveland’s history of giving up leverage in these situations won’t be dismissed.

If there is a rookie picked in the second round with the most to lose on the field, it could be Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (Louisville). The 40th pick overall, Shough is competing to start in New Orleans following the release of Derek Carr. The breaking point could come down to Shough’s view of the financial risk up front and the fallout involved with not reporting to training camp on time.

The 40th overall pick in the 2024 draft, Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean, had $7,469,987 of his $9.2 million contract guaranteed by Philadelphia when he signed in May before rookie minicamp last year.

–Field Level Media

Cornerback Jahdae Barron signed a four-year deal with the Denver Broncos, ending a standoff with the 20th overall pick in the 2025 draft.

The Broncos have not yet agreed to a deal with second-round pick RJ Harvey. The running back is one of 30 second-round selections who haven’t signed their contract with training camps starting as soon as next week.

Barron’s deal leaves Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Shemar Stewart as the only unsigned first-round pick in the 2025 draft class.

Barron, 23, had five interceptions as a fifth-year senior at Texas in 2024. His contract includes a fifth-year option and has an initial value of $18.1 million, according to the NFL’s rookie contract slotting structure.

Stewart, drafted 17th overall, is at odds with the Bengals over language in his contract allowing the team to void future guarantees in the event he is involved in legal or disciplinary issues.

–Field Level Media