A look at whether spending big in free agency equates to winning or not, and why the Lions refuse to do so

We've entered Day 4 of NFL free agency and the Detroit Lions have done very little this week. Their biggest deal was cornerback D.J. Reed. That was a really good deal in which they got a top corner for about $20 million less than the rest of the top corners. They also added linebacker Grant Stuard and nose tackle Roy Lopez. 

Lions fans would really like to know why this team won't go out there and spend a ton of money on name brand talent. There's really two reasons and they both are kind of the same. 

The first is that they already have a bunch of name brand talent and a really good team. Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, Jahmyr Gibbs, Aidan Hutchinson, Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta. Kerby Joseph, Brian Branch, Alex Anazalone, Jack Campbell, Alim McNeill and Frank Ragnow aren't just players who are good to Detroit. They're good to the entire league. Any team would kill to have them. 

The second reason is the Lions have to pay all those guys. They don't just play here for free. Most of the names we put down there are going to be due for extensions or new contracts very soon. You have to pay these guys or you lose these guys. If you want stars, you have to pay stars. 

Now, a lot of fans keep talking about the Bears or the Vikings and how much they're spending and loading up for runs. That one I was really curious about. Does spending money equate to winning? Let's find out. I went back in time a little to look at free agency spending in 2024 and here's the top 10 spenders of 2024 and how their seasons wound up:

You might look at this and say "well, clearly the Chiefs proved that spending in free agency works." Not so fast. The bulk of their spending was to simply keep players they already had. They franchise tagged L'Jarius Sneed before they traded him and then brought back Chris Jones on a huge five-year $158 million deal. That was most of their 184 million spent. That also proves that keeping your good players is bigger than signing new ones. 

What about the Bucs, Rams and Texans? For the Bucs they spent $100 million on Baker Mayfield and $41 million on Mike Evans. The Rams spent $48 million on keeping Kevin Dotson. They did sign Jonah Jackson for $51 million as their biggest free agency signing. They traded him to the Bears last week. 

The Texans did spend a lot of money in free agency and they have a 10-7 record to show for it. They also spent this year taking apart their expensive offensive line and starting over again. 

The thing is that no matter how you spin it, spending a ton of money in free agency on new players just never seems to work. Keeping your stars is always a recipe for success.