The NFL Combine is just about over and the next big focus for the Detroit Lions will be the free agency period. With this period comes a lot of numbers moving around. It's easy to get lost in all of this and wonder about just how much money your team has to spend at the end of the day. The Lions have a lot of moves to make before they look to sign new players and all they stuff could come fast.
So what we've done today is work up a mock offseason to help gauge a few things. We wanted to project who's getting new deals, who's getting extended, who the Lions will look to restructure and how much all of this going to cost. We also wanted to figure out how much money the Lions could be left with to spend on new free agents.
Before we start I want to give a shout out to our cap analyst Josh Queipo for helping me put these numbers together.
To start us off, the Lions are big on bringing players back. Especially some of the guys that they may consider to be home grown. We went through the very large list of Lions free agents and picked 14 players that we believe the team will bring back. Here's the list along with their contract length, total value and 2024 cap hit:
| Player | Transaction | Years | Total value | 2024 cap hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C.J. Gardner-Johnson |
Re-Sign |
1 |
$5.5 million |
$5.5 million |
| Josh Reynolds |
Re-Sign |
2 |
$5.5 million |
$2 million |
| Graham Glasgow |
Re-Sign |
2 |
$6.5 million |
$2.75 million |
| Jalen Reeves Maybin |
Re-Sign |
2 |
$7.5 million |
$3 million |
| Kindle Vildor |
Re-Sign |
1 |
$2 million |
$2 million |
| Anthony Pittman |
Re-Sign/No Tender |
1 |
$1.06 million |
$1.06 million |
| Brock Wright |
Re-Sign/No Tender |
1 |
$1.06 million |
$1.06 million |
| Benito Jones |
Re-Sign/No Tender |
1 |
$1.75 million |
$1.75 million |
| Scott Daly |
Re-Sign/No Tender |
1 |
$1.06 million |
$1.06 million |
| Khalil Dorsey |
Re-Sign/No Tender |
1 |
$1.06 million |
$1.06 million |
| Craig Reynolds |
ERFA Tender |
1 |
$990 thousand |
$990 thousand |
| Jerry Jacobs |
Re-Sign/Right of first refusal |
1 |
$2.99 million |
$2.99 million |
| Shane Zylstra |
ERFA Tender |
1 |
$990 thousand |
$990 thousand |
| James Houston |
ERFA Tender |
1 |
$990 thousand |
$990 thousand |
| Zonovan Knight |
ERFA Tender |
1 |
$990 thousand |
$990 thousand |
The Lions bring back most of the players that helped them reach the NFC Championship game here. We did not bring back Jonah Jackson. That doesn't mean that this is something that the Lions won't do, it's just that at this time, we feel that he will be moving on.
We're projecting the Lions will offer extensions to three players this offseason. Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Alim McNeil. Penei Sewell was not an option for an extension because we believe the Lions will pick up his fifth year option and look to sign him to a massive extension next offseason. As for the players that are getting extensions this year, here's their projections:
| Player | Years | Total Value | 2024 Cap Hit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jared Goff |
4 |
$190 million |
$19 million |
Saves $13.3 million off 2024 cap |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown |
4 |
$100 million |
$6.25 million |
Increases cap by $2.7 million |
| Alim McNeil |
4 |
$64 million |
$4.53 million |
Increases cap by $1.1 million |
There's three players on the Lions that are best fits for restructures that could help free up some money for the Lions. That's Frank Ragnow, Taylor Decker and Cameron Sutton. Here's what we were able to free up with with restructures with them.
| Player | New 2024 cap hit | Savings in 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Frank Ragnow |
$8.22 million |
$4.6 million |
| Taylor Decker |
$12.86 million |
$6.2 million |
| Cameron Sutton |
$12.68 million |
$7 million |
Ok. The Lions are left with $52 million after they've done all their re-signings, restructures and extensions. Now all we need to do is subtract $3 million of that for draft picks and then another $10 million for in-season transactions and the Lions will wind up with $39 million that they can spend in free agency.
It's important to note that just because they have it, that does not mean they're going to spend it. With both Goff and St. Brown's cap hit raising in 2025 and the massive deal they'll have to make with Penei Sewell, the Lions may look to roll some of this over to next season. That doesn't mean they won't spend money in free agency, but it would likely mean they won't make any large splashes. Which is something to be expected already anyways.
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