The Lions made a big trade in the first week of free agency that brought them their new cornerback one in Carlton Davis. The new corner was in the final year of his deal and had a big cap hit of $14.35 million. Now the Lions have worked out a restructure with Davis and saved themselves $4.5 million in cap space.
They were able to work $6 million of his salary into a signing bonus and now Davis' cap hit is $8 million for the 2024 season. So what does all this mean? I think it means two things.
The first is that it's likely that an extension is coming for Davis. Maybe even before the season starts. Davis mentioned in his introductory presser that he has already had discussions with the Lions about an extension and that he would love to sign with the Lions and stay in Detroit.
An agreement to restructure a deal less than a week after joining the team is a good sign that the two parties are on the same page and that the discussions of an extension are very much ongoing.
From a team aspect, freeing up money means the Lions aren't done making moves in free agency. There's still a lot left that they can do. They also haven't extended Jared Goff or Amon-Ra St. Brown yet. Those moves were expected to happen this offseason. In terms of free agency, the Lions can still add help in some areas that they're light in. They could use a safety or two, a starting left guard, pass rushing depth and you can't have too many corners.
Some of this money could be rolled over into next offseason when the Lions will have to get extensions for Penei Sewell, Alim McNeil and others. Rolling over money is a smart move for teams. The 49ers are a team that did it last year and they're probably really happy they did.
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