Extensions Have Limited Lions’ Free Agent Spending

In 2024 and 2025 alone, the Lions have already dedicated big money extensions to for quarterback Jared Goff (four-year, $212MM), defensive end Aidan Hutchinson (four-year, $180MM), wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (four-year, $120.01MM), right tackle Penei Sewell (four-year, $112MM), defensive tackle Alim McNeill (four-year, $97MM), safety Kerby Joseph (four-year, $86MM), and wide receiver Jameson Williamson (three-year, $80MM), among others. Holmes anticipates that more long-term agreements will be expected in the near future for young key contributors like running back Jahmyr Gibbs, linebacker Jack Campbell, tight end Sam LaPorta, and safety Brian Branch.

As a result, their moves in free agency have been extremely limited. In 2025 and 2026, Detroit has only two players to multi-year contracts with significant annual value: cornerback D.J. Reed (three-year, $48MM) in 2025 and center Cade Mays (three-year, $25MM) in 2026. In addition, they were forced to watch cornerback Carlton Davis and offensive guard Kevin Zeitler walk in 2025 and linebacker Alex Anzalone, cornerback Amik Robertson, defensive tackle Roy Lopez, defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, and wide receiver Kalif Raymond depart this offseason.

“When we’re looking at the constraints we had financially entering in, we’re not going to be able to do a lot of multi-year deals,” Holmes explained. “For what we’re trying to do with these extensions that we have upcoming, the implications that it would have on our cap would be — I don’t want to call it crippling, but it would have been hard to overcome. We were kind of limited in how many multi-year deals that we actually could get.”

This has forced the team to fill out the rest of the roster with one-year deals for cheap veterans with high upside. Holmes’ draft success is forcing the Lions to find unique ways to fill their top-heavy roster of stars with the right players at the right price.