Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
As 2022 free agency nears, here are the five worst free agent signings in Detroit Lions modern history.
The NFL has had full-fledged free agency since after the 1992 season. Before that, from 1989-1992 there was a thing called “Plan B Free Agency”, which essentially made a chunk of 37 protected players on each team restricted free agents as we would define it now.
The Detroit Lions have certainly made a lot of mistakes when it comes to roster moves over the last few decades, in free agency, the draft, etc. General manager Brad Holmes signed players to a bunch of one-year deals last offseason, his first in the job, but a bit more aggressiveness could be coming this year. The key will be balancing some aggression with continuing to build out the roster in a responsible way.
Focusing on the last three decades of free agency, and Plan B free agency before that if warranted–let’s call in modern free agency to be a bit concise–here are the five worst free agent signings the Detroit Lions have ever made.
5 Detroit Lions’ five worst free agent signings ever
5. DE/OLB Trey Flowers
Yes, there’s some recency bias here. Flowers’ last two seasons in Detroit (he’s set to be cut when the new league year starts) were minimized by injury, and he proved to be a poor fit for a rebuild after being brought in by Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn in 2019. But when it comes down to it the Lions paid Flowers more than $54 million over three seasons, and got 10.5 sacks out of it.
4. OT Rick Wagner
The Lions signed Wagner was signed to a five-year, $47.5 million deal in 2017. He came in to replace Riley Reiff, who signed with the Minnesota Vikings that offseason, at right tackle as Taylor Decker had already entrenched himself at left tackle as a rookie in 2016.
Reiff was a solid player for the Lions, even if he was not a star. He has remained that solid player for much of the time since, while Wagner lasted three seasons in Detroit and was totally out of the league last season.