The Detroit Lions waded carefully into the free agent negotiating period Monday, re-signing three of their own players while waiting for the receiver and defensive back markets to find their level — and that’s not a bad thing.
The Lions went 3-13-1 last season and will be doomed to another subpar season if they don’t upgrade their roster, but winners in March are rarely winners in February and a rebuilding team like the Lions is usually best served saving its money for another day.
At some point, the Lions will sign a receiver — Detroit native Allen Robinson was still on the market as of Monday evening — and there’s a good chance they use most of their early draft capital to upgrade a defense badly in need of playmakers.
But if you’re waiting for the Lions to win the free-agent spending war, don’t hold your breath.
The most aggressive teams on Day 1 of free agency were the Los Angeles Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars, two teams with one very important thing in common: Both have a talented young quarterback on a rookie contract.
The Chargers splurged to keep receiver Mike Williams last week and gave top free-agent cornerback J.C. Jackson a five-year, $82.5 million deal Monday. The Jaguars agreed to big-money deals with top free agent lineman Brandon Scherff and receiver Christian Kirk, and added not-inexpensive help at tight end (Evan Engram), defensive tackle (Folorunso Fatukasi) and linebacker (Foyesade Oluokun).
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In the NFL, teams with cheap, young quarterbacks have an edge in the roster-building process because of the cap savings they incur at the position, and it’s prudent for them to spend lavishly to surround their quarterback with talent.
The Chargers, who also traded for Khalil Mack last week and added Sebastian Joseph-Day in free agency, will be a popular choice to win the loaded AFC West this season as Justin Herbert enters Year 3 of his rookie deal. The Jaguars will have much lower expectations in a much more winnable AFC South, but they’ve put enough pieces in place around Trevor Lawrence to think they will be improved in 2022.
The Lions, with Jared Goff’s salary an anchor at the quarterback position, are not in the same stage of the roster building process. They need to surround Goff with capable talent to stand a chance on offense, but don’t have the cushion to go all-in in free agency.
At some point, perhaps this year (though I wouldn’t hold my breath on that, either), the Lions will roll the dice on a quarterback in the draft. By spending manageably now, they’ll be in a position to maximize the benefits of having a young signal caller when the time comes.
Four more thoughts on Day 1 of free agency
• Twitter was ablaze Monday when details leaked about Kirk’s contract with the Jaguars: Four years, $72 million, with another $12 million available in incentives.
I get the sticker shock on a receiver who has never had a 100-catch or 1,000-yard season in his career, but I can’t pretend to be appalled by the numbers. The salary cap skyrocketed this year and will do the same next, the cap is easy to manipulate so Kirk’s contract should not be an obstacle in any way, and the 25-year old Kirk is one of the more underappreciated receivers in the NFL and an excellent scheme fit for new Jaguars coach Doug Pederson’s system.
The Jaguars may have spent excessively overall, but Kirk is a potentially elite slot receiver with outside flexibility and he gets A-plus marks in the locker room and off the field.
• Case in point when it comes to manipulating the cap: The Green Bay Packers entered Monday $42 million over the cap, according to NFLPA records. They released linebacker Za’Darius Smith and offensive lineman Billy Turner in moves that freed up about $16 million in cap room, and re-signed linebacker Da’Vondre Campbell to a five-year, $50 million deal.
The Packers will restructure a few more contracts or make another roster move or two to get under the cap, and they’ll eventually get the bill for their cap machinations. But they have a window to compete as long as Aaron Rodgers is their quarterback and it makes sense to dirty up the math to keep the talent they need on their roster.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a cool $11 million over the cap as of Monday, are in the same boat now that Tom Brady is back. I’ve learned over the years that fans and media often feel more constrained by the cap than teams do. Recently, it’s become a yellow light that contending teams easily breeze through.
• It was good to see a couple ex-Lions, Quandre Diggs and Laken Tomlinson, agree to three-year, $40 million free agent deals Monday, and it’s impossible not to wonder what could have been with each in Detroit.
Diggs was run out of town by Matt Patricia in 2019, when he was sent to Seattle in one of the most lopsided trades in franchise history. Patricia was too insecure to handle strong personalities who dared question his methods, so the Lions gifted Diggs plus a seventh-round pick to the Seahawks for a fifth-round choice. In 37 games in Seattle, Diggs has 13 interceptions and has been one of the Seahawks’ most respected players in the locker room.
Tomlinson’s case was slightly different. He was beat down mentally by the heavy-handed approach of ex-Lions offensive line coach Ron Prince. The Lions traded Tomlinson to the San Francisco 49ers in a deal that made football sense, though that trade highlights one of the perils of taking interior offensive linemen high in the draft. Guards sometimes take longer to develop than other positions and often become too expensive for their original teams to keep.
Still, both players, in retrospect, are hits on Martin Mayhew’s draft record.
• Apart from Robinson, who turns 29 later this summer, and potential Lions safety target Marcus Williams, 25, most of the top players on the market as of this writing are 30-something-year-olds: Von Miller (32), Bobby Wagner (31), Chandler Jones (32), Terron Armstead (30), Stephon Gilmore (31), Calais Campbell (35) and Tyrann Mathieu (turns 30 in May).
Those players all will get paid well and most will find homes with contenders, but the NFL still is very much a young man’s game.
Williams remains the best potential free agent fit for the Lions defense, in my opinion. So far, the Lions have treaded water in free agency, re-signing Tracy Walker, Alex Anzalone and Tim Boyle. Pairing Williams and Walker together would give the Lions one of the best safety tandems in the league.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.