Detroit Lions: Stevan Ridley No Lock Despite Guaranteed Money
By Zac Snyder
The Detroit Lions’ guarantee of $250,000 to sign running back Stevan Ridley in free agency won’t secure his place on the regular season roster.
Running back has been one of the better position battles to watch during Detroit Lions training camp. Ameer Abdullah and Theo Riddick have always been locks, but the likely two additional jobs behind them have been up for grabs between four players.
Zach Zenner was able to beat out George Winn for a roster spot a year ago so it has been easy to pencil him in over Winn again this year. That leaves Winn, free agent signee Stevan Ridley and rookie Dwayne Washington likely battling for one spot.
Conventional wisdom gave Ridley the inside track to that roster spot heading into camp based on his veteran status as a former New England Patriot and the Lions guaranteeing $250,000 of the one-year deal. Cutting Ridley would mean eating $250K as dead money against the Lions’ 2016 salary cap. That’s a nice chunk of change to guarantee, but as Ridley’s former team recently proved, it’s not enough to guarantee a roster spot.
The Patriots gave running back Donald Brown a similar deal this offseason, but with a $300,000 guarantee. Even so, they released him this morning. As our own Erik Schlitt noted on Twitter, seeing the Patriots move on from Brown despite guaranteeing $300K should tell Lions fans that Bob Quinn shouldn’t hesitate to do the same with Ridley if he can’t earn a roster spot on his own merit.
The Pats released Donald Brown w/ a cap hit of $300,000+
— Erik Schlitt (@erikschlitt) August 23, 2016
keep this in mind if you think Quinn will keep Ridley b/c of his $250,000 cap hit
The Lions have plenty of cap space so $250,000 isn’t much in the grand scheme of things but simple math further shows why the Lions won’t worry about the dead money if Ridley doesn’t make the team. If he does make the team, Ridley will count $680,000 against the cap.
Ridley’s roster spot is in doubt largely because of the performance of rookie Dwayne Washington. If Washington makes the team, he will count $468,941 against the cap in the first year of the rookie deal he signed after being drafted in the seventh round.
It is this difference that plainly shows why the Lions would have no reservations cutting Ridley to give the roster spot to someone who outplayed him in camp and preseason. There is no reason to get caught up in the $250,000 number because the net effect of keeping Washington over Ridley is really only $38,941 (Washington’s full cap hit + Ridley’s dead money if they cut him – Ridley’s full cap hit if they keep him).
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Giving Ridley a quarter of a million dollars regardless of what happens gave him some financial security, but shouldn’t be seen as doing anything to give him football security.