Detroit Lions first day of free agency recap
By Ash Thompson
Who the Detroit Lions retained
The Detroit Lions did manage to sign a number of their impending free agents in the lead up to free agency. Kerry Hyder was an exclusive rights free agent. That means; coming off Achilles tendon surgery, he had no choice but to sign whatever contract the team put in front of him. He will compete with Anthony Zettel for playing time. If he returns to form he is likely the best bargain in football. Hyder had eight sacks in 2016, his last healthy season. The Lions also brought back special teams ace Nick Bellore, who is fifth in the NFL in special teams tackles since 2012. They applied the Franchise tag to Ziggy Ansah, bringing back their intended starting defensive end group from 2017.
The team kept their secondary largely intact as well. Tavon Wilson barely made it into the legal tampering period before signing a two-year contract extension worth $7 million. Nevin Lawson dipped his toes until later in the day. He signed a two-year contract worth 9.2 million dollars the day before free agency opened. Both of these contracts were met with initial skepticism among Lions fans. The dollar value was higher than expected in both cases.
After seeing the terms of several contracts announced later in the day, however, both contracts look like steals. D.J. Hayden for example, Lawson’s backup in 2017, signed a three year $19 million dollar contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. At best Hayden is an equal player to Lawson, but Hayden signed for an average of $1.7 million dollars more on the open market.
Haloti Ngata found work elsewhere almost immediately. He snagged a one year deal with the Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Terms of the deal have not yet been announced. Paul Worrilow has drawn interest from the New England Patriots and is unlikely to return to the Lions in 2018. Darren Fells signed a deal with the Browns for three years and $12 million.
Travis Swanson and Tahir Whitehead have as of yet still not garnered much interest on the open market. Swanson has found himself on the injury report almost constantly over the last two seasons, and his play has suffered. Whitehead has spent the off-season tweeting about how he was not going to “play himself” which has led to speculation he did not like the Lions contract offers. Jones is not the type of player that locates work quickly in free agency. There is a good chance he returns to the Lions without other offers.
Perhaps their most controversial move of the day was cutting Eric Ebron. Finally, Lions fans can stop talking about the 2015 draft. Ebron was due a lofty $8.125 million in 2018, and his performance in 2017 did not rate it. Ebron was non-existent for half of the 2017 season before finally showing up.
Only T.J. Jones was tendered of the Lions restricted free agents. He was tendered with the original round designation, which means that to take him another team has to be willing to give up a sixth-round pick. The Lions other two restricted free agents were Brandon Copeland and Zach Zenner. Both are long shots to remain Detroit Lions in 2018.