Chasing Mario Williams is silly. I hope this is just a rumor to put pressure on Avril.

I get the feeling that today they are going to gently wade into the pool, not do a cannonball. I was really hoping they could have CJ and Avril under a new contract right now but it is what it is I guess. Just sucks that they can't make a play for Finnegan, Carr, Gaither, etc. without money to spend. There's a ton of our own FA too that need to be accounted for like BOTH Hills, etc. I think there won't be any major splashes coming from the Lions this year. They'll have to hope that they can get Tulloch and Wright under contract and maybe find more Chris Houston types of players that just needed a change of scenery to get back on track again.

Is it me or does the restructure of Stafford for a second straight year really point to a new CJ deal this year and soon?

They were probably working on a new contract for Calvin long before Stafford and Suh restructured their deals. An extension for CJ simply must happen if the Lions plan to be players in free agency. If they can get Calvin's extension completed in the next few days, they can make some moves--retaining Tulloch, Wright, Backus, etc. If Calvin's deal takes much longer, those guys will move on and the Lions will have to look to the draft for replacements.

And who knows how long those guys, Tulloch especially, will be on the market. Hopefully they dont sign with another team before Calvin gets a new deal.

Which leads me to a question about Stafford. He restructured last year and again this year. If he added a year to his contract each time, he should have about 4 years left on his deal then. Is this right? If so, we don't have to worry about extending him anytime soon.

If the Lions can manage to resign our own FA's and then wait until after the draft, I am telling you. There are going to be some very good players out there that can be had for peanuts.

Stafford didn't add years to his deal. Lions just pushing cap charge to end of rookie deal.

Which will all disappear when they make a new deal next year.

Sly, Does that $15 Mil number sound about right to you?

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -march-30/


According to PFT we have $4.5 million left in cap space.

That's probably about right. We'll need that to sign our rookie's from the draft.

Avril counts as $10.6 Million right now. If we can get him to do a long term deal it would be more cap friendly (around $5 Mil) then that would free up some more space.

I wish Avril would realize he's hurting the team with his demands.

One could easily say the same thing about Calvin, Tulloch, Suh, Stafford.....any of the players getting big money. I don't see them stepping up to lower their incomes. Why doesn't Corey Williams take one for the team? His salary seems a bit high for essentially the fourth DT in our rotation.

In truth, we don't exactly know what Cliff's demands are. Is he asking for $12M per year, or $8M per year? Are the Lions only offering $4M per year? We just don't know the specifics, so we can't automatically blame Avril.

That said, it does seem that the Lions have been more than fair with their free agents the past few seasons, and so I can understand the assumption Avril is the one being greedy here. However, in the NFL a player needs to get whatever money he can, when he can. That is not to say I side with Avril, just that I understand his position. The business end of the game has nothing to do with the team. Even those players who restructure their deals will say they are helping the team, but in truth they are helping themselves. I would gladly allow my employer to take my salary for the next year and give it to me now as a bonus. Once that money is in my hand, they aren't getting it back. So to think that a player like Suh or Stafford is doing that just with the best interests of the team at heart is a bit short sighted.

The Lions have to pick a ceiling for their offer. If Avril won't take it, regardless of what deals other teams are offering to other players at his position, then they need to make alternative plans. Avril doesn't want to play the season on the franchise tag, simply because the money is not guaranteed. But at the same time, Avril's trade value may never be higher than it is right now. The Lions want him to sign a long term deal so that they can go out and get more players and pay them, not Avril. Yes, Avril will be part of a better team, and they may go further in the playoffs. But in the end, he's likely to make more money for himself based on his salary, not on the additional income from the team going further in the playoffs.

Somewhere along the line, Avril and his agent have to realize that with no offers coming from other teams, their contract demands are likely a bit too high for the little that Cliff has accomplished. But truth is, they don't have to be realistic with their contract demands right now. It's still pretty early in the free agent/draft/off-season process for them to start limiting the income. Cliff is thinking of himself right now, and I have a feeling that if we were in his shoes we'd be doing the same thing. I don't like it, and he probably doesn't like it either. But that's the ugly side of football negotiations. You have to do what you have to do.

Corey restructured last year. Avril can't sniff CJs jock and tulloch took much less than he was "demanding"

So yes, avril is hurting the team by this disillusioned thought that he's worth $10M+