Found this article (dated 2/5/05) on every teams cap situation. They had the Lions ranked 13th best in terms of the cap. Here is a link to the article and what they said about Detroit.

http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/numbers.asp

13?- Detroit Lions?- $15 M?
The Lions have a nice young corps of players -- most of whom are still in the early stages of their contracts, meaning that they are cap-friendly. Keep in mind that the Lions really only have about $65 million wrapped up in actual salaries and bonuses (they only have 33 players signed), so we padded their cap figure with league min. type salaries to fill out their roster. Additionally, the Lions will also be looking to free up cap room (they'll save $1.2M by releasing S Brian Walker), Harrington is open to re-structuring his $10 million that would count against the cap this year, and they may be looking to re-structure WR Az Hakim's salary. The Lions have made no secret that they're hunting for help behind Harrington, at Safety, at TE, and along the OL. It's a good thing that they will have plenty of money to spend to improve because they're looking to make that leap into the playoffs next year.?

Great find Paul. I can see some major players becoming available via cap cuts. One discussed in the About.com football forum was the possibility of Lance Shulters getting the axe in Tennessee. Wouldn't he be a welcome addition if the Lions can't land Darius?

Well that inspires optimisim! I've been a bit pesamistic about the teams chances of signing players like Franks & Greise. Happy to see, the way they're breaking it down, it's not totally unrealistic.

It's hard to see us go after upper-eschelon free agents this season, Millen and Mooch already said they don't expect to go after people the quality that Bryant and Woody were last season.

I think the Lions are going to focus on using their cap space to re-sign McDougle, Raiola, and Drummond. Also sign players like Bell, Walker, Cash, Goodman, Fox, Hopson, possibly Alexander, and possibly Swinton to small contracts.

Looks like the packers are gonna franchise Franks. It would make sense, concidering he would only cost 2.3 million, and we would get 2 first rounders (i think) if he went elsewhere.