The Lions and general manager Brad Holmes have done an outstanding job of drafting in recent years, and as a result, they’ve had to be a bit more frugal in free agency this offseason. On a recent appearance on the Lions Collective podcast, Holmes explained how extensions to key contributors over the past few years, and expected extensions over the next couple of years, have put Detroit in a position in which it must think carefully about its free agent spending. 
In 2024 and 2025 alone, the Lions have already dedicated big money extensions to quarterback Jared Goff (four-year, $212MM), defensive end Aidan Hutchinson (four-year, $180MM), wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown (four-year, $120.01MM), right tackle Penei Sewell (four-year, $112MM), defensive tackle Alim McNeill (four-year, $97MM), safety Kerby Joseph (four-year, $86MM), and wide receiver Jameson Williams (three-year, $80MM), among others. Holmes anticipates that more long-term agreements will be expected in the near future for young key contributors like running back Jahmyr Gibbs, linebacker Jack Campbell, tight end Sam LaPorta, and safety Brian Branch.
As a result, their moves in free agency have been extremely limited. In 2025 and 2026, Detroit has only signed two players to multi-year contracts with significant annual value, cornerback D.J. Reed (three-year, $48MM) in 2025 and center Cade Mays (three-year, $25MM) in 2026. In addition, they were forced to watch cornerback Carlton Davis and offensive guard Kevin Zeitler walk in 2025 and linebacker Alex Anzalone, cornerback Amik Robertson, defensive tackle Roy Lopez, defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, and wide receiver Kalif Raymond depart this offseason.
“When we’re looking at the constraints we had financially entering in, we’re not going to be able to do a lot of multi-year deals,” Holmes explained. “For what we’re trying to do with these extensions that we have upcoming, the implications that it would have on our cap would be — I don’t want to call it crippling, but it would have been hard to overcome. We were kind of limited in how many multi-year deals that we actually could get.”
This has forced the team to fill out the rest of the roster with one-year deals for cheap veterans with high upside. Holmes’ draft success is forcing the Lions to find unique ways to fill their top-heavy roster of stars with the right players at the right price.
Not a bad problem to have!
Right? Oh no, we’ve had to lock up homegrown talent.
Are they really back tho ??? They are the Lions, the sun shined on them a couple years, but…….biggest loss, Ben Johnson
they’re really doubling down on the guys they have. Maybe Glenn and Johnson were the real magic
Except the Lions made the mistake of, they paid too many players top dollar 2nd (or more with Goff) contracts and now can’t fill holes that come up with high quality free agents. The point of drafting well isn’t the first big initial wave stars it’s the 2nd and 3rd, etc. waves so you can keep the younger guy with similar abilities on the rookie scale contract and pay free agents to fill holes.