The Detroit Lions 2020 season is over and that means we’re on to the offseason.
Here, we will examine the contract status of every Lions player as the team heads into the 2021 offseason in order to get a better understanding of the team’s depth and needs.
Key Terms:
- UFA = Unrestricted Free Agents are free to sign with any team come free agency
- RFA = Restricted Free Agents can receive offers from other teams but the Lions hold the rights to match the offer or potentially receive compensation for losing the player
- ERFA = Exclusive Rights Free Agents are only allowed to negotiate contracts with the Lions unless the team chooses to let them explore free agency
- SFA = Street/Other Free Agents are players who were signed to any NFL franchise’s roster in 2020, but not on the active roster at season’s end. For this exercise, players on the Lions’ practice squad, who have seen their contracts expire, are now eligible to sign a Futures Deal with any team.
- Of note: a futures deal is a contract — typically the league minimum with no guarantees — that allows younger players to be offered an early spot on a team’s 90-man roster, but their salary doesn’t impact the team’s salary cap until the league’s new year begins — in March when the unrestricted free agency period opens.
- 2021 Cap Hit = This won’t always equal the amount of money a player is paid for the season, but it is an account of how much he will count against the team’s salary cap if he is on the 2021 roster.
- Guarantees remaining = this is the remaining guaranteed money owed to the player over the remainder of his contract, not just 2021. If the Lions move on from a player with guaranteed money, that amount will count against the Lions cap, even though the player is no longer on the roster.
Players are grouped by position, with the starters bolded.