NFL free agency has slowed to a crawl, and the Detroit Lions may be nearly done with their additions. The roster currently stands at 67 players. And when you consider Detroit’s nine draft picks and another dozen or so undrafted free agent signings, that puts them right up against the 90-man limit.
But during his podcast appearance on the Lions Collective show this week, Lions general manager Brad Holmes insisted the team is not done.
“We’re not done yet,” Holmes said. “We’re not done yet. We’ve got our eyes open, leading all the way up until the draft. So, this thing’s not over yet. Now, I don’t have a crystal ball. Don’t take that as the definite, because if we don’t sign anybody, and then you say—. But, seriously, we’re still actively looking, still actively having discussions with players’ agents. So we’re not done.”
Detroit is currently projected to have a little under $24 million in cap space (not including the unreported contract terms of Teddy Bridgewater or Ben Bartch). And while the Lions would certainly like to carry at least $15 million into the season and need another $5-6 million to sign the draft class, the Lions certainly have some wiggle room and opportunity to restructure contracts to create more space, if necessary.
But what was particularly interesting about Holmes’ comments was the potential of the team signing more players after the draft.
“We’re going to keep adding post-draft. I think we have a really good process for that, as well to identify those guys,” Holmes said. “That’s the cool thing about the draft. Yeah, you get the draft picks, you get those young guys that you’re really excited about, but after the draft, there’s some exciting guys that are available that have played a lot of ball that you can still add. So I think we have the right competition, but it’s far from done.”
In the past, the Lions have indeed added some veterans after the draft who have become contributors for them. Last year, they signed veteran linebacker Zach Cunningham in May, running back Jacob Saylors in July, and claimed Thomas Harper off waivers in August. Other notable post-draft adds in previous years include Kyle Peko, Jake Bates, Pat O’Connor, Teddy Bridgewater, Isaiah Buggs, and John Cominsky.
This offseason, there are plenty of talented veterans who may be taking their time to sign in order to see what opportunities are out there after the draft. That list includes Joey Bosa, Haason Reddick, Von Miller, Cameron Jordan, DJ Reader, Bobby Wagner, Kevin Zeitler, Calais Campbell, and Avonte Maddox, among many others.
So if you’re down on the Lions’ roster, you can at least take some solace in knowing there will still be opportunities for this team to improve both in the draft and shortly after the draft.
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