Thursday, January 17, 2013
New pact for Stafford?
By Tim Kavanagh
The Detroit Lions' salary cap for 2013 is currently slated to be $124.6 million with their current commitments (the NFL cap will be around $120 million), and that doesn't include re-signing anyone from their group of impending free agents (which numbers 23, including several starters like DE Cliff Avril, CB Chris Houston, S Louis Delmas, LBs Justin Durant and DeAndre Levy and RT Gosder Cherilus), nor does it include signing their upcoming draft class. So what do they do?
According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press -- and as hinted in the title of this post -- the Lions are considering a contract extension for QB Matthew Stafford. A contract extension that makes the cap hit go down? Yes indeed.
As you'll remember from last offseason, the Lions pulled off a similar feat in extending WR Calvin Johnson; by making him the richest WR in NFL history, they actually reduced his salary cap hit for 2012 by around $10 million. Aside from making players take a simple pay cut, a contract extension is the best way to free up some additional space, and it appears that the Lions will attempt to pull off the feat again this offseason.
