With the Detroit Lions\u2019 season officially coming to a close last Sunday, the team can now begin building its 90-man roster for the offseason. The Lions entered the offseason with 36 players under contract, but on Monday, they announced they\u2019ve added another 12 players: re-signing three exclusive rights free agents (ERFAs) and nine former practice squad players to \u201cfutures\u201d contracts.<\/p>\n
Here is a list of the Lions\u2019 announced transactions:<\/p>\n
Saylors, Niese, and Whiteside all finished the season on the active roster, but because they have less than three accrued seasons in the NFL, they fall into the ERFA category. Players who fall under the ERFA designation have a few unique characteristics assigned to their eligibility in the offseason: the main stipulation being that they are only allowed to negotiate a new contract with their current team, unless the team releases them from the designation. That typically means the team will offer a player a league minimum contract with little to no guarantees, and the player must accept it or sit out the season.<\/p>\n
Curiously, kicker Jake Bates, who is also an ERFA, was not included in the announcement. What that likely indicates is that the Lions are likely debating a longer contract extension, especially considering that two weeks ago, special teams coordinator Dave Fipp indicated that the Lions plan on retaining Bates in 2026:<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNumber one, just look at the big picture. I mean, do you have a good player or not? I mean to me, clearly, we have a very, very good player. If you put him on the streets, there would be a bunch of teams claiming him right away. And the truth is, we\u2019d have a really hard time finding a guy even near the same player as him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
As for the nine players signed to a futures contract, each finished the season on the Lions\u2019 practice squad and was scheduled to become a \u201cstreet free agent\u201d (SFA) at the end of the week. SFAs are eligible for futures contracts, and teams utilize them as a way of delaying a player\u2019s cap hit until the start of the league new year (which coincides with free agency).<\/p>\n
Meeks, Cunningham, Horton, Cochran, and Strickland all saw game action this season via roster elevations, but most eyes will be on Hassanein, the Lions\u2019 sixth-round pick from the 2025 NFL Draft, due to his personality, work ethic, backstory, and potential. Hassanein flashed real pass rushing potential in training camp, but it was clear he still needed to polish his game. Now healthy, with a half-season of practice squad experience, and a full offseason in the Lions\u2019 training program, the young edge rusher could be in for a bigger role in the near future.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth noting that there were another seven players who ended the season on the Lions\u2019 practice squad but did not receive a futures contract on Monday. Oftentimes, additional moves are made in the coming days, so any of the players listed below could still rejoin the Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Detroit Lions\u2019 season officially coming to a close last Sunday, the team can now begin building…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":376049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[223371,27705,49993,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-496693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-detroit-lions-contracts-and-salary-cap","9":"tag-detroit-lions-news","10":"tag-detroit-lions-transactions","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115848692625313476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}