Training camp is underway, and our Detroit Lions are preparing for what will hopefully be a season of excitement and growth.
Earlier in the offseason, Lions GM Brad Holmes explained some of the decisions he made in free agency.
“Bringing back a lot of our own guys, first of all they wanted to come back, so I think that's a testament to our organization and everybody in our building is that those guys wanted to come back,” Holmes said. “The other thing I'll say about that you could argue they had some of the best years of their careers, if not the best year of their career, with us last year.”
Holmes said they weighed those performances against players at their positions across the league.
“We do our work, we do our due diligence, and those guys had great years for us,” Holmes said. “They played really good football, we know them, we deem that they're fits.”
“When I hear that people wanted us to get more external help, the grass is not always greener, and you kind of know who the culture fits are (for the guys who are here), who are and who aren't,” he said.
Holmes was asked about the strategy behind bringing back so many players from a three-win team, and whether that's the right strategy or not.
“I understand and that's totally fair,” he said. “But I've said all along, we had a plan and we stuck to it.”
Detroit Lions Top 10 salary cap hits for 2022
So, where do the Lions stand regarding the salary cap at this point in time?
According to Over the Cap, the Lions currently have $9,665,243 in available cap space, which ranks them No. 21 out of 32 NFL teams.
As you can see below, Jared Goff leads the way with a $31,150,000 cap hit, followed by Taylor Decker ($18,900,000), Romeo Okwara ($14,500,000), and Jeff Okudah ($9,144,143).
Rookie Aidan Hutchinson is counting as a $6,493,343 cap hit, while the Lions' first-round pick from a year ago, Penei Sewell, has a cap number of $5,477,061.
Here is a look at the Detroit Lions Top 10 salary caps hits for the 2022 season.
| Player | Base Salary | Prorated Bonus | Roster Bonus | Workout Bonus | Other Bonus | Guaranteed Salary | Cap Number |
Dead Money & Cap Savings
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | Per Game | |||||||||||||
| Jared Goff | $10,650,000 | $5,000,000 | $15,500,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $15,500,000 | $31,150,000 |
$30,500,000
|
$650,000
|
||||
| Taylor Decker | $14,750,000 | $3,900,000 | $0 | $0 | $250,000 | $0 | $7,650,000 | $18,900,000 |
$24,250,000
|
($5,350,000)
|
||||
| Romeo Okwara | $11,000,000 | $3,500,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $10,000,000 | $14,500,000 |
$20,500,000
|
($6,000,000)
|
||||
| Jeff Okudah | $895,000 | $5,486,095 | $2,763,048 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $3,658,048 | $9,144,143 |
$19,812,310
|
($10,668,167)
|
||||
| Michael Brockers | $7,000,000 | $1,975,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $4,000,000 | $8,975,000 |
$7,950,000
|
$1,025,000
|
||||
| Halapoulivaati Vaitai | $6,500,000 | $1,733,750 | $0 | $0 | $500,000 | $0 | $0 | $8,733,750 |
$5,201,250
|
$3,532,500
|
||||
| Frank Ragnow | $2,751,529 | $4,800,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $2,751,529 | $7,551,529 |
$34,551,529
|
($27,000,000)
|
||||
| T.J. Hockenson | $965,000 | $3,108,859 | $2,432,895 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $3,197,895 | $6,506,754 |
$15,698,754
|
($9,192,000)
|
||||
| Aidan Hutchinson | $705,000 | $5,788,343 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $705,000 | $6,493,343 |
$35,715,388
|
($29,222,045)
|
||||
| Penei Sewell | $825,000 | $3,721,649 | $930,412 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $1,755,412 | $5,477,061 |
$19,717,419
|
($14,240,358)
|
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