2026 Detroit Lions Offseason Thread

[Motown Bombers]

A big reason why the Lions have $13 million in cap is because they signed Hutchinson and Williams to extensions and lowering the cap hit on that 5th year option. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

When I was looking at Spotrac they were showing the Lions as having over $20 million cap space, which would be 5th most in the league. Any restructures they do only adds to that. It seems with the restructures they would be in a very healthy cap situation with plenty of money to spend in free agency if they are smart about it. Brad doesn't blow money in free agency, so I'm certain they will be smart about who they sign. I just want them to be more aggressive in addressing needs, particularly along the interior Oline.

[Motown Bombers]

34 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

When I was looking at Spotrac they were showing the Lions as having over $20 million cap space, which would be 5th most in the league. Any restructures they do only adds to that. It seems with the restructures they would be in a very healthy cap situation with plenty of money to spend in free agency if they are smart about it. Brad doesn't blow money in free agency, so I'm certain they will be smart about who they sign. I just want them to be more aggressive in addressing needs, particularly along the interior Oline.

They have $20 million right now for 2025. For 2026, per Spotrac, they have $13 million which is 20th. They were $7 million over but rolling over $20 million puts them under the cap. They were still over the cap even with rolling over cash but the Hutchinson extension gave them room next year. If they signed Zeitler for the contract he got with Tennessee, that would have been $9 million less this year, which means $9 million less to roll over, which would mean only $4 million in space next year vs $13 million and Zeitler no longer on the team. The Lions signed arguably the top cornerback available last year so it’s not like they weren’t active. 

[KL2]

On 1/2/2026 at 10:28 PM, Motown Bombers said:

They have $20 million right now for 2025. For 2026, per Spotrac, they have $13 million which is 20th. They were $7 million over but rolling over $20 million puts them under the cap. They were still over the cap even with rolling over cash but the Hutchinson extension gave them room next year. If they signed Zeitler for the contract he got with Tennessee, that would have been $9 million less this year, which means $9 million less to roll over, which would mean only $4 million in space next year vs $13 million and Zeitler no longer on the team. The Lions signed arguably the top cornerback available last year so it’s not like they weren’t active. 

Yeah but with zeitler they might have been a playoff team, and if we won the Super Bowl nobody would have cared about having an extra 7 million in this years free agency. Can’t just portray it as well we don’t sign this guy so we could have more space in 2026, could that be the right move? Maybe. But there is more to it than you present.

and we signed the top corner cause we lost a top corner. So it’s not like we were actively upgrading much, more of a replacement. Again context matters.

[Motown Bombers]

39 minutes ago, KL2 said:

Yeah but with zeitler they might have been a playoff team, and if we won the Super Bowl nobody would have cared about having an extra 7 million in this years free agency. Can’t just portray it as well we don’t sign this guy so we could have more space in 2026, could that be the right move? Maybe. But there is more to it than you present.

and we signed the top corner cause we lost a top corner. So it’s not like we were actively upgrading much, more of a replacement. Again context matters.

The Lions were a 15 win team who had most of their defense coming back healthy. They didn’t need many upgrades. Ragnow hadn’t retired. Holmes could have went into 2025 with the two guys he drafted, Arnold and Rakestraw, as CB one and two. Instead, he signed the top corner available. Context matters. 
 

Zeitler is only a marginal improvement over Ratledge. The fact you think Zeitler could elevate a 9 win team to a Super Bowl is laughable. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

The argument, at least on my end, is that there was speculation of Ragnow retiring for two straight offseasons, this one and the last. So if fans and the media were speculating about it, you'd have to think the organization was aware of it. What some of us wanted was for them to preplan for such a significant loss to your offensive line. It's why I wanted a G/C draft pick in the 2024 draft and wanted someone in this year's draft. 

I think if you added either a Zach Frazier or Jackson Powers-Johnson, had them sit behind Ragnow for a year, and brought back Zietler or a comparable free agent, you're looking at a different scenario for this season.

If our OL this year was Decker/Ratledge/Fraizer/Zeitler/Sewell with Mahogany, Colon, and Skipper coming off the bench I think that's a net WAR of at least a win, quite possibly a net of two wins. 

[Motown Bombers]

9 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

The argument, at least on my end, is that there was speculation of Ragnow retiring for two straight offseasons, this one and the last. So if fans and the media were speculating about it, you'd have to think the organization was aware of it. What some of us wanted was for them to preplan for such a significant loss to your offensive line. It's why I wanted a G/C draft pick in the 2024 draft and wanted someone in this year's draft. 

I think if you added either a Zach Frazier or Jackson Powers-Johnson, had them sit behind Ragnow for a year, and brought back Zietler or a comparable free agent, you're looking at a different scenario for this season.

If our OL this year was Decker/Ratledge/Fraizer/Zeitler/Sewell with Mahogany, Colon, and Skipper coming off the bench I think that's a net WAR of at least a win, quite possibly a net of two wins. 

All offseason you were arguing for Trey Hendrickson which would have been a disaster. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

24 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

All offseason you were arguing for Trey Hendrickson which would have been a disaster. 

Yes. And I made other comments the last two offseasons about wanting to get younger on the offensive line. I also made a comment about bringing back Zietler or bringing in a veteran Guard. During the 2024 Draft I specifically mentioned wanting to draft one of JPJ or Fraizer, so this isn't me stating all this in hindsight.