While I have seen some interesting theories on what the Lions might be doing with the Cap money they have freed up there is one that I have not seen yet and wondered what you folks think. What if the money is going to be used to extend Jonah Jackson. He is in the final year of his contract, and IMO it would not be a good idea to try and grab 2 future starting OGs in this year’s draft. Which leaves the options of either letting him play out his final contract year and make a decision next year or get it out of the way so the Lions can focus on the Players they may be looking at for extensions next offseason.
I am not sure how I feel about this, I can see the argument to go either way. So I put it out to the group, what say you should the Lions extend JJ now and getting it over with, or should they wait until next year to make that decision?
I say extend him.
But the cap savings won’t be used on him, the way the Lions have been structuring their contract have been a really small year 1 cap hit. i.e. we paid Cam Sutton $11M per year, but his year one cap hit is only $3.3M
@DeadStroke would you agree that in todays NFL, balance in where the cap is spent is less important as long as you have some rookie salaries in some of the most expensive positions? For example i dont care if my Oline is expensive if my DLine is on rookie contracts. As long as we are getting a big price break somewhere?
Yes I would agree. I really don’t care where the spending is, as long as we have good players for good contracts. I don’t think teams look at the cap hits when evaluating units. If you miss on a DB draft pick, you need to fill it (Levi). But I think the Lions are getting good players at reasonable contracts, where in the past we tended to overpay and sign bad/old players to too big of a contract.
Is it not the case that a new deal for Jackson wouldn’t affect his cap hit this year anyway? The extension would commence at the end of his current deal rather than replacing the final year?
Thanks for the feedback @DeadStroke. Now if there is a signing bonus the Lions might have to adjust for that, right? Or is Slay right and that wouldn’t go into affect until next season? I was under the belief that when giving an extension teams normally roll any remaining contract years into the new contract, to spread any signing bonus out longer to lower the cap hit.
I am torn. On one side keep him. He is going to want top 5 money. And the theory is that they would keep him. The other side of that argument is maybe top 5 money is too much and its easier to replace him with a younger cheaper version. If this draft is as much about winning now as it is about the future is THAT something they are thinking about? Maintaining the OL with cheaper good players or are they clearing all this room to extend him and reward their own as they have said is so important to culture building?
My gut says they extend him but I have heard valid arguments going in both directions.
23’ - 3.25M final year of rookie deal due to escalators…
Extension- 4 years 54MM- see Ben Powers as a lower round pick, less starts in 4 years than Jackson in 3…. Lower pff grade every years. Ben got 4 and 51.5M
If they can get Jonah a contract for an amount they can afford, I’d be shocked if they let him walk. OL seems to be a huge priority for this franchise at this point, and Jonah is a Pro Bowl quality guard in his prime. My guess is they draft an offensive lineman this year who can take the year to learn the system, the ropes, learn the league, and then take over as a cheap RG for the next few years after Big V and Glasgow leave.
I’ll also understand if they let him walk. After all, having huge money tied up into Ragnow, Decker and Sewell (who’s going to get an insane 2nd contract) may just force their hands into more economical guard play. That’s reasonable.
My thoughts too I think brother? The entire “what will happen??” has so many twists and turns. I was listening to WWS yesterday (and I think they are clickbait, but I am starved for Detroit real time content on my commutes) and even the pro Goff guys are under the assumption he will sign a team friendly 35-37 a year deal…if he doesn’t kick him. I just don’t think that is reasonable. I don’t see how he doesn’t sign for at least 45 million a year plus whatever is guaranteed and to be fair, that is what the market demands and the Lions might just pay that. It is just gonna be interesting to see who they prioritize to keep and who they prioritize to lose. We are entering the world of the good teams and franchises where we let good players walk because we can’t pay everyone and we replace them hopefully we good younger players who are cheaper because we have a savant as a GM. It’s just gonna be so much fun to study and see it play out.
To me Jonah is a very solid guard, but he has not broken that elite barrier. He is closer to a Larry Warford then a Quenton Nelson. My fear is he is going to want to be paid at a top 5-10 level with a pro bowl on his resume.
Jonah is going to shoot for Brandon Scherff money, which is 16.5mil a year. That is way above what I would be willing to pay for a guard unless you are a perrennial all pro.
If Jonah takes 4 year, 40mil I would gladly bring him back. I’d probably be comfortable going slightly higher than that, but not much. That would put him just outside the top ten highest paid guards.
Every year you can find several quality starters at guard after round 1. I would much rather draft a guard in the 2nd this year to replace Jonah and re-sign Glasgow for cheap at RG. Use that 16mil towards a higher value position.
No, if there’s a multi-year extension, there will be cash paid up front in the form of a signing bonus. A lot of times, the Lions will drop the base down to the players min salary and give a bonus so the cap hit for the current year doesn’t change.
Say Jonah signs an extension in August, they might give him a $10M signing bonus and drop his base salary for this year from $2,993,000 down to $1,010,000. If they did that on a 5 year contract, his new cap hit would be $3,272,141 where his current cap hit $3,255,141. Basically the same.
When they did Ragnow’s extension in May of 2021, he was due a base salary or $2,209,111, they gave him a signing bonus of $6M signing bonus and dropped his base down to $1,209,111. His cap hit before the extension was $3,870,954 and $4,070,954.
Yea, he’s under contract for this year, any extension would add years after this year.
So the signing bonus hits the cap (pro rated) as soon as the deal is signed and the bonus is paid, even if the contract is for 2024 onwards? In which case there isn’t a huge benefit to doing it this offseason?
I was under the impression that an extension didn’t affect the cap numbers of the current contract, so Jackson would play out his rookie deal and then roll into the new deal and that’s when the signing bonus would start being charged against the cap.