Harrison is currently under contract through 2020. Harrison stands to make base salaries of $6.75 million and $9 million over the next two years.
The real reason this is happening is that Snacks has no guaranteed money left in his contract, so he is effectively on a rolling one year deal. Given that he is still producing at an extremely high level, it makes sense to rework his deal to give him some guarantees to keep him happy.
He’s going to be 32 at the end of his current contract. I think he’s worth signing to a longer term deal. He’s inarguably the best run blocker in the league and is a leader.
If he hits free agency, he’s going to get a big contract. I think we should sign him to something reasonable and we’ll all be looking at it as a good investment later.
Would love to keep him on longer.
I’d agree EXCEPT the cliff for NFL players is steep and it comes up quick with age. you just see guys lose a step quickly, like Ngata.
And another complication: A’Shawn Robinson is entering his last year in his rookie contract, and he’s going to want a lot of money to stay here. If they bump Harrison’s money up to $10-12 mil, how much do you give Robinson, how much do you want to invest in your DT position relative to every other position and group? It could be that Robinson will go elsewhere anyway, looking for the biggest contract he can get, but Snacks is so valuable to this defense. If I’m the Lions, I try to find out what it will take to keep both of them, but it’s possible they might not be able to keep them both. Hence - if that appears to them to be the case then maybe they better draft a good DT prospect.
Add one year, rework the current deal to make it 3/32 million with 16 million guaranteed. Gives Harrison some guarantees and gives us the ability to cut him in the last year without much blow back. Makes sense.