The Detroit Lions extended both Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell on Wednesday, as the team looks to make a Super Bowl run this season. To be fair, neither player was going anywhere, but their contracts demonstrate that the Lions have not only hit home runs in their NFL Draft classes in recent years, but that the franchise intends to be aggressive and will continue to be aggressive.
GM Brad Holmes has done an outstanding job of bringing this team around, and he’s had three great selections to help him get there. Well, his two top players from the 2021 Lions selection class both receive four-year extensions:
Both players easily hit over $100 million in total value on the deal and both hit at least $75 million in guarantees. These extensions will cut right into their prime years and there’d be reason to believe that each player could re-up on an even richer extension a few years down the road. For the Lions, they had a great season in 2023, making it all the way to the NFC Championship Game, but managed to do so even with a bottom-10 defense.
The squad, who plainly needed to fill defensive positions, made some significant moves on that front, acquiring DJ Reader and Marcus Davenport while trading for CB Carlton Davis. There isn’t an obvious weakness on the Lions squad right now, and I feel this club will need to go deep into the playoffs to avoid defeat.
It’s now plausible to expect the next contract to go to their quarterback, Jared Goff, who has resurrected his career in Detroit, thanks in large part to Ben Johnson, their stud offensive coordinator, who is expected to leave for a head coaching job next cycle.
Everything is going Detroit Lions’ way this offseason.
