The 2022 free agent hoax period is due to begin on Monday, March 14 at 12:00 pm ET, with the league’s New Year and the official opening of free agents due to begin two days later.
As the Detroit Lions prepare for free agency, they have begun making adjustments to their roster. Lions last week:
Note: You can see all the moves and check out the roster in our ever-updated article: Contract Status of Every Lions Player Departing in the 2022 Off-Season.
Another piece of unnoticed news that happened this week was that the NFL had finalized the league’s salary cap, setting a baseline of $208,200,000 for the 2022 season. We have known that this is the target number for some time, but until now it was not clear what the maximum number of salaries for each team would be.
Here is how it is installed. Starting from the base cap set by the league and adding a team-specific rollover, as well as adding team-specific adjustments (changes made based on 2021 contracts that were not met, i.e. no bonuses were reached or in-game credits were not earned). checks), you reach the maximum amount of expenses. For Leo, this formula looks like this:
$208,200,000 (base) + $1,079,476 (carryover) + $8,401,096 (adjustments) = $217,680,572
This new cap is the fifth-highest in the NFL this season, according to OverTheCap.com.
Now that the maximum salary cap has been set to determine the ceiling space available, we need to look at the contracts the Lions currently have for 2022, keeping in mind that only the top 51 can reach the salary cap. The Lions have $25.8 million of free space, according to OTC, but they have yet to adjust the release of Flowers, which means another $10.4 will be added. (Note: These figures are confirmed by the NFLPA Salary Tracker)
That is, based on these conditions, the Lions enter the 2022 season with more than $36 million in salary capranked sixth in the NFL by OTC forecasts.
As always with the salary cap, things remain volatile. Josh Reynolds’ contract has yet to be considered as details of his contract have not been released, but based on OTC forecasts, the Lions will still remain in the top six or seven teams in cap space available.
The Lions must also include funds for their draft class in their off-season plans, with over-the-counter drafts costing them roughly $16 million if they keep all of their picks. Again, all teams need to consider this and the Lions will still be in good shape with their cap situation.
Of course, if the Lions decide they need more space, they could also restructure contracts with some players, as we detailed earlier this offseason, but they’re currently in no rush to make such moves.
After all, the Lions enter the new year in great shape to actively add talent for their second year of recovery.