NFL.com’s Albert Breer raised a bit of a ruckus with his Tweet on Monday morning listing the Lions as having the most cap room left. There is a very important asterisk that needs to be included, one whose omission is a critical error in the Tweet.
Most of the free agent deals are not yet finalized. In fact, the only addition for the Lions that has been made official by the team is the trade for Duron Harmon from the Patriots. With Darius Slay’s trade to Philadelphia official, the cap figure doesn’t reflect the contractual commitments the Lions made to any of their free agent signings.
Aside from not taking into account signing Jamie Collins, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Desmond Trufant or any other newcomers, it also doesn’t factor the rookie salary pool.
In his detailed breakdown and spreadsheet of the Lions spending, which includes the agreed-upon but officially unsigned free agent deals, out Erik Schlitt estimates the Lions with about $22.1 million in available cap room.
That’s still plenty to work with for GM Bob Quinn, if they truly covet more free agent signings. As Schlitt notes, Quinn typically reserves about $10 million in insurance/cushion to have some flexibility during the season.
