Monday is a big day for the remaining free agents thanks to a quirk in the NFL calendar. Up until 4 p.m. ET on Monday, players who get signed as veteran free agents still count against the compensatory draft pick formula for the 2021 NFL Draft. After that deadline, they don’t impact the formula for their new team.
What that means in more plain terms: If you’ve lost a player to free agency and have a likely comp pick coming as a result, signing a player after 4 p.m. will no longer count against the lost player. In Lions terms, the team should expect a late-round comp pick for losing Graham Glasgow in free agency, but signing players before 4 p.m. counts against what Glasgow signed for in Denver in the formula.
Because the Lions were net spenders in free agency with Hal Vaitai, Jamie Collins and others costing more than the departing free agents like Glasgow earned with their new teams, it creates a market for Detroit to sign players before 4 p.m. on Monday while other teams are waiting it out so they don’t lose comp pick value.
The remaining free agent pool is pretty shallow but does feature some players who could help the Lions. Among them:
EDGE Everson Griffen
DE Jadeveon Clowney
EDGE Clay Matthews
CB Logan Ryan
CB Darqueze Dennard
CB Brandon Carr
WR Paul Richardson
WR Taylor Gabriel
S Tony Jefferson
S Reshad Jones
