With the signing of Aidan Hutchinson’s four-year, $180 million extension this week, the Detroit Lions now have seven core players locked up through the 2028 season. Here are the recent contract extensions each of them has signed:
While there are certainly some big extensions to come in the following years, I want to focus on these seven contracts for now and highlight just how difficult the job of Lions general manager Brad Holmes will be moving forward. Currently, these seven players account for a total $84,830,616 in cap space for the 2025 season. That is just a tad over 31% of the team’s entire salary cap.
Next year, three players take a massive jump in cap hit:
As a result, the core seven’s cap hit jumps from 31.5% to 62.2%.
Now, here’s the good news: those seven players won’t actually take up over 60 percent of the team’s salary cap next year. Detroit can immediately drop Goff’s massive cap hit next year by taking nearly all of that $55 million salary and turning it into a signing bonus that is prorated over the next five years. That could drop his cap hit by around $40 million, and there’s a pretty good chance the Lions will do exactly that. The Lions could take a similar measure with Sewell’s $19.9 million salary (could clear up around $15M) or St. Brown’s $27.5 million salary (could clear up around $20M). Because those players are expected to be around for the next five years minimum, there is little risk in kicking that cap hit further down the road when the salary cap is expected to grow. Kicking the can down the road is only a dangerous strategy if you’re forced to cut ties with those players early. In many of the core seven’s cases, they could be signing another extension in Detroit in four years, which would only help in maintaining cost-effective cap hits down the line.
Still, the charts above highlight how “easy” Holmes has had it so far. Even with maximum restructures for Goff, Sewell, and St. Brown next year, the seven would take up around 37% of the cap—a significant jump from this year’s 31.5%. And it’s only going to get more difficult from there as restructures become both more tricky to do and add some immovable cap hit to future years.
But the Lions are far from alone in this “problem.” Just look at the 2026 cap situation for the Kansas City Chiefs’ top seven players:
As for that Green Bay Packers team that is always bragging about how young they are? Those young players eventually come with some serious price tags, as early as next year:
So while Holmes and company have their toughest days ahead, their problems are far from unique or insolvable. It will simply require the front office to balance the budget delicately, continue to find talented players on cost-controlled rookie contracts, and find free agent steals from the bargain bins.