The following is the opinion of Senior Writer Tim Twentyman and not of the Detroit Lions football personnel.
The official start of the new league year and free agency is one week away, and that's when the retooling of Detroit's 2026 roster can officially begin for Lions general manager Brad Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell.
The Lions will have to free up some salary cap space before the start of the new league year, but they have roster mechanisms available to accomplish that, like contract restructures and releases.
Holmes said after the NFL Scouting Combine last week they'll have to weigh potential contract extensions for players like linebacker Jack Campbell, running back Jahmyr Gibbs, tight end Sam LaPorta and safety Brian Branch with how aggressive they can be in free agency.
"Those decisions will affect the next decision in terms of how much available finances you'll have to spend," Holmes said. "The decisions that we have to make, or that we have been faced with, is that you don't have two separate budgets, right? It's only one budget, it's only one pot, right?
"And so, when you take the philosophy of draft, develop and retain ... well, the word retain means pay. You got to pay money, so if there's one budget, you don't have your own retain player budget and then a separate external free agent budget.
"It's how much you want to use to retain your own players, it's how much you want to use for external free agents. But the more you retain, the smaller that budget becomes. But we'll have flexibility to do some things, so I don't think every single year is the same."
The NFL increased the salary cap for the 2026 season by $22 million (7.9 percent increase) to $301.2 million per team, which gives general managers like Holmes some added flexibility.
Here is my list of 10 potential free agents that could interest the Lions:
(Note: This list does not include current Lions set to become free agents who could re-sign with the team.)