Earlier this week we talked about the pros and cons of the Detroit Lions bringing back receiver Josh Reynolds in free agency. Ultimately the ruling was that he should be retained. If the Lions follow suite with that, what could a new contract look like for Reynolds?
Let’s first discuss some of the things that could play a big part. The first is that Reynolds has been pretty reliable outside of the couple gaffes in the NFC Championship game. He had 40 catches in 2023 and 32 of them went for first downs. He also had a couple big plays at the end of games like his big catch against the Saints that won that game for the Lions.
There’s also a good rapport and trust with Jared Goff. A quarterback he’s spent the last six and half years with. That’s all the ore reason to bring him back for more than just one year. This should be something that has some years on it. But you also have to keep in mind that Reynolds is 28 years old and he’s now entering the back half of his career. So something long term is not the way to go.
Our on staff cap specialists have crunched the numbers and took everything laid out above into account and they propose that a two year, $11 million deal is the way to go for Reynolds. This would give him an annual per year salary of $5.5 million and he would have $5 million guaranteed.
A pretty nice deal for both Reynolds and the Lions. It allows Reynolds to get paid for good years of service and future good years of service while also allowing the Lions to have money to do other things at the position if they choose to.
We’ll see soon what the actual deal that Reynold could get is. But if this is the route the Lions can go, this is a good route.