The Detroit Lions are all about getting their guys and then paying their guys. We saw that big time this offseason with massive extensions for Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell.
It’s probably safe to assume that more deals are coming for players and that the team will look to sign some more big extensions. Aidan Hutchinson is the big one next year, but there’s Alim McNeil, Carlton Davis, Taylor Decker and Kerby Joseph as well.
The most interesting one though is Jameson Williams. Will he be signed to an extension? That’s the big question here and it might not be an easy one to answer.
Williams has been in Detroit for two seasons and there has been a hefty amount of obstacles to overcome. He was getting back from a torn ACL in his rookie year and that kept him limited when the Lions finally did play him. Last season he missed a chunk of camp with a hamstring injury and then missed a chunk of the season with a gambling suspension. It took a bit before the Lions really started to open up his section of the playbook.
2024 is a big year for Williams. He just completed a nice spring in which Lions head coach Dan Campbell said he was the most improved player. Now he goes into the summer looking to do his first complete training camp and then play his first full season. The expectations are that he’s going to be successful at both and have a big year.
If he does, he would fall into the group of 2022 draftees that could get an extension, but would the Lions grant that extension based off one good year? Would it be fiscally responsible to do so? If they do, would they be looking to get some sort of discount out of it because Williams hasn’t added as much as the other players due for extensions have?
All those questions could very well come into play. The Lions do have some options though. They could decide to do the extension if Williams has a monster season.
The other option is to kick the can down the road by picking up Williams’ fifth year option. That can get a bit pricy though, but not too bad since Williams hasn’t played a ton of snaps. Williams would fall into the basic fifth-year option category. The going rate for receivers in that area this offseason was $14,345,000. Not too bad.
That fifth-year option would lock Williams up till 2026 and give the Lions another year to see if Williams is for real before they make a long term and expensive commitment. This seems like the best way to go for the Lions. He’ll have a big first year on the deal, but the Lions have the opportunity to restructure things to bring down the cap hit.
The last way is to just let him hit free agency after the 2025 season and hope for the best. Judging by what we’ve seen from the Lions as of late, that is a very unlikely option unless things go badly.
They shouldn’t though. Williams is ready to go out and have a breakout season and the Lions are ready for that to happen too. They just need to figure out what that’s going to mean for their books in the very near future.