If there’s one thing we learned about Detroit Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone this season, it’s that the defense just flat-out works better with him on the field.
He’s a key piece of this team and is likely to continue to be a key piece of this team in 2025, but because he’s so important, the Lions should feel the need to take care of him this offseason and he’s more than likely hoping that they will.
Anzalone is under contract for the 2025 season, but he has no guarantees left on his contract and he’s kind of just hanging out there in the wind. The Lions would likely never cut him or do anything to move on from him, but the fact is that an extension would probably make him a whole lot more comfortable.
I worked with cap expert Joshua Queipo on coming up with a projection for what an extension for Anzalone would look like and here’s what we came up with:
One year, $9 million deal with $7.5 million of that deal is fully guaranteed.
You’ll notice that Anzalone’s extension isn’t as long as a lot of the other projections that we’ve done and that’s based on the fact that Anzalone is 30 years old. The Lions would be a lot more apt to go with year-over-year deals because of that.
This deal would keep him here until 2026, but if he continues to play well, the Lions may just keep on bringing him back. But it’s unlikely that they would do a long-term deal just due to his age.
Here Anzalone gets a fully guaranteed $7.5 million which should ease his worries about getting injured or what have you. This way he gets paid no matter what and the Lions can take care of one of their top guys.