{"id":657997,"date":"2026-01-06T08:51:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/657997\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:51:27","slug":"detroit-lions-re-sign-3-free-agents-keep-9-on-future-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/657997\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions re-sign 3 free agents, keep 9 on future deals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/87313834007-111725-lions-2-h-067.jpg\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Detroit Lions LB Alex Anzalone reflects on 2025 season<\/p>\n<p>Detroit Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone said the NFL is &#8220;tricky,&#8221; saying that the league provides urgency for teams trying to win.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/sports\/lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Detroit Lions<\/a> got an early jump on their offseason roster building Monday, Jan. 5, re-signing three exclusive rights free agents and keeping nine players on future deals.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/detroit-lions\/334\" data-autotag=\"a9d615a6-a025-4346-9c29-28956ed45852\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lions<\/a> re-signed running back Jacob Saylors, cornerback Nick Whiteside and offensive lineman Michael Niese a day after their season ended with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/lions\/2026\/01\/04\/lions-bears-score-week-18-game\/88017173007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a 19-16 win over the Chicago Bears.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Saylors played primarily on special teams this season and was the Lions&#8217; top kick returner, Whiteside appeared in nine games and had three pass breakups, and Niese appeared in eight games as a backup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"related-link\">BIG DECISION: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freep.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/lions\/2026\/01\/05\/who-will-call-plays-for-detroit-lions-in-2026-dan-campbell-unsure\/88035724007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dan Campbell undecided on calling Lions plays on offense in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>All nine of the players the Lions signed to future contracts finished the season on their practice squad: Defensive end Ahmed Hassanein (who was a draft pick last year), wide receivers Jackson Meeks and Malik Cunningham, offensive linemen Devin Cochran and Mason Miller, running back Jabari Small, tight end Zach Horton, defensive tackle Chris Smith and safety Loren Strickland.<\/p>\n<p>Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:dbirkett@freepress.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dbirkett@freepress.com<\/a>. Follow him on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/davebirkett.bsky.social\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/davebirkett\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">X<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/davebirkett\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0at @davebirkett.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Detroit Lions LB Alex Anzalone reflects on 2025 season Detroit Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone said the NFL is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[247,265,374,692,391,11333,146,113,2506,7,20842,4261,17768,17643,147,478,30135,1755,3511,6126,6286,3506,88,6,35196,1132,44353,6253,245,537,530,17769,9,266,811,48949],"class_list":["post-657997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-bears","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-cunningham","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-hub","tag-instagram","tag-jabari","tag-jabari-small","tag-lions","tag-malik","tag-malik-cunningham","tag-mason","tag-mason-miller","tag-michael","tag-michael-niese","tag-miller","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-nick","tag-nick-whiteside","tag-niese","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-positive","tag-small","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-twitter","tag-whiteside"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115847304901817545","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}