Estimated contract numbers are via PFF.<\/a> <\/p>\nLB Devin Lloyd (Estimated contract 3 years, $48M)LB Devin Bush (3 years, $36M)LB Nakobe Dean (3 years, $41M)LB Kaden Ellis (3 years, $36M)LB Bobby Wagner (1 year, $8.5M)LB Tremaine Edmunds (no estimate)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s oddly a lot of linebacker talent in this year\u2019s free agency, very much including Anzalone, who is projected by PFF to earn a two-year, $15M contract\u2014a significant bump from his last three-year, $18.75M deal.<\/p>\n
But if the Lions aren\u2019t willing to match Anzalone\u2019s market, it\u2019s hard to imagine them being in play for any of the other top-market options. The only benefit toward adding these players is that they all offer more youth than Anzalone (31 years old). Dean is 25, and Bush, Lloyd, and Edmunds are 27. Ellis (30) and Wagner (36) don\u2019t offer that same benefit.<\/p>\n
LB Quincy Williams (2 years, $4M)LB Alex Singleton (2 year, $9M)LB Justin Strnad (2 year, $8M)<\/p>\n
Williams is just two years removed from being named first-team All Pro. He was outstanding in 2023, tallying 139 tackles, 10 passes defended, an interception, and a pair of forced fumbles. Last year, however was troubling. The good news is he was playing in a different defense and possibly wasn\u2019t a schematic fit. The bad news is that team was the New York Jets and Aaron Glenn\u2019s defensive scheme. Still, I believe Williams could be a good WILL linebacker in Detroit. I highly question PFF\u2019s value of him, though. A linebacker with 73 starts in the past five years is likely going to catch at least $5M a year.<\/p>\n
Singleton is entering his 12th NFL season after overcoming testicular cancer last year. It was also one of his best career seasons, posting a 72.0 PFF grade, including a career-high 88.5 PFF grade. While more of a MIKE linebacker, he has the versatility and history of playing the WILL as well. He\u2019d probably be an overpay at this point in his career, though, and it may make sense to just sign Anzalone, instead.<\/p>\n
Strnad is more of the developmental option for Detroit. While he\u2019s 29 years old, he only has 21 starts in his career\u201416 of which have come in the last two seasons. But his play only seems to be getting better. He posted 73 tackles, 3.0 sacks, and three passes defended in 2024. Then bumped up to 58 tackles, 4.5 sacks, three passes defended and an interception last year. Most intriguing is his ability to cover, earning a 71.1 PFF grade in coverage last year (13th among 87 qualifying LBs).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Linebacker play has been essential for the Detroit Lions defense. Unlike some other defenses around the league, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,449,11309,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-800374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroit-lions-analysis","11":"tag-detroit-lions-free-agency","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-lions","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116193661142204532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800374","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=800374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}