{"id":833144,"date":"2026-03-25T15:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/833144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:53:14","slug":"espn-writer-believes-detroit-lions-free-agency-was-among-nfls-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/833144\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN writer believes Detroit Lions\u2019 free agency was among NFL\u2019s best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Solak provided his annual free agency rankings for all 32 NFL teams<\/a>, and the Detroit Lions came in at No. 3 on his list. Now, before I get too far into it, it should be noted that Solak\u2019s rankings are done a little differently than most. In an effort to avoid giving all the credit to the teams with the most cap space to spend, Solak\u2019s rankings are based on each team\u2019s individual situation, including salary cap resources, depth chart, and schematic fit. Here\u2019s how Solak put it in his own words:<\/p>\n

These rankings are highly contextual. Any list of \u201cthe most improved teams in free agency\u201d would start with the likes of the Raiders and Titans … who incidentally were the teams that had the most money to spend. Instead, I tried to rank the teams for:<\/p>\n

So why did the Lions come in at third\u2014only behind the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers? In short, Solak appreciated Detroit\u2019s low-risk, high-reward strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved: The dart throws,\u201d Solak wrote. \u201cDetroit has more needs than it has money to throw around, but it did extremely well to take high-upside swings in the margins. Pacheco can\u2019t be 100% of what David Montgomery was for them, but the Lions don\u2019t want that anymore — they want a capable short-yardage, pass-protecting back to relieve Jahmyr Gibbs, and they got that for near the veteran minimum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lions also got a functional starter at center in Mays for $8 million per year<\/a> in an offseason in which the center market was exploding. Wonnum is ideally a No. 3 edge instead of a No. 2 option, but opposite Aidan Hutchinson<\/a>, he can fill the Al-Quadin Muhammad<\/a> shoes and then some. At corner, McCreary can start if he\u2019s healthy, too. This class is filled with great value.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fair point to make. While Detroit may have only gotten one or two standout players, their savvy spending allowed them to add a ton of new faces who have all showed varying degrees of promise in their respective careers. They found seven players on one-year deals that will cost them less than $2 million in cap space:<\/p>\n

Solak did write about one thing he did not like about Lions free agency: the signing of Larry Borom. Given the loss of left tackle Taylor Decker, he believes the Lions needed to do a better job protecting Jared Goff.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry Borom is a good swing backup, but the Lions don\u2019t want to live in a world where he starts 17 games on Jared Goff\u2019s blind side,\u201d Solak wrote. \u201cGoff, for all of his improvements and strengths, is simply not a springy mover. He needs clean pockets. With the 17th pick, the Lions are squarely in contention for a franchise left tackle, and I\u2019d put a lot of theoretical chips on that being their first-round target. (GM Brad Holmes also said Borom could play right tackle, with Penei Sewell<\/a> moving to the left side, so there\u2019s that option, too.)\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Solak provided his annual free agency rankings for all 32 NFL teams, and the Detroit Lions came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[449,11309,7],"class_list":{"0":"post-833144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-detroit-lions-analysis","9":"tag-detroit-lions-free-agency","10":"tag-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116290625740962767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833144","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=833144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}