May 2, 2026, 6:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
The Detroit Lions<\/a> have already made a pair of post-NFL draft transactions.<\/p>\n Lions<\/a> general manager Brad Holmes inked defensive tackle Jay Tufele and linebacker Joe Bachie<\/a> to one-year deals earlier this week.<\/p>\n According to Over The Cap<\/a>, the Lions still have $17.5 million in effective cap space. For the right price and at the right position, Holmes and the Lions might not be done bolstering its roster.<\/p>\n CBS dissected every NFL team’s biggest position to improve post-NFL draft and shared the Lions’ free agent solution<\/a>. CBS’ Zachary Pereles picked former Browns<\/a> guard Joel Bitonio as the free agent fit for the Lions.<\/p>\n Adding Bitonio would be a great way for the\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0to upgrade on the interior. With new faces at right tackle (Blake Miller<\/a>) and center (Cade Mays<\/a>) and\u00a0Penei Sewell<\/a>\u00a0switching to left tackle, the steady Bitonio would be a nice add on the interior. – Zachary Pereles, CBS<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Per Spotrac<\/a>, Bitonio’s calculated market value is $12.9 million, which would work with the Lions’ current effective cap space.<\/p>\n Right now, the Lions figure to start Penei Sewell at left tackle, Christian Mahogany at left guard, Cade Mays at center, Tate Ratledge at right guard and Blake Miller at right tackle.<\/p>\n Signing Bitonio would bring in a seven-time Pro Bowler that could slide in at left guard and help ease Sewell’s transition to left tackle. It would be the final cherry on top of an offseason strongly defined by the Lions retooling their offensive line.<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 2, 2026, 6:45 a.m. ET The Detroit Lions have already made a pair of post-NFL draft transactions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,6,52959,96502,95882,100374,96029,95957,96242,95893,118847,96782,108368,95896,95888,95895,95906,97070,95883,95881],"class_list":["post-880401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-lions","tag-accessfree","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-lions","tag-detroitlions","tag-football","tag-lions","tag-nfl","tag-sstssportsnfllions","tag-sstsnlions","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagcade-mays","tag-tagcbs-corp","tag-tagcleveland-browns","tag-tagdetroit-lions","tag-tagfacebook","tag-tagjay-tufele","tag-tagjoe-bachie","tag-tagjoel-bitonio","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagpenei-sewell","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116504734151047383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880401","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=880401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}