Are the Detroit Lions building their team the right way?
Detroit Lions defense
Another quick look at a team like the Los Angeles Rams shows us that the lower cap number for Jared Goff did allow them to spend more on lineman Ndamukong Suh and others on the defensive side of the ball. The question to ask is whether or not that formula holds up everywhere.
The Colts, Saints, Ravens, Seahawks, Steelers, Panthers, Patriots, and Packers have all had big quarterback salaries to deal with and still maintained competitiveness when their quarterback and their team were healthy.
For the Lions, with Stafford’s salary, they will have approximately $40 million in cap room this offseason to address holes and depth, along with nine draft picks. As noted by Birkett, though, the Lions could afford tackle Aaron Donald on his new contract with the difference between Goff’s and Stafford’s salaries, which shouldn’t be overlooked, either.
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In terms of correlating rookie quarterback contracts and rest-of-the-team success, you’d have a difficult time equating it to defensive results, where only four of the top fifteen scoring defenses had a rookie quarterback contract to give cap space for their cause.
One was the Chicago Bears, though, who ranked first in points against according to NFL.com. Of playoff teams, the Chiefs, who had a rookie quarterback, were ranked lowest coming in at number 24.
The other rookie teams’ defenses that were playing past December ranked twentieth (Rams), sixth (Cowboys), fourth( Texans), and the Bears in first. None of the top three even won one game against their higher-paid quarterback counterparts.