What Romeo Okwara staying while Kenny Golladay walks means

The salary cap balancing act

Last week it was confirmed that the Lions wouldn’t be franchising receiver, Kenny Golladay. As a matter of fact, Brad Holmes decided not to franchise anyone.

So when this week and the legal tampering period started, it was with great interest that Lions fans tuned in to see what was on Brad Holmes’ agenda.

To the surprise of some, the first confirmed move the Lions had made was re-signing defensive end Romeo Okwara.

This was a very interesting move because both Golladay and Okwara are young enough to be part of this rebuild. Yet while Holmes and Campbell would probably have liked to have both back, they prioritized Okwara.

The reasons are simple but extremely important. First of all, considering that the Lions are scrapping their roster and going into full re-set mode, both players can be considered luxuries that can’t be afforded.

However, when we consider how difficult it is to find players that can bring the heat off the edge, that makes Okwara a higher priority immediately.

While Matt Patricia thought the end all be all was his defensive system which was a complete disaster, Both Holmes and Campbell understand that good defense is created by good athletes that make plays. Pass-rushers that can make a quarterback sweat top that list.

Pass-rushers don’t come cheap either, but Okwara’s three-year deal worth an average of $13 million a season makes him around the 22nd highest-paid edge rusher in the league. Considering every year money is always an issue each team must deal with, this is actually a very cap-friendly number.

We should all expect an influx of young inexpensive talent in the draft to mix in with Okwara. If Brad Holmes does his job right, that means finding some gems to start the process of breathing life into a moribund defense.

The savings the Lions will get from rookie contracts will help offset the Okwara deal. That doesn’t mean that the defensive problem will be solved yet, but the balancing act of re-signing a talented player at a premium position, then starting the process of adding cap-friendly contracts over the next couple of drafts, and the rebuild will look pretty good as long the draft picks pan out.