Can the Lions offensive line lead the resurgence in 2021?

Detroit Lions salary cap challenges

Goff’s new deal with the Detroit Lions pays him $10.65 million in salary this year but guarantees him another $20 million that was converted from salary to bonus before he leaves Michigan. For reference, Matthew Stafford was set to make $20 million in total this year, which is about $11 million less than Goff and probably a big part of why Holmes got three picks as compensation to make the swap. It was Stafford who requested to leave, as a reminder.

Outside linebacker-defensive end Trey Flowers is actually the biggest cap expenditure on the books for 2021 now that Goff has restructured his contract. Flowers is set to earn $19.98 million but will likely be allowed to seek vocational fulfillment elsewhere in 2022 at that price.

Looking ahead to 2022, the offensive line will take home $45.2 million in salaries unless Vaitai’s services are no longer needed. At present, the Detroit Lions are scheduled to have $24 million in cap space if Flowers ($23.2 million), linebacker Jamie Collins ($13.3 million), and Vaitai ($8.4 million) all stay, which we would guess that they all will not.

Meaning that the Lions could be in a cap situation where they have near $47 million to as much as $68.9 million in space not counting any penalties incurred for cutting specific players going into next year.

The roughly $20 million in extra cap space being generated by the Detroit Lions offensive line masks the real cost but gives relief to some units under construction. If we look at the Detroit Lions positional spending, the defensive line is the biggest cost as a unit but as we already discussed, almost half of the $42 million in expenditures are on Trey Flowers ($19.98 million). Flowers has been one of the lone bright spots, though, along with Romeo Okwara, among the poor general results of the defense.