5 Detroit Lions players who will not be back in 2023

2. DE Charles Harris

Harris’ career was on its last legs as a first-round bust when he signed a one-year deal with the Lions in 2021. He responded, with a career and team-high 7.5 sacks last season. Then he was rewarded with a two-year, $13 million deal to stay in Detroit. He was ready to prove his breakout season was not a flash in the pan.

Harris had one sack over the first four games this season. Then he missed three games with a groin injury. Over the last two games (Week 9 and Week 10), he has played a total of 24 defensive snaps.

Harris is a better fit as a weakside defensive end, but the Lions have started to use Aidan Hutchinson more on that side in order to get the best from him. The debut and burgeoning role of rookie Josh Pashal, and the looming return of Romeo Okwara, will make more snaps hard to come by going forward. And Julian Okwara, coming off a two-sack game in Week 10, is also in the mix as an edge player for the Lions.

The Lions obviously didn’t give Harris a back-breaking contract. According to Over The Cap, a pre-June 1, 2023 cut would be almost an even split between dead money ($3,976,667) and cap savings ($4,011,666). A post-June 1 cut designation makes it $6 million in cap savings and less than $2 million in dead money.

Harris may simply not have the role to justify a cap number close to $8 million for the 2023 Lions. It’s hard to make it better than a 50-50 chance he’s back right now, and the final eight games are lined up to trend toward making it a practical certainty he won’t be.