As is typical business for NFL teams in the days after their season ends, the Detroit Lions signed a bunch of players to reserve/futures contracts on Monday.
Here are the 11 players the Lions have signed to futures deals, all of whom finished the season on their practice squad.
Detroit Lions sign 11 players to futures deals
- LB Abraham Beaplan
- EDGE Isaac Ukwu
- C Kinsley Eguakun
- QB Jake Fromm
- LB DaRon Gilbert
- S Erick Hallet
- OT Jamarco Jones
- WR Tom Kennedy
- DL Chris Smith
- S Loren Strickland
- CB Stantley Thomas-Oliver
All players who finish the season on a team's practice squad become free agents when the season ends ("street free agents" is the term), free to sign with any team as a normal unrestricted free agent would be when the new league year starts in March.
Erik Schlitt of Pride of Detroit had a very nice explanation of the process behind signing players to futures contracts.
"A futures contract is only eligible to street free agents (SFA)—players not signed to a team’s active roster—and it is a way to delay a player's cap hit until the 2025 NFL new year begins.
"For example, if all 11 players with futures contracts were given only a base minimum deal (estimated to be around $840,000), that would equate to a $9.24 million cap hit. However, because of how “futures” contracts work, that cap hit will be delayed until the start of the new season, which coincides with free agency on March 12, 2025. Meaning, that these contracts won’t impact the 2024 salary cap, as well as other end-of-year bookkeeping, like “rollover cap” amounts."
Five players who ended the season on the Lions' practice squad were not signed to futures deals on Monday: WR/KR Maurice Alexander, RB Jermar Jefferson, WR Donovan Peoples-Jones (remember him?), LB Kwon Alexander and TE James Mitchell. They could still re-join the Lions as part of the 90-man offseason roster, but for now they are free to sign with any other team.
The Lions also signed safety Morice Norris to their active roster on Monday.
An undrafted free agent out of Fresno State in 2024, Norris was released from the Lions roster during training camp after a hamstring injury cut his preseason short. He was given an injury settlement, and rejoined the Lions’ practice squad when he was eligible to. He was eventually signed to the active roster, seeing action in Week 17, Week 18 and the Divisional Round game. Because he ended the season on the active roster, Norris was not eligible to sign a futures deal and he was set to carry an Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA) designation before he signed.