3 free agents the Detroit Lions were wise to avoid in 2024

2. CB Chidobe Awuzie

As free agency started, Awuzie made a lot of sense as a target for the Lions to help fill their need at cornerback. Coming of a torn ACL in 2022, and a 2023 season where he wasn't the same player he was before the injury, he could surely be signed at a relative discount. And being further removed from the injury would theoretically allow him to recapture the form he had shown in his first season-plus with the Cincinnati Bengals.

So much for the potential discount the Lions, or anyone, could have gotten.

On the first day of the legal negotiation window, the Tennessee Titans signed Awuzie to a three-year, $36 million deal. That's the most raw, surface, total dollars a cornerback has gotten as a free agent this year (the new deal the Titans are giving L'Jarius Sneed after trading for him doesn't count there). Awuzie got $19 million fully guaranteed at signing, and $22.98 million in total possible guarantees.

The Titans will be hoping Awuzie rebounds back to what he did in 2021 and the early part of 2022, starting with his age-29 season. Adding Sneed makes that more likely, since he won't have to take on the opponent's best receiver, but they are paying for the privilege to find out if he can do so. If the Lions had interest, it seems they were priced out and pivoted to the trade for Carlton Davis before Day 1 of free agency was done.