Sometimes, free agency requires quick, cold acknowledgement that a pivot is necessary. The Detroit Lions value retaining "their own", as general manager Brad Holmes reinforced during his season-ending press conference a couple weeks ago (which is still a must-watch, by the way).
But when that intention to re-sign people doesn't pan out, as it didn't with Jamaal Williams and Evan Brown last year, the Lions quickly pivoted and it worked out nicely in both cases.
Left guard Jonah Jackson is arguably the Lion's top internal free agent this year. It's safe to say he did not have an ideal contact year though, missing five regular season games and the NFC Championship Game due to injuries. His level of play also dropped off compared to the previous two years. On the durability front, he missed four games in 2022.
Still, Jackson is firmly in his prime at 27 years old. He will have suitors on the open market should he get there, and he should not struggle to get a solid multi-year deal as teams looking to upgrade at his position.
There's a chance Jackson takes a relative discount to stay in Detroit. Or if he ends up having to settle for a "prove-it" deal coming off a down year, coming back would be more in play.
Adam Caplan of Pro Football Network offered some insight to the situation with Jackson and the Lions, before the season and now.
Offensively, the key player to re-sign for the Detroit Lions is Jonah Jackson, who has been one of their best interior offensive linemen ever since the team selected him in the third round of the 2020 NFL Draft."
"A league source said both sides were not close to an agreement to begin last season, but that doesn’t mean Detroit won’t look to re-sign him before free agency starts."
It feels like the Lions will draw a line, in years and money, with Jackson that they won't stretch very far beyond-if at all. The status of contract talks right now can't be known, though they do have the ability to re-sign him at any time.
Flip a coin, and predict heads of tails before it lands. You'll have just as good a chance to predict if the Lions will re-sign Jackson right now. So lining up some pivot free agency options for them makes sense.
5 free agent pivot options for the Detroit Lions if they lose Jonah Jackson
5. Aaron Brewer
Brewer worked his way from being an undrafted free agent in 2020 to being a 17-game starter who played every offensive snap for the Tennessee Titans in each of the last two seasons. He also did it at two different positions, left guard in 2022 and center last season.
He worked on the other side of the ball, obviously, but new Lions defensive line coach Terrell Williams surely got to see Brewer work against his defensive line pupils in Tennessee in practice over the last four seasons. In a broader sense, Williams witnessed Brewer's rise to being a starter.
Brewer will have free agent suitors who want him to play center, as they should since he was Pro Football Focus' 11th-highest graded center last season. But he would be a capable guard too, Williams presumably has some insight about him and maybe Brewer would listen to an offer from the Lions to move back to left guard.
Brewer is on the smaller side, at 295 pounds. but his movement ability would seem to fit the Lions' run-blocking schemes well.
It will depend on a few things, most prominently if he is willing to move back to left guard, but Brewer broadly looks like a solid fit for the Lions if they have a need.
4. Damien Lewis
Over four seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, Lewis started all 61 games he played with three seasons where he topped 900 snaps. Over the last three seasons, he solidly established himself as Seattle's starting left guard.
At 6-foot-2 and 327 pounds, Lewis is a force in the run game with some evaluators noting his growth in pass protection. He has also cut down on penalties over the last few years.
Spotrac has Lewis' projected market value at a two-year deal for just shy of $14.9 million ($7.4 million per year). That might look at lot like the deal Jackson gets, but there's a solid chance Jackson can get noticeably more as more teams may be vying for his services.
The Lions could quickly be priced out of any bidding war for Jackson, with the aforementioned line they could draw maybe landing somewhere in the two-year, $14-$15 million range. If that's what it comes to, Lewis could land in their wheelhouse as a replacement option.
3. Dalton Risner
After weeks or even months of speculation, Risner finally signed with the Minnesota Vikings after last season started. He started 11 of the 15 games he played, registering a PFF grade comparable to Jackson's while not allowing a sack and committing just two penalties.
Risner would probably only be a one-year stop gap for the Lions at left guard. But he would come way cheaper than Jackson, with what would ideally be similar performance level.
As a pass blocker Risner may even be a noticeable upgrade over Jackson, with keeping pressure out out of the immobile Jared Goff's face of premium importance to the overall effectiveness of the Lions' offense.
Risner would be a bargain bin signing. But he looks to be a solid potential fit for Detroit if they have to replace Jackson.
2. John Simpson
In naming potential landing spots for some top free agent offensive lineman, Pro Football Focus had the Lions as a spot for Simpson.
"This could be the cheaper replacement for Jonah Jackson at left guard if Detroit makes the tough decision to move on from some promising homegrown players as they transition into a new era with big contracts pending for a lot of key contributors."
Released by the Raiders near the end of the 2022 season, Simpson landed with the Ravens and started all 17 games for them last season. His PFF pass blocking grades were notably better than Jackson's, and his "positive run block rate" from PFF was marginally lower than the Lions' left guard's.
Penalties were a bit of a thing for Simpson at times last season, but that feels like something that can be corrected by working with a good offensive line coach like Hank Fraley. PFF's Brad Spielberger noted how he "brings an edge in the ground game". That sounds like something that would right up Dan Campbell's alley, should the Lions be looking to replace Jackson.
1. Nick Allegretti
Over five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs, Allegretti has never been a full-time starter. So he feels sure to pursue those kind of opportunities on the free agent market, and they should be there for him. In terms of keeping him as a versatile interior line backup, the Chiefs have bigger free agent fish on their radar internally.
Allegretti started the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl LVIII at left guard in place of an injured Joe Thuney, and he played solidly. It was then revealed he had suffered a torn UCL in his elbow during the second quarter of the Super Bowl, but he did not miss a single snap.
Allegretti talked with The Jim Rome Show about playing with the injury.
"I haven't suffered an injury like that until then," Allegretti said. "I immediately knew. It was something that you heard a pop, you felt it, and knowing minimal about anatomy knew that something was wrong in my elbow. Because my elbow is not supposed to bend that way."
" I would say, for me, I don't think you'll ever experience a nine or 10," Allegretti said when asked to rate how painful the injury was. "If you do it's going to be something really, really bad. So I was probably in that six or seven [range] right when it happened after I processed it. And then at halftime we were able to get the cream on it, massage it a little bit and then throw a brace on it. I was probably playing at about a five."
Playing with a torn elbow ligament, even as inconsequential as the injury might be for an offensive lineman, exemplifies grit. Allegretti's versatility, having played snaps at both guard spots and center last season, would be valuable to the Lions in a certain light too.
But honing in on him as a potential replacement for Jackson at left guard, Allegretti is a very nice-looking fit. He had a 81.5 PFF pass blocking grade last season, and a 70.2 run blocking grade from PFF in the season where he played the most snaps (2020).
Add in what he did in the Super Bowl to play with the injury he did, and Allegretti would fit in seamlessly on one of the league's best offensive lines. Should the Lions have a need to fill, of course.