PHOENIX – The Detroit Lions “never were in the game” for one of the top pass rushers available in free agency or via trade this offseason, and had they added another high-priced defensive end it might have cost them the ability to re-sign one of their star young players from the 2023 draft.
Lions president Rod Wood made that admission during a wide-ranging hourlong exclusive interview with the Free Press on Sunday, March 29, at the NFL’s annual spring meeting at the Biltmore Hotel.
Wood acknowledged Lions general manager Brad Holmes faced both salary cap and cash constraints in building the roster this offseason and said the team remains dedicated to “trying to make sure that we don’t overcommit today so that we can’t take care of our own guys.”
“When we’re looking at our cash and cap budget, we’re looking at it as is and as it will be with those guys knowing that we want to keep many of them, all of them if we can,” Wood said. “So if we had gone out and done the biggest – let’s say we did the Maxx Crosby trade or the Trey Hendrickson signing, that probably would have meant, which one of these guys are we going to let go?”
The Lions spent judiciously in free agency this offseason, signing center Cade Mays to a three-year, $25 million contract and adding several other veterans on cheap, one-year deals.
They’ve focused the past two offseasons on re-signing core players such as Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Jameson Williams and Kerby Joseph to long-term contracts, and they hope to do deals this offseason with 2023 draft picks Jahmyr Gibbs, Jack Campbell, Brian Branch and Sam LaPorta.
To free up cap room for free agency, the Lions restructured a portion of Goff’s contract. The move created $32 million in cap space – but Goff still has a $15 million base salary for 2026 and the Lions did not restructure the deals of Sewell or St. Brown to create more cap room.
“I get it,” Wood said. “The cap side, as I said, is easier to manipulate [than your cash budget] but eventually the bill comes due.”
Asked if the Lions considered putting off re-signing one of Gibbs, Campbell, Branch or LaPorta for a year to be bigger players in free agency, Wood said, “Even doing that, it still would have been a difficult situation over the next two years with cash, so we just never were in the game for that, I’ll be honest with you.”
Hendrickson, who had back-to-back 17½-sack seasons in 2023-24, signed the third-biggest deal of free agency this offseason, a four-year, $112 million pact with the Baltimore Ravens. Pass rusher Jaelan Phillips (four years, $120 million) got the top deal in free agency with the Carolina Panthers, while Tyler Linderbaum, the top center on the market, signed a three-year, $81 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Ravens also traded for Crosby and his $30 million base salary this offseason before calling off the deal because of a failed physical.
“I know you and everybody else thinks we need to have a partner to Hutch,” Wood said. “And it reminds me so much of everybody said we needed to have another receiver opposite Calvin [Johnson]. And when you have one of those guys, trying to get another one is really hard. How many teams have two?
“It’d almost be like you have a great starting quarterback as a backup, because there just aren’t enough guys to go around. And then if you pay one like we did with Aidan, to try and pay another one, let’s say you did and let’s say you now have $75 million or $80 million of your cap tied up with your pass rushers, you’re giving up something else. So would we love to have another great pass rusher? Yeah, but we’ll probably have to find him in the draft vs. we go out and pay top dollar for him.”
Holmes said in a podcast last week the Lions were working under “financial constraints” in free agency and spent “everything” they had available in their budget.
The priority, he said, was “to keep our sustainability at a good level” and not be a one-and-done-type team.
Wood said the concept of sustainability doesn’t mean the Lions aren’t pushing hard for a championship now.
“I can see why that could be interpreted that way, but to me sustainability means that we’re going to be able to compete for championships over a long period of time,” he said. “Not that we’re going to try and be pretty good for a long period of time. …. So I think when we talk about sustainability it’s not to go 9-8, 9-8. It’s to be able to compete for championships with the core of guys that we drafted.”
The Lions currently have $304.3 million in cash commitments for the 2026 season, the ninth-highest cash outlay in the league, according to Spotrac.
Wood said the Lions likely will be right around the NFL average of spending 106% of their salary cap in cash, a number that has ticked up in recent years and is often skewed by big signing bonuses given to quarterbacks, free agents, first-round picks and veteran re-signings.
“We’ll be slightly higher next year if we do some of these deals,” he said. “So I think we don’t want to get too far up in that range where you have really dug a hole that you’re going to have to get out of. And you don’t want to be so far behind it that you can’t compete.”
While there’s no guarantee the Lions re-sign Gibbs, Campbell, Branch and LaPorta this offseason, that appears to be the plan. Wood said the Lions have to make sure Branch and LaPorta are healthy before doing new deals; both had season-ending injuries last year. He called Campbell’s situation “unique” because of the massive franchise-tag salary he would have in 2028 as a linebacker – edge and off-ball linebackers are lumped into same position group for tag purposes. And he called Gibbs “a dynamic offensive player that you want to make sure you A.) keep him and B.) do it [in a way that’s] financially smart.”
“The reality is if we have the right guy, the sooner you do him, the better,” Wood said. “Because it’s just going to get more expensive.”
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Maxx Crosby rade for Lions ‘Never … in the game,’ Rod Wood says
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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