SEALED; Detroit Lions have just completed another major big monster Deal.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Detroit Lions declared that they had inked 11 players to future contracts for the 2024 offseason. The Lions practice squad included all 11 of the signed players at the end of the season, and many of them played the whole campaign.
The 11 players who were re-signed to the Lions 2024 roster are listed below:
Jefferson, Jermar, RB WR Jake Funk Tom Kennedy Maurice Alexander O.T. Connor Galvin O.L. Matt Faronik
IOL Michael Niese DT Chris Smith
EDGE Mitchell Agude
CB Craig Joseph James S. Brandon
Teams are permitted to add up to 90 players to their active rosters during the offseason; however, the expansion of rosters does not occur until the league’s new year, which begins on March 13, 2024.
Players on practice squads have contracts that expire seven days after their team’s season ends, but those on the 53-man rosters of the teams are still bound by their current contracts and cannot sign with another team until mid-March. That implies that in less than a week, the members of the Lions 2023–24 practice squad were scheduled to become “street free agents,” or qualified to sign a contract right away.
After the season, the NFL allows teams to sign “street free agents” to “futures contracts” in an effort to help retain talent that has been developing on the practice squad.
A player with a “futures contract” is one in which the team owns the player’s rights, but the player is not included in the active roster until the league’s March roster expansion to 90 players. Their contract becomes active for the roster at that point.
The Lions still have the option to extend future contracts to more “street free agents,” but it’s important to remember that six practice squad members—all veterans—were not signed as of yet and might wish to check the free agency market: TE Zach Ertz, OL Michael Schofield, WR Daurice Fountain, FB Jason Cabinda, QB David Blough, and EDGE Julian Okwara. Max Pircher, an international player, is probably going to rejoin the League’s development program.
