This situation seems a little odd. The Detroit Lions want Cliff Avril back, and by his many comments it looks like Avril wants to stay here in Detroit. However, the NFL is a business and Avril wants to get paid fair market value for his services. Unfortunately for the Lions fair market value for Avril may not be in the budget.
Avril is coming off a one year contract, and had a career year. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News points out that Avril's 11 sacks last season should put him in line for a deal similar to Kansas City Chiefs LB Tomba Hall's five year 60 million dollar deal. That deal came with a 35 million dollar signing bonus.
Salary cap limitations aside, paying Avril anywhere near that amount of money would throw the Lions pay structure out of whack. McCosky points out that in 2010 the Lions signed DE Kyle Vanden Bosch to a front loaded four year 26 million dollar deal. He made ten million dollars in year one, eight million dollars in year two, and he will make five million dollars in each of the next two seasons.
Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press points out that Avril does not want to get teh franchise tag. Beyond the money he wants a long term commitment from teh team, and did play 2011 on a one year 2.6 million dollar deal. Phillip Zaroo of Mlive.com reports that a franchise tag for Avril would bump his 2012 salary to around 10.6 million. It seems unlikely the team would pay Avril double what they are for Vanden Bosch.
Avril has made comments recently that he would hold out, or not attend pre season activities if the Lions place the franchise tag on him. Speaking to the Detroit Free Press Avril said:
There's a lot of different possibilities, and that's one of the possibilities -- not showing up, but we don't know. That's not the plan, obviously. But there's a lot of different possibilities, and that's definitely one of them.
The real problem here is the Lions will likely have to work out a new deal with WR Calvin Johnson (to significantly reduce his cap number) before they can work on a new deal for Avril. Hopefully they can get that done before Avril hits the open market and his price goes way up.
Comments