According to the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit Lions will officially release Defensive Lineman Michael Brockers today. This move saves Detroit roughly $10M in cap space for next year. With that said, they are losing a Team Captain and leader in the Lions’ Locker Room. Brockers on the field production dipped significantly due to injuries during his 2-year stint in Detroit.
With the Brockers release, the Lions now have $25.9M in cap space. But is this the end of the salary dumps for Detroit? If the Lions need to free up more space for free agents and draft picks, they have options to consider. Let’s take a look at the roster and see who is on the bubble and how much Detroit would save by cutting them.
Romeo Okura: ($7.5M) Okura started in only 2 games last season, while playing in 10. His cap his is $14.5M, which is a lot to devote to a back up linebacker. While $7M becomes dead money this year, they’ll save $7.5M by letting him go.
Halapoulivaati Vaitai: ($6.5M) I’m not sure how they justify keeping Vaitai on the roster next season. Vaitai’s been a major disappointment since coming over from Philadelphia. The offensive line did not miss a beat last season with him on IR.
Charles Harris: ($4.0M) After a decent year in 2021, Harris was plagued by injuries in 2022. Appearing in 6 games, Harris racked up 14 tackles and 1 sack. At best, he is a back up to Hutchinson and Houston next season.
Total Potential Savings: $18M
Clearly it makes both fiscal and football sense to terminate the contracts of Okura, Vaitai, and Harris. They didn’t get much production from these players and I’d rather see Detroit use that extra space to resign some of their free agents.
We’ll see what the Lions over the next couple weeks.
For more of my articles on the Detroit Lions, click the links below:
Detroit Lions Offensive Report Card
Detroit Lions Defensive Report Card
