No, the Detroit Lions are not behind on their free agent re-signings. Actions usually don’t start until at least Sunday.
Why haven’t the Detroit Lions signed Jamaal Williams yet? What are they waiting for on John Cominsky? Are the Lions underestimating all of their free agents????
It’s the Friday before free agency week, and I can already feel the Lions fans’ blood pressure rising as the team has been eerily quiet all week. Their only announcement was a random re-signing of reserve offensive lineman Ross Pierschbacher.
But I’m here to tell you all to relax. I know we’re excited to bring back some of our favorite Lions players, but nothing this week was out of the ordinary. As former Packers front office member Andrew Brandt likes to say, “deadlines inspire action,” and Detroit still has until Monday before any of those players can even negotiate with another team. and two more days until he can sign with another team.
All you have to do is look back over the last year to see that the Lions are just following their own schedule. The Friday before the 2022 free agency opened, the Lions had only re-signed three players: Josh Reynolds, Rashod Berry and Ryan McCollum.
Unsurprisingly, the action started happening on Sunday, the day before the free agency tampering began.
Deadlines prompt action.
That Sunday, the Lions re-signed Alex Anzalone, Jalen Elliott, Shaun Dion Hamilton and CJ Moore. The next day, Tracy Walker’s big re-signing to Detroit happened, with Evan Brown and Tim Boyle signing later that day.
So when John Cominsky says he’s going to test the market for a few days, that’s completely normal. See what’s out there, and there’s a more than reasonable chance he’ll come back again. A good example is Kalif Raymond and Charles Harris, who both agreed to the terms on day two of the forgery and officially signed later that week. They waited to see the market, then returned to Detroit. It’s a smart way to see your own value and negotiate.
And the Lions are far from the only team to do so. Watch this week of NFL trades. Since Monday:
- The Giants have re-signed Daniel Jones
- The Falcons have re-signed Lorenzo Carter
- Texans re-sign Scott Quessenberry
- The Giants have re-signed Jarrad Davis
- The Lions have re-signed Ross Pierschbacher
- The 49ers have re-signed Colton McKivitz
- The Patriots have re-signed James Ferentz
- The Raiders have re-signed Ameer Abdullah
- Bengals re-sign Joe Bachie and Jalen Davis
Just a handful of moves have happened and hardly any big names have come off the board yet. It’s standard operating procedure these days, but we forget about it every year.
I understand. We are all delighted to see our guys back in the team. And while there’s no guarantee that all the guys we want to see again will return, we won’t really know for the next few days yet. Until then, enjoy the calm before the storm.
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