Cut, Keep or Restructure: Making Call on Detroit Lions' Worst Contracts
If you don't perform well enough in the NFL to justify your current expense, you're gone. That's the nature of the salary cap era, and the Detroit Lions have a few players who will be under that level of scrutiny in the coming months.
Sadly, it isn't usually a player's fault. An unfortunate injury can open the door for a cheaper replacement to prove you expendable. Or injuries could render you an afterthought one year removed from a huge season.
It's the reality of getting to play a game for a living.
It's not all doom and gloom, though. Some players have justified their worth but carry such a large cap number that a mutually benefiting deal needs to be struck so the team can reach its potential.
So click through to find which players' salaries will be targeted in an effort to free up more cap space.
Calvin Johnson
1 of 5
Calvin Johnson's production has tapered off consistently in each of the last two years with the significant exception of touchdowns. In 2014, he had 51 fewer receptions and almost 900 yards less than his record-shattering 2012 campaign.
The main culprit has been injuries. Though he is just 29 years old, he's taken a beating over the years, missing three games this season and two the year prior.
And none of that really matters. He's still one of the game's best receivers and his contract doesn't give Detroit an early out anyway.
The only realistic avenue to lower Johnson's $20.6 million cap hit this season, per Spotrac.com, would be a restructuring. That means the team would convert a portion of his base salary into a bonus and spread the cap hit out over the remainder of his contract (up to five years).
Let's take a look at the rest of Johnson's contract:
| Year | Base Salary | Cap Hit | Dead Money |
| 2015 | $12.50M | $20.56M | $20.97M |
| 2016 | $15.95M | $24.01M | $12.91M |
| 2017 | $16.50M | $21.36M | $4.86M |
| 2018 | $17.00M | $17.00M | $3.50M |
| 2019 | $18.25M | $18.25M | $0 |
So even though Detroit could free up $11.6 million worth of cap space this year by reducing Johnson's base salary to the veteran minimum of $870,000, that would mean his future cap hits would reach untenable levels. It would rise to $26.33 million next year and $23.68 million in 2017.
The salary cap should be rising in the coming years, but if Ndamukong Suh's contract is going to break the bank, that hit can be maneuvered to rise when Johnson's cap number starts to fall. Detroit should only break the glass on Johnson's contract if completely necessary.
Verdict: Keep
Reggie Bush
2 of 5
Reggie Bush had 709 fewer rushing yards in 2014 than the previous year. His receiving total dropped from 506 yards to 253 despite only catching 14 fewer balls.
That's a serious dip in production for someone whose cap number rose from $2.44 million to $5.28 million.
To put his contractual numbers in perspective, check out this comparison:
"Reggie Bush $$$ “@ChrisWesseling: Per @RapSheet, Cowboys have had a 4-year deal worth more than $16M on the table for DeMarco Murray.”
— Justin Simon (@justincsimon) January 14, 2015"
Obviously, Bush didn't provide the same type of impact as the league's runaway rushing leader. Bush doesn't have the durability to last an entire season (he missed five last year) and his insistence on making every run a home run no longer is a viable strategy thanks to Father Time.
The savings of $1.7 million makes this a tougher decision than it should be. That isn't a large enough number to replace him and have something left over, so Detroit will need to identify a cheap talent in the draft to justify this move. Fortunately, the 2015 NFL draft is stocked with such players.
Plus, if Detroit releases him after June 1, it can split his $3.56 million worth of dead money between 2015 and 2016.
Verdict: Cut
Jason Jones
3 of 5
Jason Jones single-handedly turned the Week 15 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings in favor of the Lions. His third-down sack followed up by a field-goal block kept the deficiency to one and provided the spark necessary for an important win.
Unfortunately, those moments were few and far between in 2014 for the versatile veteran.
Jones finished as the 47th best defensive end out of 59 qualifiers after notching five sacks and 22 quarterback hurries, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). To put Jones' grade in perspective among the other players on the roster, check out this tweet:
"#Lions Bad D Grades Jason Jones: -10.4 Devin Taylor: -8.2 Cassius Vaughn: -5.9 Caraun Reid: -4.1 Andre Fluellen: -3.1
— Lions Fan (@jdogbuster) January 10, 2015"
That type of performance doesn't fly for someone who counts for $3.98 million against the cap. Especially when the small amount of dead money on the contract means Detroit could save about $3.1 millions this year.
Of course the team would like for players to take pay cuts that reflect their performance. That just isn't likely for most players. For Jones, however, it's improbable he can garner much more on the open market so consider him the most likely candidate to agree to a salary reduction.
Verdict: Cut
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Ryan Broyles
4 of 5
On the face of it, Ryan Broyles' contract isn't that bad. He only accounts for $1.17 million in cap space with $278,818 in dead money (meaning he could be cut and Detroit would save the difference), and he's in the last year of his four-year rookie deal.
But once you peel off the top layer, the reason his contract stinks will make your eyes water.
Broyles has played just one more game in the last two years combined than he did as a rookie (10). And in that time, he's seen less than half as many targets as 2012 (22) and hasn't scored a touchdown since that promising debut season.
It's hard to blame Broyles for a lack of production when he can't see the field:
"Caldwell said Ryan Broyles can't see field because he plays same position as Golden Tate. And that's what you call a cop out.
— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) December 4, 2014"
Head coach Jim Caldwell's words can be a bit much to swallow here. Jeremy Ross offered little to the team on offense or as a return man late in the year, yet the coaching staff still pigeonholed Broyles to the singular position described in the tweet.
It doesn't pass the smell test. If we went a couple of layers deeper, maybe it's a philosophical difference in work ethic or attitude, but the easy answer is Broyles doesn't have the game-breaking ability he had earlier in his career.
Verdict: Cut
Stephen Tulloch
5 of 5
For such an emotional game between the lines, football has no heart outside of the field.
Stephen Tulloch was the emotional leader of the Lions since he reunited with Jim Schwartz in 2010. That same enthusiasm cost him this season after a Week 3 sack of Aaron Rodgers led to an ACL-shredding discount double-check.
That opened the door for Tahir Whitehead, who stepped through it and helped Detroit hang onto its No. 1 rushing defense crown. Additionally, Pro Football Focus graded him out as the 14th-best interior linebacker in the league.
For his part, Tulloch isn't giving in:
"Nobody's retiring!! I'll be back 100% next season.I love the game way too much. I have some huge projects off the field. Big things to come.
— Stephen Tulloch (@stephentulloch) January 6, 2015"
He was the game's second-highest graded inside 'backer in 2013. But he started slipping toward the end of that season and his 2014 coverage grade of -1.6 in three games belies a real problem.
If Detroit wants to make a serious move toward keeping both Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley, it needs to find all the cap space possible and Tulloch's cap hit of $5.8 million can be reduced to $2.6 million with one decision. That doesn't bode well for an aging warrior whose legs could be betraying him.
Verdict: Cut
All salary-cap numbers are sourced from Spotrac.com. All advanced stats, grades and positional rankings are courtesy of Pro Football Focus and require a subscription.
Brandon Alisoglu is a Detroit Lions Featured Columnist who has written about the Lions on multiple sites. He also co-hosts a Lions-centric podcast, Lions Central Radio. Yell at him on Twitter about how wrong he is @BrandonAlisoglu.
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