Lions GM Bob Quinn Hints Golden Tate Contract Extension May Be on Horizon

As it stands, wide receiver Golden Tate is heading into the final year of his contract with the Detroit Lions.

It may not stay that way for long, however. 

At the NFL meetings this week, Lions general manager Bob Quinn made it known that while contract talks for Tate are not ongoing "as of yet," an extension could be approached later this offseason.

"I think all those things in my time here have happened in the summer," Quinn said, per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. "I think our concentration and our focus right now is on the draft. Things that come down the road after that, they'll come and go and we’ll talk through it."

Tate is set to make $7 million in 2018.

In recent years, as Quinn noted, players like Matthew Stafford, Glover Quin and Darius Slay have all been taken up during the summer months. The early part of the offseason has the team focused on free agency and the draft.

After spending the first four years of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, Tate has become a reliable target for Stafford. He has not missed a game in the first four years of his Detroit tenure and has 372 catches for 4,224 yards with 19 touchdowns as Lion. He has caught at least 90 passes in every season and has three 1,000-yard campaigns with the team.

When Detroit signed Tate, it was to help take some of opposing defenses' attention away from Calvin Johnson. Now that Megatron has retired, Tate has formed a nice one-two punch with Marvin Jones.

Next season will be Tate's ninth year in the league, and as he turns 30 years old in August, Detroit will likely be cautious with how it approaches a potential extension. The  5'10", 197-pound wideout has proven he can handle heavy usage without getting hurt. However, age eventually catches up to all athletes.

Tate should still be able to be a consistent playmaker for a few more years. It's just not known how long of a commitment the team will be willing to make at this point for an aging veteran.