Tuesday we here at The Majors Detroit passed along a Tom Kowalski report that the Lions were possibly getting close to signing restricted free agent Cliff Avril to a contract.

Today Kowalski gives us a complete 180 on that earlier report.

As of Wednesday, Kowalski is now saying that a contract extension for Cliff Avril may not happen soon since the team will try to sign undrafted free agents, signing drafted rookies and pursuing unrestricted free agents.

The Lions however told Cliff Avril that they want to keep him around for many years to come.

Kowalski pointed out that the Lions could either sign him to a one year tender and work out a long term deal later. However the risk here is that Avril gets hot at the beginning of the season and opts to test the free agent market at the end of the season.

Source: Mlive.com