The Detroit Lions and their fans long suffered under the incompetent rule of former team president and general manager Matt Millen.
Ever since he was named the teams CEO and general manager, he made some of the most horrendous front office decision the league has ever seen. In fact he crippled the Lions so much that the after effects of his reign of terror were still felt for a couple of years after he was fired from the team.
In 2011 though, the Lions and fans finally saw light at the end of the dark Millen tunnel.
This past season the Lions made the postseason for the first time since 1999, further developed some of their good young players and finally gained some respectability around the league.
More importantly though it seemed safe to assume that the team was FINALLY on the right track.
Something that has kind of been lost in the transition from league joke to respectability is phase two of the Millen effect.
But what’s phase two of the Millen effect you ask?
During the days of Matt Millen within the Lions organization, the teams he constructed were so bad that they often times had high first round draft picks. Now like many of his other picks Millen was prone to drafting busts in the NFL with the exception of All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson which by all means was a no brainer. Again though after Millen was gone the team suffered because of this horrible drafting and lack of quality free agents brought into the mix that for two years after Millen the Lions still had high first round draft picks in which they used on quarterback Matthew Stafford and defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. And since the new general manager (and former Millen understudy) Martin Mayhew wasn’t totally clueless as to what he was doing, Stafford and Suh, like Calvin Johnson ended up working out tremendously.
Unfortunately where phase two of the Millen effect comes is when it comes time to re-sign Stafford, Suh and especially Johnson.
Megatron after having a career year in 2011 is entering his final season on his rookie contract where he is set to make $22 million dollars alone. The Lions of course would love and are going to work on getting him a long-term contract before the start of the season but it’s starting to become more apparent of what kind of money Calvin could be looking for.
Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com writes that the $22 million dollars that Johnson could earn in 2012 would make him without a doubt the highest paid wide receiver in the league. However if no long-term contract is agreed upon the Lions would have to pay Johnson over $26 million in 2013 (and almost $32 million in 2014) because of the new CBA rules regarding the franchise tag.
Seifert also notes…
“Often, the average of a series of franchise tags provides a rough starting point for negotiations on long-term deals for star players. The three-year average of $25.6 million in Johnson’s case is monstrous.”
This type of money would obviously make it difficult for the Lions to go out and get the complimentary pieces to their roster like a Stephen Tulloch and Cliff Avril who are very good players in their own right, will become free agents at the end of the season and will demand a nice long-term deal themselves. Now although they wouldn’t be making Calvin money, players like Avril and Tulloch may become an impossibility for the Lions to retain given the astronomical numbers that Calvin’s contract may demand.
If you look ahead, quarterback Matthew Stafford certainly looks to be on track earn himself a huge pay raise when his contract is up which will more than likely be the case for Suh as well.
At this point in time it seems extremely overwhelming as to how the Lions are going to be able to spread out the money when they will eventually have to pay these top of the line draft picks.
This is where Mayhew will further have to prove as to whether or not he is the right man to lead the Lions in the front office. He will obviously have many decisions to make as to whether or not he will keep his big three in tact and try to spread the left over money around as best he can or simply make a choice as to who he wants to keep around and who he wants to let go.
The good news though is at least it isn’t Millen making these new big decisions.
Ref: ESPN, Freep.com (image)