It looks like Lions head coach Matt Patricia won’t have much uncertainty surrounding one of his more vital defensive players heading into spring workouts and training camp this offseason. According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, defensive end Ziggy Ansah is expected to sign his $17.143 million dollar franchise tag today when he returns from Ghana after dealing with a family matter. This would in turn put Ansah in line to participate in Patricia’s first offseason conditioning program Rapoport notes.
#Lions star DE Ziggy Ansah is returning from Ghana today and will report to work for Detroit tomorrow, source said. He’s going to sign his $17.143M franchise tag and participate in new coach Matt Patricia’s first offseason conditioning program.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) April 16, 2018
After a bounce-back 2017, franchising Ansah seemed like an extremely reasonable option for the Lions who will have until mid-July to work out a long-term extension. However given Ansah’s knack for not playing out full seasons due to injury, signing the former first round pick to a long-term deal doesn’t seem to be in the cards as Bob Quinn and the Lions front office seems more interested in Ansah putting together back-to-back productive seasons before making any lengthy commitments.