A week after he was acquired, the Lions and Carlton Davis have agreed to a contract restructuring.
When the Detroit Lions acquired cornerback Carlton Davis from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a notable piece of the equation was that he is entering the final year of his contract.
A contract extension isn’t necessarily an urgent matter, in the scope of other extensions that are prominent on the agenda this offseason (Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown), but a move to reduce his $14.35 million cap hit for 2024 might be something to consider.
To the end, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap has reported the Lions and Davis have agreed to a restructured deal to free up $4.5 million in cap space for this year.
More specifically, $6 million of his original $14 million base salary has been made into a signing bonus, prorated over the next four years for cap purposes.
Here’s a look at Davis’ old and new contract structures
The Los Angeles Rams were given some unexpected news on Friday when their defensive tackle and three-time defensive player of the year, Aaron Donald, decided to hang up the cleats and call it a career.
With simply a message on social media, Donald announced that he was retiring.
While Donald officially announced his retirement on Friday, the Rams may have known that he was going to retire ever since the end of the season.
Albert Breer of the MMQB described in his weekly column,
Given that the Rams and Donald have seemingly known that he was going to retire for so long, it seems odd that either side would wait until the end of the first week of free agency to announce anything.
Jason Kelce who also retired this offseason, announced his retirement the first week of March.
In the case that the Rams have known since after their playoff loss to the Detroit Lions, it also puts into question some of their free agency moves.
Instead of signing a premier edge rusher or a defensive tackle like Christian Wilkins, the Rams signed Jonah Jackson, Colby Parkinson, and Darious Williams as their first three moves in free agency.
It’s certainly possible that the Rams could be waiting until the draft to address both of these positions.
However, without Donald, it certainly puts a glaring hole on the defensive line and overall Rams pass rush.
As we’ve mentioned, the Rams won’t be replacing Aaron Donald this offseason.
It’s going to be up to the coaching staff to scheme pressure and coach up some of the younger guys on the roster.
Still, it seems odd that they haven’t managed to bring in a player with experience given that they’ve known about Donald’s retirement since January.