Detroit, MI
Detroit Lions 2025 fifth-year options: Who’s eligible, what it costs
With the Detroit Lions 2024-25 season coming to a close, their roster begins its transition to the offseason. While most of the attention is paid to the Lions’ pending free agents, the players from Detroit’s 2022 draft class enter a unique phase of their rookie contracts.
Eligibility for fifth-year options
This offseason, the members of the Lions 2022 draft class who remain on Detroit’s roster will be entering the final year of their rookie contract and therefore become eligible for contract extensions. Additionally, players who were drafted in the first round are also eligible for a team-held fifth-year option.
That means, Aidan Hutchinson and Jameson Williams are eligible for an extension and a fifth-year option, while Josh Paschal, Kerby Joseph, and Malcolm Rodriguez are only eligible for extensions. The remaining players from that draft class—James Mitchell, James Houston, and Chase Lucas—are no longer under contract with the Lions.
How the fifth-year option works
For Hutchinson and Williams, they enter the fourth year of their rookie contracts, which are set to expire after the 2025 season. However, if the team elects to apply their fifth-year option, it would extend the length of the contract through 2026 by adding a fully guaranteed fifth year.
The NFL pre-determines the value of a player’s fifth-year option by applying three factors: 1) draft slot, 2) playing time, and 3) Pro Bowl selections. The popular salary cap website OverTheCap.com, does a good job of breaking down what those fifth-year options costs would look like for each player eligible, based on the incentives triggered.
Hutchinson’s fifth-year option projection
For Hutchinson, he was drafted No. 2 overall, met the playing time incentives, and was selected to ONE Pro Bowl in 2023-24, meaning his contract moves up to the third tier.
OTC is projecting a fifth-year option of $22,612,000 (fully guaranteed) for the 2026 season.
Williams’ fifth-year option projection
For Williams, he was drafted with the No. 12 overall pick, but failed to meet the playtime incentives and was not selected to a Pro Bowl, therefore he remains at the lowest tier available for his draft position.
OTC is projecting a fifth-year option of $15,161,000 (fully guaranteed) for the 2026 season.
Deadline to apply fifth-year option
The NFL wants to give teams a reasonable amount of time to make a determination on a player’s fifth-year option and therefore allows each organization to wait until the conclusion of free agency and the NFL draft before assigning a deadline. Each year, the NFL sets the deadline for fifth-year options to be exactly one week after the first day of the NFL Draft.
In 2025, the deadline to apply a fifth-year option to an eligible player is May 1.
Can a team give a fifth-year option player a contract extension?
Yes. Because a player eligible for a fifth-year option is also eligible for a contract extension, the team could opt to bypass the extension altogether or they can include it in the extension—as the Lions did with Penei Sewell during the 2024 offseason.
With Sewell, the Lions kept the final year of his rookie contract in place, applied the fifth-year option, and then added another four-year contract extension on top of that. In the end, the Lions managed to create a contract that extended Sewell through the 2029 season.
When can the Lions assign fifth-year options/sign contract extensions?
Immediately. While coach Dan Campbell working on rebuilding his coaching staff, general manager Brad Holmes and his staff can begin negotiations with players and their agents.
“Yeah, we’re working through all of that,” Brad Holmes said during his end-of-year presser. “Again, it’s not always in our control, we might have our plans and processes, but it takes two people to get something done. That’s not a negative comment, it’s just that you just don’t know what that player and their camp and all that kind of stuff are thinking. So, we haven’t gotten to those intense dialogues yet, so that’s going to be the only thing, but we have our philosophy, we have our process, but we’ll just see how it goes.”
What is a reasonable timeline for the option to be applied?
Because Sewell was this regime’s first drafted player, we only have his contract as a point of reference for a potential timeline of events. His contract was finalized on April 24, 2024, which was the first day of the NFL Draft, exactly one week before the fifth-year option deadline.
So while picking up a player’s option may seem like an easy decision on the surface, things could take time behind the scenes.
In the lead-up to the 2026 NFL Draft, NBC Sports’ Chris Simms gave his one and only prediction of who he believes will be selected in the first round on April 23, including where the Detroit Lions go after at the No. 17 overall pick.
Along with several draft boards and experts, the general consensus is that the Lions will prioritize an offensive tackle with their lone first-round pick, given the dire need to replace now-released Taylor Decker at the left tackle position next season.
In his April 20 prediction posted on X, Simms has the Lions addressing that need by selecting 6-foot-7, 352-pound Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor at their No. 17 overall draft position.
While there are some mock drafts that predict the Lions trading up to grab their desired draft target, the franchise certainly would not be opposed to Proctor, who is ranked as the No. 2 overall offensive tackle by NFL.com, perfectly falling to them at the No. 17 position.
If Detroit can land Proctor, it would likely be viewed as another successful first-round selection by general manager Brad Holmes and an excellent way to kick off the NFL Draft weekend in the Steel City.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Scout on X: @SpringgateNews
DETROIT (WXYZ) — Michigan has some of the greatest natural resources in the country, and those working to protect them met Tuesday for an annual conference.
The fourth annual MI Healthy Climate Conference happened at Huntington Place in Detroit. I had a chance to see some of the innovative ways they are working to protect our environment.
Watch Glenda Lewis’ video report below:
4th annual MI Healthy Climate Conference held in Detroit
“One thing that brings Michiganders together is understanding the beauty and the importance of the environment around us,” said Jeff Johnston with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
In attendance for the event were 700 speakers and about 50 speakers who are passionate about preserving what’s most precious to the state of Michigan.
“We’re right here on the beautiful Detroit Riverfront, part of the Great Lakes system. We’ve got 3,200 miles of coastline in Michigan on the Great Lakes, 11,000 rivers. I’ve got all these amazing numbers that talk about just how important our relationship with the natural world is,” Johnston said. “To engage in climate action, to mitigate the problems of greenhouse gases and fossil fuels that endanger that environment, endanger our livelihoods and our lives is just some of the most important work we can be doing.”
WXYZ
The conference focuses on green funding and a strong future.
“I worked on a youth magazine to engage young people in conservation,” said Jenny Kalejs, a MI Health Climate fellow in the Upper Peninsula. “So, we do land stewardship protection of ecologically sensitive lands, organizing community partners, so we can better collaborate.”
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Michael Goldman Brown Jr. is an MI Health Climate fellow in Detroit.
“I’m sited at Transportation Riders United right here in Detroit, and I’m working on expanding and advocating for better transit here in Detroit but also the entire state of Michigan,” MI Health Climate fellow Michael Goldman Brown Jr. said.
We caught up with a couple of the more than two dozen people working as fellows with a number of nonprofit organizations and green-focused businesses and municipalities to help create an air of change.
“About a third of pollution comes from transportation, from cars and trucks and planes and everybody getting where they need to go,” said Megan Ownens, the director and Transportation Riders United. “So that’s why we at Transportation United are part of this. We want to make sure people have options other than their car.”
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Executive director of Community 2 Me Network Shawna Forbes Henry wants to protect Detroit’s footprint.
“Detroit is an area that is heavily impacted by various climate changes and emergencies, so we are here to ensure that our residents have the training that they need, have the economic resources that they need and the have the ability to feed that pipeline for employment,” Henry said.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke to all the conference attendees by video, announcing a $1.8 million grant competition for industrial decarbonization, where applicants will come up with cost effective ways to reduce greenhouse emissions.
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