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.
Chickens and geese that went missing from a local nonprofit’s Detroit site were found in the backyard of a nearby home, the director of operations said Wednesday.
The Full Circle Foundation, a Grosse Point Park-based nonprofit, said more than a dozen chickens and geese were believed stolen from a chicken coop on Detroit’s east side that also features the Full Circle Edible Garden.
The nonprofit provides training and job opportunities for young people with special needs.
Neighbors who learned from news reports about the missing flock found the “chickens were being held in the backyard of a vacant home not far from the Full Circle Edible Garden,” said Stephanie DiVirgil, director of operations. She said Ribbon Farm 4-H owns the flock.
“The homeowner was contacted, and she reached out to Full Circle to confirm,” said DiVirgil. “We were able to retrieve all of the chickens and geese that were found on the property, 19 in total.”
The foundation and Ribbon Farms 4-H are working to secure the site, including cameras, fencing and lights.
“We will likely start a fundraising campaign to have these items installed,” DiVirgil said. “We’ve gotten amazing support from the community, including offers to help pay for these additional security measures.”
DETROIT (WXYZ) — Human remains were found in a furnace of an home on Detroit’s west side, the Detroit Police Department tells us.
The remains was found by an individual working on the home in the 5200 block of S Clarendon just after 11 a.m.
Anyone with information can call 313-596-2260 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-SpeakUp.
Stay with WXYZ.com for updates on this developing story.
The Detroit Police Department is investigating after a 5-year-old child was shot in the arm near a park on Tuesday.
The shooting happened at about 8:50 p.m. near the Fargo-Oaklfield Playground on the city’s west side. Police Chief Todd Bettison says the child was in front of his home riding a bike with his father supervising at the time of the shooting.
Bettison says an individual at the park fired multiple shots, striking the child. He says the boy’s father reported hearing shots and the child falling from his bike.
Bettison says the child is expected to be OK.
Bettison says the person appears to have been firing shots randomly, which he calls “problematic.” He says a person of interest is described as possibly between 15 and 16 years old and wearing a mask. He says the person is known to frequent the area.
“When you fire a weapon, what goes up must go down,” Bettison said. “To parents and everyone, know where your kids are. Juveniles should not have guns, and whether you’re an adult or a child, you should not be firing a weapon inside of the city limits.”
Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield released a statement, saying in part, “By the grace of God, this young boy will recover from his injury and is on his way home from the hospital. With that said, this incident was senseless and could have had a much more tragic ending.
“Every child in Detroit deserves to feel safe riding their bike, playing outside, and simply being a child in their own neighborhood. We cannot accept a reality where our children are placed in harm’s way because someone chose to recklessly fire a gun.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 800-Speak Up.
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