Detroit, MI

Lions save nearly $1.3 million with Malcolm Rodriguez contract trick

Published

2 hours ago

March 20, 2026

Lions save nearly .3 million with Malcolm Rodriguez contract trick

Earlier this week, contract details on the Detroit Lions’ re-signing of Malcolm Rodriguez came out, and if you were to just look at the Over The Cap outline of the deal, it would probably be pretty confusing.

Rodriguez has a salary of over $2.5 million—all guaranteed—a signing bonus of $137,500, and a workout bonus of $50,000. Combine all of those, and it should equal a salary cap hit of a combined $2.7 million. Yet, per OTC, the Lions’ cap charge for Rodriguez’s deal is just $1,402,5000.

There are no void years. This isn’t a misprint. The Lions are just using a salary cap stipulation that rewards teams for developing players and staying loyal to them.

How to qualify for the Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract

The relevant Collective Bargaining Agreement rule is called the “Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract.” You can read the entire terms of this rule, but here’s the short of it. In order to qualify for this advantage, a player has to have:

Four or more Credited Seasons whose contract with a Club has expired after four or more years of continuous, uninterrupted service with that Club

In Rodriguez’s case, he played through the entirety of his four-year rookie contract, so both he and the team are certainly eligible for this benefit.

What is the actual benefit?

Essentially, a team can award a one-year contract to these players that acts as a veteran minimum salary deal when it comes to the overall cap hit, but they are able to increase these players’ salaries from the minimum by a fixed number that will not count against the cap.

In Rodriguez’s case, the veteran minimum for a player with four accrued seasons is $1,215,000. According to the CBA, for the 2026 season, the “Four-Year Player Qualifying Contract” can increase the salary by a maximum of an extra $1.55 million.

So if you look at the actual cap hit, it’s based on that veteran minimum salary:

Vet minimum salary: $1,215,000
Signing bonus: $137,500
Workout bonus: $50,000

Add those together, and you get $1,402,500—Rodriguez’s cap hit for 2026.

But the actual payment Rodriguez will be getting in 2026 is this:

Actual salary: $2,562,500
Signing bonus: $137,500
Workout bonus: $50,000

For a total of $2,700,000 in earnings. In short, the Lions are saving nearly $1.3 million by using this salary cap tool. And for Rodriguez, the benefit is that everything but the workout bonus is guaranteed. Note that no player is obligated to accept this kind of contract, but for a player like Rodriguez, who is coming off an injury-shortened season, it’s a nice little guaranteed payday that he may not have been able to get elsewhere. And for the Lions, it’s a way to pay a player his value while also getting some savings on cap space.

This isn’t the first time the Lions have used this cap trick. They used it with Jalen Reeves-Maybin back in 2021, and they’ll likely use it again.

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Detroit, MI

3 Trades That Would Instantly Elevate Detroit Lions

Published

14 hours ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

3 Trades That Would Instantly Elevate Detroit Lions

With a majority of the big name free agents off the board, the focus for the Detroit Lions becomes acquiring depth or players that have a plus side as starters.

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The Lions have addressed two glaring holes so far in free agency, with the signings of Cade Mays and Tyler Conklin plugging holes at center and tight end depth, respectively. Now, the focus for acquiring talent can be with remaining free agents or the NFL Draft.

However, there is a third option that general manager Brad Holmes can explore. The Detroit Lions can look to acquire the crucial depth and starting-level talent with trades.

Trades do require giving up players or picks to acquire talent, and here are players that Holmes can trade draft picks for this year. These are players on the last year of their contract with their current team’s.

Safety Jeremy Chinn (Las Vegas Raiders)

Jeremy Chinn would provide a crucial depth piece at safety with the Lions facing an unknown future and Week 1 status for starters Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch, along with reserve Dan Jackson missing all of 2025.

Chinn signed with the Las Vegas in free agency before last season, and he took a two year deal with $12 million guaranteed. With the Raiders pressing against the cap, especially after the Maxx Crosby trade was revoked by Baltimore, Chinn could be a trade piece to help offset their spending spree.

The one concern for Detroit here is that Chinn missed the ending two games of the 2025 season with a back injury after 114 tackles and two forced fumbles in 15 starts. He is productive, but another player off the injured reserve could scare away the Lions as a suitor.

OT Dawand Jones (Cleveland Browns)

Jones is a player facing an uncertain future after seeing his season shut down in September last year with a knee injury. Cleveland made the former Buckeyes’ status even more cloudy with a trade for Tytus Howard earlier this offseason.

The Lions have their own uncertain future at offensive tackle, with longtime stalwart Taylor Decker released to free agency. The Lions did acquire Larry Borom during the free agency cycle, and his contract suggests he is a swing tackle option that can start. However, Borom is a downgrade from Taylor Decker in terms of tackle production.

Additionally, depth is needed beyond Borom, as tackle Giovanni Manu struggled in his limited appearances in 2025 before ending the year injured.

Jones provides a proven right tackle option, as he earned All-Rookie honors at right tackle after an injury to Jack Conklin forced him into a starting role as a fourth-round pick.

The concern on Jones is, much like Chinn, his injuries. He has ended the year on injured reserve for lower body injuries in all three seasons in the league, in addition to needing an offseason knee surgery last February.

CB Deontae Banks (New York Giants)

Banks is a former first round selection that has struggled to meet expectations since entering the league out of Maryland, and enters his fourth season with the Giants recently announcing there was no consideration of picking up his fifth year option.

He struggled in 2025, with his limited snaps having little to show for them. Banks ranked No. 112 of 114 qualifying corners among PFF grades last season, despite only ranking 88th of the 114 in snaps.

However, he has speed and athleticism, along with a knack for returning kicks. Last season saw the athlete blaze in his first career touchdown, which is a spot that is now a need for Detroit after Kalif Raymond left to reunite with Ben Johnson in Chicago.

The Giants might be looking to ship Banks off before losing him for no cost, with his current play unlikely to even factor in for a seventh-round compensatory selection. With Detroit needing depth at corner and a potential starting return man, Banks provides hidden value for Detroit.

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Detroit, MI

Report: Cade Cunningham suffers collapse lung, out for extended period of time

Published

1 day ago

March 19, 2026

Press Room

Report: Cade Cunningham suffers collapse lung, out for extended period of time

article

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – JANUARY 31: Cade Cunningham #2 of the Detroit Pistons looks to drive around Olivier-Maxence Prosper #8 of the Dallas Mavericks during the second half at Little Caesars Arena on January 31, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. Detroit won th

(FOX 2) – Detroit’s star point guard Cade Cunningham is expected to miss an extended period of time after being diagnosed with a collapsed lung.

First reported by ESPN, the loss to the Pistons’ offense happens as the NBA’s regular season reaches its conclusion.

Big picture view:

Cunningham appeared to suffer a back injury during Detroit’s game against the Washington Wizards. He played a little more before being subbed out for the rest of the game.

Cunningham has led the Pistons to its best season in years. The Pistons are currently seeded No. 1 in the Eastern Conference.

It’s possible he could be back in time for the playoffs, but much of his condition is unknown.

The Source: ESPN first reported the injury update.

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Drummer Brian Pastoria, longtime Detroit music advocate, dies at 68

Published

2 days ago

March 18, 2026

Press Room

Brian Pastoria, a metro Detroit drummer best known for his work with the rock bands Adrenalin and DC Drive, has died, his family confirmed Wednesday, March 18. He was 68.

Pastoria, who hailed from a family of Italian heritage in East Detroit (now Eastpointe) and later operated a downtown recording studio, was a reliably upbeat personality and an avid booster of Motor City music. The outgoing drummer was a well-liked, decades-long fixture on Detroit’s rock scene, carrying a banner for the region’s music history and always eager to support up-and-coming artists.

Pastoria passed away peacefully in his downtown Detroit apartment, where police found him Wednesday, his brother Mark Pastoria told the Detroit Free Press.

With Adrenalin — a band he formed in the late ’70s with his brother and several childhood friends — Pastoria enjoyed major-label status, landing a deal with MCA Records. The group’s 1986 album, “Road of the Gypsy,” included a title track licensed for the Lou Gossett action film “Iron Eagle” the same year.

His drumming hero was Charlie Martin, one of the original players in Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band, and Pastoria was a workhorse always hustling to advance Adrenalin’s music.

“Brian was a real driving force in the band. He relentlessly wanted to play — then do it again and do it again,” said saxophonist Jimmy Romeo, who played alongside Pastoria in the 1980s and ’90s. “He was a relentless rock drummer.”

The group cut its teeth at Detroit nightspots such as the Westside Six and 24 Karat Club, where original material was encouraged onstage, and the band eventually landed local airplay via supportive radio figures such as WLLZ-FM’s Doug Podell.

Speaking with the Detroit Free Press in 2003, Pastoria recounted the group’s origins.

“It was 1977, and I was 19 years old. This band was like the gang from the old neighborhood in East Detroit,” he said. “From the very beginning, we were writing our own songs, but we were very much influenced by a lot of the ’60s and ’70s rock. Aerosmith was a huge influence on us. They gave us hope that you could be a rock band and cut your own space out there.”

Pastoria and his bandmates eventually evolved into what he described as “more of an E Street thing” — a reference to Bruce Springsteen’s group — with saxophone, synths and two guitars.

“We started to see the possibilities of keyboards, multiple singers in the band and all the different musical things we could do,” Pastoria said. “We had a common vision to make music that stood the test of time. We didn’t want to just write a bunch of songs — we wanted to be a voice of where we came from. It’s something we always talked about.”

By the turn of the ’90s, following their flirtation with national success, the Pastoria brothers had transitioned their band into a group they called DC Drive. But they faced the cultural headwinds of the time.

“We didn’t want to be a hair band. We weren’t into any of that. We were still a real rock ‘n’ roll band, still about straight-ahead heartland rock ‘n’ roll,” Pastoria told the Free Press. “It just wasn’t lining up with the industry.”

He continued:

“We were working on our first DC Drive record, and we heard Nirvana. That blew up, and we were like, ‘Oh my God, are we different than that, or what?’” Pastoria recalled. “That’s when we started hearing (feedback) from the labels — ‘What’s up with the saxophone?’”

Pastoria and his brother Mark, a keyboardist and producer, steered their interests to the business side: In the mid-’90s, they opened Harmonie Park Studios in downtown Detroit, eventually building a clientele that included Aretha Franklin, Dave Mason, Trombone Shorty, Martha Reeves, the Four Tops’ Duke Fakir, Grand Funk’s Mark Farner and others.

In early 1999, the Pastorias’ studio hosted the first hometown fan listening session for Eminem’s “The Slim Shady LP” on the cusp of the rapper’s blockbuster breakout.

Pastoria was a proud and vocal advocate of Detroit’s musical legacy, especially Motown, and in the 1990s he developed friendships with Hitsville figures such as vocal coach Maurice King and choreographer Cholly Atkins, who appeared in the DC Drive music video “You Need Love.”

In the 2010s, Pastoria was part of an executive board pushing to build a downtown music museum.

“Brian was very proud of the city’s music heritage,” said Romeo. “He loved that we grew up in that Motown era.”

Pastoria is survived by three sons, Dante, Anton and Jeremy.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

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