You ever do that thing where you're just cruising through the internet looking for some details on a Detroit Lions thing and then you get pulled in a completely different direction with some other Lions thing? I think that's probably my A.D.H.D. 

Well, that happened to me today. I went to go look at the details on one contract and then I found myself staring at the Lions entire roster and trying to figure out how this team spends their money and how that compares to the rest of the league. 

Come with me you guys. Let me show you what I found. 

Offense

Alright, let's start on the offensive side. This is where most of the money is being spent. The Lions are spending $127,254,464 on their offense in 2023. That's 56 percent of the Lions cap hit. That makes the Lions offense the fifth most expensive offense in the NFL. 

One would think that the big cap hit would come from the quarterbacks because they're the highest paid position in the league and all that. That's not the case in Detroit. The quarterbacks only account for 15.13 percent of the cap for the Lions. That's all of them. The Lions will spend the third most in the NFL on quarterbacks in 2023. That could go go up if the Lions decide to extend Goff before the season. It seems unlikely, but it's possible since discussions have taken place.

The majority of the Lions spending on offense comes from their offensive line. It accounts for 27.99 percent of the teams total cap space. It's the most expensive unit on the team by far. In 2023, the Lions have the most expensive offensive offensive line in the entire NFL. This is a unit that could extend Jonah Jackson any moment now. So that number could increase.

After that it's the receivers at 8.69 percent. That's 26th in the league. Then there's running backs at 2.71 percent. That's 27th in the league. Lastly there's' tight ends. That's 2.65 percent and 28th in the NFL. The Lions have a really nice discount on skill players right now. That might not last too much longer. Eventually the bill will come due for all these players on rookie deals. 

Defense

The Lions defense is very cheap. Like, surprisingly cheap. The Lions defense costs $70,978,681 in 2023. That's 31.24 percent. In terms of where that ranks in the league, it's nearly dead last at 31st. The only team that'll spend less in 2023 is the Los Angeles Rams. There shouldn't be any surprise there from the Lions side of things. They had the youngest defense in the NFL a year ago. A lot of rookie deals. 

It should also come at no surprise that the majority of the Lions spending on defense comes from the secondary after Brad Holmes signed nearly every available defensive back in free agency. At least the good ones. It's 13.09 percent of the teams cap. Despite that, the Lions secondary is the leagues 27th cheapest secondary.

The next most expensive unit for the Lions defense is their defensive line. It accounts for 12.18 percent of the cap. That's the 26th most expensive defensive line around. Lastly there's the linebackers. They come in at 8.30 percent of the cap and rank out at 23rd in the league.

Special Teams

Special teams units are cheap. The Lions unit costs them $6,780,000. If we all pooled our money together, we could buy the special teams unit. You, yes you, could own Jack Fox. That'll be great. You never know when you need to punt something around the house. 

The Lions special teams accounts for 2.98 percent of the teams cap. That's right in the middle part of the NFL at 15th. Not too bad. The Texans lead the league at a little over $10 million dollars in case you were wondering. I don't know how they do that. 

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