Look, I get that some Detroit Lions fans are going to look at the headline and mistake this for me saying the Lions don’t need to keep Jack Campbell. That just could not be farther from the truth. There’s a reason why I say this, and if you clicked to find out, you’re a rational person.

Jack Campbell making the Pro Bowl made his fifth-year option insanely large, and the Lions need to avoid it

If Campbell hadn’t made the Pro Bowl, I would say that he is absolutley someone who should have his fifth-year option picked up. But because he did, that brought his fifth-year option up from $16 million to almost $23 million. That is all completely guaranteed in 2027, and it all hits the cap. The Lions cannot restructure it or maneuver it around without the player’s consent. They’re mostly stuck with it, unless a new agreement is reached.

Denying a fifth-year option is not a new thing, and it’s not a bad thing either. Lions fans could look at a player they’re really hoping the Lions sign in free agency this year to figure that out: Tyler Linderbaum. The Ravens did not pick up his fifth-year option. That does not mean they plan to let him walk or that they don’t like him. It means they don’t want him to have a $23.4 million cap hit. The Ravens are much more likely to work out a new deal with him where he can be the highest-paid center in the league and not have a back-breaking cap hit in 2027.

That’s the move for the Lions as well. The Lions’ best move is to avoid that option. Just don’t give it to him; move him to the front of the line on extensions and sign him to a big one where you can still get some guaranteed money attached to it and make it up to him there.

That’s how the Lions have been doing all their deals lately. They bring the guaranteed money up front to lower the cap hit early. Campbell still receives that money, but he won’t get it in a way that affects the salary cap.

A good deal for Campbell might be a five-year, $100 million agreement with up to $72 million fully guaranteed, which is paid up front. That allows the Lions to still pay him approximately $10 million per year for the next two years and keep his cap hit low. This is how the Lions did it with Penei Sewell, Aidan Hutchinson, Jared Goff, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and Kerby Joseph. They could even include void years and spread payments out further if the actual contract is shorter than five years.

That’s why you have to lock him down now to make sure he’s not putting you between a rock and a hard place with a giant cap hit and then an extension right after it.

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