Prioritizing Detroit Lions' 2023 Free Agents

These are the players the Detroit Lions must re-sign this offseason.

The Detroit Lions have 28 free agents on their roster that general manager Brad Holmes and the front office must make decisions on heading into next season. 

Currently, the team is set to have 18 unrestricted free agents, three restricted free agents and seven exclusive rights free agents. 

Recall, exclusive rights free agents (ERFAs) are players who have accrued two or fewer seasons in the NFL and have expiring deals. 

When asked if the team would again prioritize its own free agents similarly to last offseason, Holmes expressed, "as long as they’re fits for our culture and what we’re trying to build and where we’re going, yeah absolutely. Now, like I say all the time, those guys are UFAs, they’re UFAs for the whole league. 

"Obviously, we know them and they know us, and I know a lot of those guys that want to come back," Holmes explained further. "I pretty much met with all -- me and (assistant GM) Ray Agnew met with all of our guys that are coming up on expiring deals and majority of them, they expressed interest in wanting to come back. But, I don’t ignore the reality of there’s other elements of that business that we’re going to have to deal with. But, it was cool to hear, because those guys believe in what we’re doing and they believe it’s the right way. They like how they’re treated, they can be themselves and it was just cool to hear that they think that we’re doing it the right way. But, yeah, we’ll just see how it goes, but hopefully we can get a lot of those guys back.”

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Here is an early assessment of how the Lions should prioritize players who should again be part of the roster in 2023. 

Must re-sign 

• RB Jamaal Williams
• DT Isaiah Buggs
• EDGE John Cominsky
• G/C Evan Brown
• RB Justin Jackson
• LS Scott Daly
• TE Shane Zylstra
• TE Brock Wright 
• LB Josh Woods

© Kirthmon F. Dozier / USA TODAY NETWORK

On the fence

• WR D.J. Chark
• LB Alex Anzalone
• S DeShon Elliott
• LB Anthony Pittman
• RB Craig Reynolds
• K Michael Badgley
• CB Mike Hughes

Can be replaced

• S C.J. Moore
• EDGE Austin Bryant
• OL Dan Skipper
• LB Chris Board
• QB Nate Sudfeld
• CB Will Harris
• CB Amani Oruwariye
• DT Benito Jones
• G Tommy Kraemer
• DB Bobby Price
• OL Matt Nelson
• OL Ross Pierschbacher