Top 15 Detroit Lions Salary-Cap Hits

Detroit Lions currently rank third in available salary-cap space, heading into 2023.

The Detroit Lions have strung together a solid offseason so far. 

Detroit general manager Brad Holmes has done an exemplary job of adding talent and depth to multiple position groups.

Most notably, the third-year Lions front-office executive has upgraded the team's defensive backs room, inking C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Cam Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley to free-agent deals. Also, he's replaced Detroit fan favorite Jamaal Williams with a No. 1-caliber running back in David Montgomery, and has brought former Lions players Graham Glasgow and Marvin Jones Jr. back to the Motor City. 

Holmes has been lauded by fans and pundits alike for his moves in free agency, and now has eight draft picks at his disposal later this April to further upgrade Detroit's roster.

Despite the aforementioned spending spree that Holmes has gone on this offseason, the Lions still have a little over $24 million in available cap space ($24,007,872), according to Spotrac. In case you were wondering, this figure comes from subtracting the organization's adjusted salary cap ($227,209,702) for the 2023 season by the summation of Detroit's top 51 contracts ($203,201,830).

Using that approximate $24M figure, the Lions presently rank third in available cap space, behind only the Carolina Panthers ($27,073,657) and the Chicago Bears ($38,319,675). 

Holmes helped the Lions get to that total this offseason by re-working the contracts of Romeo Okwara, Tracy Walker, Charles Harris and most recently, Halapoulivaati Vaitai. With the renegotiating of Vaitai's contract alone, Holmes delivered $7,395,000 in salary-cap savings to Detroit.

Detroit Lions right guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai :: © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Additionally, the Lions possess just $10,250,438 in dead-cap space, the 11th-best mark in the league.

Let's take a look now at the 15 most expensive Lions players, in terms of salary-cap hits.

• QB Jared Goff - $30,975,000
• LT Taylor Decker - $19,350,000
• C Frank Ragnow - $16,450,000
• CB Jeff Okudah - $10,668,173
• EDGE Aidan Hutchinson - $8,116,679
• RT Penei Sewell - $6,572,473
• S Tracy Walker - $6,321,667
• OLB Romeo Okwara - $5,647,058
• DE Charles Harris - $5,076,568
• G Halapoulivaati Vaitai - $5,053,194 
• DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson - $4,500,000
• CB Emmanuel Moseley - $4,294,117
• WR Kalif Raymond - $4,050,000
• WR Jameson Williams - $3,968,589
• WR Josh Reynolds - $3,929,406