The Detroit Lions have signed 11 players to reserve/futures contracts, a common practice for NFL teams in the days following the end of their season.
Detroit Lions sign 11 players to futures deals
Here are the 11 players the Lions signed to futures contracts, all of whom finished the season on the practice squad:
LB Abraham Beaplan
EDGE Isaac Ukwu
C Kinsley Eguakun
QB Jake Fromm
LB DaRon Gilbert
S Erick Hallet
OT Jamarco Jones
WR Tom Kennedy
DL Chris Smith
S Loren Strickland
CB Stantley Thomas-Oliver
Players on a team’s practice squad at the end of the season become free agents—commonly referred to as “street free agents”—and are eligible to sign with any team when the league year begins in March.
Erik Schlitt from Pride of Detroit provided a helpful breakdown of futures contracts:
> “A futures contract is only eligible to street free agents (SFA)—players not signed to a team’s active roster—and it is a way to delay a player’s cap hit until the 2025 NFL new year begins.
For example, if all 11 players with futures contracts were given only a base minimum deal (estimated to be around $840,000), that would equate to a $9.24 million cap hit. However, because of how “futures” contracts work, that cap hit will be delayed until the start of the new season, which coincides with free agency on March 12, 2025. Meaning, these contracts won’t impact the 2024 salary cap or other end-of-year bookkeeping, like “rollover cap” amounts.”
Notable absences from futures deals
Five players who finished the season on the Lions’ practice squad were not signed to futures contracts:
WR/KR Maurice Alexander
RB Jermar Jefferson
WR Donovan Peoples-Jones
LB Kwon Alexander
TE James Mitchell
These players remain free agents but could re-join the Lions as part of the 90-man offseason roster.
Lions add S Morice Norris to active roster
On Monday, the Lions also signed safety Morice Norris to their active roster.
Norris, an undrafted free agent out of Fresno State in 2024, was initially released during training camp due to a hamstring injury. After receiving an injury settlement, he returned to the Lions’ practice squad once eligible. Norris was later promoted to the active roster and appeared in Week 17, Week 18, and the Divisional Round game.
Because he ended the season on the active roster, Norris was ineligible to sign a futures deal. He was slated to carry an Exclusive Rights Free Agent (ERFA) designation but signed with the Lions instead.
