The Detroit Lions have adjusted Alex Anzalone’s contract to potentially give him a small raise for 2025.
According to a report from ESPN, the Detroit Lions have given Alex Anzalone a small raise.
Per Field Yates, the Lions have added $250,000 to Anzalone’s base salary of $6 million and guaranteed it all. Additionally, they’ve added incentives to potentially increase his earnings. Yates does not provide any specifics on those incentives.
UPDATE: Per Dave Birkett, Anzalone’s incentives total up to $750,000 in extra money. So with the extra $250,000 in salary, it’s basically a potential of $1 million extra in his 2025 contract.
Prior to this agreement, Anzalone’s salary would have become guaranteed after the first week of the NFL season, anyway. So it’s only a small adjustment to his overall pay. However, depending on the incentives, Anzalone could stand to make hundreds of thousands—or even millions—more with a strong 2025 season.
This offseason, Anzalone had made it clear he wasn’t particularly happy with his contract. After missing the first few days of training camp with a hamstring injury, Anzalone told reporters he believed he was underpaid and was surprised the Lions weren’t meeting what he believed were reasonable demands.
“This is a weird situation. And it wasn’t on my end. Or my agent’s end,” Anzalone said.
Since then, Anzalone has returned to practice and has promised he wouldn’t let whatever contractual disagreements he had affect his status for the regular season.
Lions coach Dan Campbell told the media shortly thereafter that Anzalone means a lot to the team.
“You guys know how I feel about Alex, how we feel about Alex,” Campbell said. “He’s one of our dudes, man, we’ve leaned on him, he’s a productive player. We’re good, still talking. There’s no animosity here; there’s nothing like that, so I’m not going to go into anything else outside of that. But, just, we’re going to be good. We’re going to be good. And yes, we’re going to need him.”
With no reported extra years added to Anzalone’s contract, he’s set to become a free agent next offseason.