Lions free agent grades: Roy Lopez a significant investment in run defense

Grading the Detroit Lions’ free agent addition of NT Roy Lopez.

Late on Tuesday night, the Detroit Lions reportedly agreed to terms with former Cardinals nose tackle Roy Lopez. It’s Detroit’s first investment this free agency on an external defensive lineman—one of hopefully many.

While it certainly isn’t the flashiest of additions, let’s break down Lopez’s fit, role, and value with the Lions to give it an overall grade.

Roy Lopez’s fit with the team

It’s clear Lopez is exactly the kind of player Dan Campbell loves on his team. Fans and reporters have called him “relentless,” “badass,” and a “locker room guy.” Perhaps most notably, Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon gave him one of the bigger compliments a player can receive:

“If you had 90 Roys, you’d be ready to go, you know what I mean? I’m not saying—we’ve got a lot of good guys, but Roy, he keeps a good attitude, he’s always working on his game, he’s team first, he’s willing to do whatever you tell him to do, he’s got a smile on his face. He’s a phenomenal human being, and he enjoys coming to work and he gets better at his game. So, yeah, I’d love a bunch of Roys.”

As for his style of play, he’s a run-first nose tackle. While he finished 99th out of 153 defensive tackles when it came to PFF’s run stop percentage, his score (5.4%) was higher than Benito Jones (5.3%), DJ Reader (5.1%). There also may be a little more pass rush upside than we’ve seen from Detroit’s depth at defensive tackle. It’s certainly not his specialty, but he did produce a 67.4 pass rush grade last year, including 18 pressures, 1.0 sacks, a forced fumble and three quarterback hits.

Fit grade: A-

Lopez’s role/talent level

As of now, Lopez is Detroit’s third nose tackle on the team, with DJ Reader and Brodric Martin. Given the first reported details of the contract ($4.75 million for one year), at the very least Lopez is going to be the second-string nose tackle. There are two big questions now at the position:

1. Is DJ Reader now a potential cap casualty?

Reader is set to count $12.9 million against the cap, including a $4 million roster bonus due on March 15. If Detroit opts to cut him before then, they’ll save nearly $8 million in cap space while eating just under $5 million in dead cap.

That’s significant savings, but it’s fair to wonder if Detroit wants to rely on Lopez as their No. 1 nose tackle. He has started a whopping 50 games over four seasons, including 16 games last year. So the workload would not be an issue. It’s just a matter of whether the Lions believe he’s good enough to be a starter, and while I’m still just scratching the surface of his tape, I’d be surprised to see the Lions expect him to be their full-time starter.

2. Is it time to give up on Brodric Martin?

The Lions spent a 2023 third-round pick on Martin to play nose tackle, but the small-school defender has spent his first two years mainly as a healthy scratch. He’s played in just 53 defensive snaps despite no major injuries.

If the Lions don’t end up cutting Reader, it’s hard to interpret Lopez’s signing as anything other than a significant lack of faith in Martin. If Reader is cut, then Martin may still have some believers among the staff.

It’s worth pointing out that the Lions have valued their backup nose tackle in the past. Last year, it was Kyle Peko holding down that role, and while his playing time dipped to 10-20 snaps a game after Reader was healthy, the team insisted when Peko suffered a season-ending injury, it was a major loss.

“That was a huge, huge loss,” Aaron Glenn said. “I actually talked to him this morning because he actually went into his surgery and just told him how much that we were going to miss him, and I don’t take him for granted at all for what he did.”

If Lopez’s role is to be a backup, it’s definitely an upgrade to get a player with so much experience and shown durability. But if he’s going to be the starter and Detroit expects to move on from Reader, it’ll be a downgrade.

Role/talent grade: B

Are the Lions getting good value in Lopez?

First of all, we don’t have any contract details other than the overall value of the contract: one year, $4.75 million. With no word on guarantees, it’s nearly impossible to give a fully-educated appraisal of his value.

It’s also hard to judge when we don’t know what his projected role is. If he’s going to be Reader’s backup, it does “look like” an overpay. They already have $13 million committed to the nose tackle position, so another $2-4 million (depending on the actual deal details) on a guy who will play a dozen snaps a game does not seem like particularly good value. Consider the contract terms of previous rotational nose tackles in Detroit:

• Kyle Peko: 1-year, $1.21 million
• Benito Jones (2023): 1-year, $940,000
• Isaiah Buggs (2022, starter): 2-years, $4.5 million

Obviously, with the cap going up, there’s going to be some inflation. Still, this deal is potentially triple to quadruple what the Lions spent on the reserve position last year. I don’t think you’ll find many teams in the NFL that’s spending over $15 million in cap space on the nose tackle position this year.

If the Lions opt to cut Reader, it’s a reasonable deal for a starting nose tackle.

Value grade: INC

Overall

Lopez will fit right in with the Lions culture, and Detroit really likes to prioritize their run defense. On that level, it makes sense for them to invest in a nose tackle, even if it’s just depth.

But this move doesn’t move the needle much for me overall. My best guess is that he’ll serve as the backup to Reader in 2025, and if that’s the case, this is a slight overinvestment. I get the desire to be deep at this position given Reader’s age and the general depth issues Detroit had on the defensive line last year, but how much better will the Lions run defense actually be with Lopez over a guy like Peko, Jones, or Buggs?

It’s an improvement on the roster, but a pretty minor one at an oddly-high cost (based on what we know).

Overall grade: C-