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The Detroit Lions busily locked up several key players to lucrative long-term contract extensions in the last year. Foundational building blocks like Amon-Ra St. Brown , Penei Sewell, Alim McNeill and Jared Goff have all earned their next few years in Detroit.
Next in line: Aidan Hutchinson.
Hutchinson is eligible for a contract extension this offseason, though it’s not something the Lions have to get done this year. The 2025 campaign will be Hutchinson’s fourth, but the Lions can pick up the fifth-year option on his contract to buy another season in 2026 before any extension. Technically, Detroit could also use the franchise tag for the 2027 season as well, but that’s not something either side would benefit from in the long term.
NFL contracts tend to run similarly to the housing market. The prices only go up with every bump to the salary cap, and extensions tend to be based off recent comparable player deals. That will be true of Hutchinson whenever he and the Lions hammer out an extension.
In the last two years, a few upper-echelon EDGE players have signed big new deals. The most notable is 49ers standout Nick Bosa, who inked a 5-year deal worth $170 million, with $88 million (52 percent) guaranteed. Bosa’s deal works out to $34 million per year, elevating him to the top of the positional pay chart.
Jacksonville’s Josh Hines-Allen and Brian Burns of the Giants are next in pay at $28.25 million and $28.2 million per year, respectively. Both inked those lucrative deals last offseason. Pittsburgh standout T.J. Watt is at $28 million per year, with Cleveland star Myles Garrett next at $25 million.
It’s worth noting that Hutchinson was on pace to finish with more sacks, hurries and TFLs than any of those other players ended with when he broke his leg in Detroit’s Week 7 win over the Cowboys.
Hutchinson will command at least the $34 million per year on average that Bosa gets. On a five-year deal, that’s $170 million total that would lock up Hutchinson until he’s 30. It would not be surprising for the Lions to make it $34.1 million per year to show that Hutchinson’s contract is slightly higher than Bosa’s. Call it $170.5 million over five year.
The guarantee and contract structure is where the negotiations for Hutchinson and the Lions will get interesting. Watt gets 71.4 percent guaranteed, while Hines-Allen has 62.4 percent. Recent Lions deals have guaranteed between 53 percent (Goff) and 76 percent (Sewell). The grisly details will almost certainly include at least one void year for cap purposes. St. Brown’s deal, signed just before the 2024 NFL Draft, features several scheduled bonuses across different years. Expect that model, which is very commonplace in most large contracts across the league, to continue with Hutchinson.
It behooves the Lions to get a deal done with Hutchinson before Garrett resets the top of the market with his next contract — whether that’s in Cleveland (likely) or somewhere else . Garrett will require a new contract if he’s traded, but the Browns could also try to buy Garrett’s faith with a new deal despite still having two more seasons.