{"id":16912,"date":"2025-03-09T23:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T23:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=16912"},"modified":"2025-03-09T23:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T23:31:08","slug":"breaking-detroit-lions-make-big-moves-as-free-agency-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=16912","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING : Detroit Lions Make Big Moves as Free Agency Approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2170906849-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2170906849-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2170906849-1.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/GettyImages-2170906849-1.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Detroit Lions Make Big Moves as Free Agency Approaches\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Detroit Lions are coming up on the free agency period, which officially starts with the new league year on Wednesday, March 12, at 4 p.m. ET. Of course, the NFL\u2019s \u201clegal tampering period\u201d starts on Monday, March 10, at 9 p.m. and runs until Wednesday, March 12, at 12:59 p.m., so if a team wants to make a move before free agency, now is the time.<\/p>\n<p>The Lions appear to be getting their ducks in a row ahead of free agency, and they\u2019ve pulled off a scurry of extensions and re-signings before the period opens.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Detroit Lions Making Sure They Have Linebacker Support<\/h2>\n<p>The Lions made a significant move on Friday, March 7, by signing linebacker Derrick Barnes to an extension. His deal is a three-year, $25.5 million contract extension, so it\u2019s a pretty weighty one. Then, the Lions followed that move by re-signing veteran linebacker Anthony Pittman to a one-year deal.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the Lions have done it again, and they\u2019re keeping linebacker Ezekiel Turner in the fold, according to NFL insider Aaron Wilson.<\/p>\n<p>Turner was signed by the Lions during the 2024 season, first inking a deal to be on the practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster not long after due to the Lions\u2019 defensive injuries kicked in. Before Detroit, Turner was with the Arizona Cardinals for six seasons, almost all of them on special teams.<\/p>\n<p>Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp sang the praises of Turner in December of last season.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s a player that I\u2019ve respected for a long time,\u201d Fipp said, according to the Detroit Football Network. \u201cWhen I was in Philly, and he was in Arizona, we played against each other a handful of games and I always thought he was a very good player. But even better than that for us was actually just the fit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fipp added that the way he covers and \u201cplays the game is very similar to Jalen Reeves-Maybin, so it was like just a natural slide in and fit.\u201d With that in mind, Fipp explained that \u201cit was an easy decision for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s super smart and intelligent. I got a lot of confidence and faith and trust in him already in a very short period of time,\u201d Fipp added. \u201cThe special teams coach from Arizona sent me a text message and said, \u2018I don\u2019t know if I trust another guy more than I trust him.\u2019 And that\u2019s a guy I respect quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Detroit Lions\u2019 Linebacker Situation<\/h2>\n<p>When it comes to linebackers, Detroit has been active as of late and are looking pretty solid in the position. On top of Turner, Pittman, and Barnes, Detroit also has Alex Anzalone, Malcolm Rodriguez, Abraham Beauplan, Jack Campbell and DaRon Gilbert under contract. The team has been reported to be parting with Reeves-Maybin, although that\u2019s not confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a lot of linebackers, but they don\u2019t want to get into a situation like last season where their injuries were getting the best of them. The Lions have $51 million in cap space, and time will tell how they use it heading into free agency.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also worth noting that the Lions have released edge Za\u2019Darius Smith, according to NFL insider Tom Pelissero.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Detroit Lions are making some big moves to shape their team before the 2025 NFL free agency period kicks in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-detroit-lions"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING : Detroit Lions Make Big Moves as Free Agency Approaches - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=16912\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING : Detroit Lions Make Big Moves as Free Agency Approaches - 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