On Monday morning, ESPN’s Adam Schefter dropped some interesting notes about Detroy Lions receiver Kenny Golladay during an appearance on “Get Up.”
First, he notes that the talks between the Lions and Golladay were serious last year, and that the young receiver turned down serious money.
“Keep in mind that these two parties talked about a long-term extension last year, and Kenny Golladay turned down $ 18, $ 19 million a year, depending on who you want to believe,” Schefter said.
That kind of payday would have put Golladay among the NFL elite, with only DeAndre Hopkins ($ 27.3), Julio Jones ($ 22 million), Keenan Allen ($ 20 million), Amari Cooper ($ 20 million) and Michael Thomas ($ 19.25 million) which was on average more per year currently.
Since Golladay only played in five games in 2020 and the salary cap is dropping, it goes without saying that his price cannot drop this year. This leads to Schefter’s second interesting point.
According to the ESPN insider, the Lions may not use the franchise label on Golladay, which is currently estimated by Over The Cap to be a one-time $ 16.4 million deal.
‘I think there’s a chance with a new regime in Detroit that they could choose not to tag him at all, which will enable him to become one of the most popular free agents there, ”Schefter said. ‘We will see if the Lions decide on Tuesday to use the label by the deadline at 16:00. I think there’s a chance they will not do that. ‘
Schefter uses fairly soft language out there, but he’s also not one to just throw things against the wall to see if it’s stuck. This is also contrary to earlier reports suggesting that it would be a big surprise if Golladay is not tagged.
Regardless, we should soon get an answer on what the Lions decide to do with Golladay, even if the franchise deadline is pushed back a few days, while the NFL decides to take a final salary cap for 2021.