Getty Matthew Stafford celebrates a touchdown in Philadelphia with Taylor Decker.
The Detroit Lions have a couple of big extensions to get done, and managed to get one of them finished by signing a key member of their offensive front.
Detroit signed offensive tackle Taylor Decker to a new 6 year, $85 million dollar deal on Tuesday. The news was first broken by his agency.
Taylor Decker has agreed to terms with the @Lions (6yr 85M / 37.5M Fully Guaranteed) @__taylordecker @FeinsodJonathan @64AMDG #AMDGSports
The #Lions are giving LT Taylor Decker a 4-year extension worth $60M in new money, source said. In all, he’s under contract for 5 years with the last year voidable for cap reasons. A nice payday for Decker.
As this tweet by NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport shows, the numbers could be actually 4 years at $60 million given the voidable options near the end.
Decker, a 2016 pick of the Lions, was ironically the first selection by Bob Quinn and his regime. Now, he will be sticking around for the next handful of years to anchor the team’s front.
Lions Slow Played Taylor Decker Extension
One of the cases the Lions had to deal with contractually involved Decker. Decker is coming to a critical point in his Detroit career where the team will have to decide whether to keep him around or move on after the early part of his rookie career.
Earlier this offseason, there wasn’t much talk regarding what the future might be for Decker with the team. As he explained to reporters earlier speaking on a teleconference, Decker has been content to let things play out behind the scenes with his agents, especially in light of what’s going on in the world at the moment.
Taylor Decker, on a Zoom, said quarantine has pushed contract thoughts to the back of his mind. Said it’s important, but he’s leaving it to his agents and whenever it happens, it happens. Hasn’t had any “major” talks with the Lions yet on an extension.
Now that the deal is officially done, the Lions finished off Decker and will have to turn their attention toward getting a deal done with Kenny Golladay.
Taylor Decker Rated 23rd Best NFL Tackle
How has Decker played for the team since getting drafted? The answer is likely close to a grey area rather than black and white, and recently, Pro Football Focus and writer Anthony Treash helped to shed some additional light on the matter. The site recently ranked all of the offensive tackles in the league and Decker placed on the list at No. 23
Here’s what Treash wrote:
“Decker has consistently been an above-average player throughout his four-year NFL career. He’s earned an above-average grade on true pass sets and has avoided negatively graded run blocks at an above-average rate, too — both of these are stable metrics for offensive tackles. Decker closed out the 2019 NFL season from Week 8 on as the league’s sixth-highest-graded tackle and will look to continue that in 2020.”
Whether or not the Lions bring back Decker via re-signing before his deal is up is anybody’s guess at this point in time, and those decisions seem to remain fluid in terms of actual negotiations with Bob Quinn and the team.
Obviously, Decker is a player who has graded positively at some points and negatively in others, but PFF seems to think that he should be valued a bit more by this list and some of their metrics which grade him in a more positive light.
This shows many are expecting a solid 2020 season from Decker.
Taylor Decker Stats
Quinn’s first draft pick from 2016 has run hot and cold in Detroit. While Decker has been a decent piece, he hasn’t been the transformational lineman the Lions probably hoped for when they selected him early on. There’s been a ton of change in Detroit up front the last few years, and it will be interesting to see if Quinn commits to more time with Decker, or if the Lions look elsewhere and try to start over at tackle. Decker has youth on his side, but this is a big decision for the franchise to make.
In his Lions career, Decker has played in 55 games with 55 starts and also has a receiving touchdown to his credit collected in the 2018 season.
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