Getty Halapoulivaati Vaitai celebrates with D'Andre Swift during a Lions game in Minneapolis.
The Detroit Lions made one big move this week, slicing veteran defender Michael Brockers from the roster. Now, the time could be coming for yet another move to free up cap space.
With Brockers now off the roster and the Lions $10 million more under the cap, there are still plenty of moves the team could make in order to get themselves under the cap even more ahead of a new season.
The Athletic put together a list of the potential cuts and releases for every team around the league. For the Lions, the new selection for the team was Halapoulivaati Vaitai, another veteran with a bloated contract that could save the Lions some money to move on from.
As the site said within its analysis, Vaitai has endured injury problems lately, but if he’s healthy, the team could simply restructure and bring him back. A release, though, could save the team another $6.5 million for next year.
“Vaitai, Detroit’s starting right guard, is coming off of a lost year. Injuries have plagued his Lions tenure, and the 2022 season was no different. Most recently, a back injury and subsequent surgery wiped out his year before it even began. He didn’t take a snap in 2022. The Lions could look to restructure his contract and run it back with a presumably healthy Vaitai in 2023. Or they could create an additional $6.5 million in cap space by releasing Vaitai prior to June 1, then draft his successor in April. Detroit has five picks among the top 85. This situation is certainly worth monitoring,” the site wrote.
In addition to Brockers, Vaitai is probably the second-most obvious release candidate for the 2022 offseason. He was a holdover from the old regime, and a signing that was a bit ill-advised given the fact that Detroit spent $45 million on a five-year deal in 2020.
The Lions survived without Vaitai up front last year, so that combined with the contract could lead them to decide to move on from the player when all is said and done.
Doing so is the move that many believe should be next for the team this coming offseason.
Lions Options if They Move on From Vaitai
If the Lions do elect to let Vaitai walk, they will have some options to replace him on the roster without having to make the position a major focus early in the 2023 NFL draft.
Evan Brown has played in 41 games in his career with 24 starts, so he does have NFL experience to rely on. Brown was undrafred out of SMU in 2018, but ended up cracking the New York Giants roster in 2018 before being waived in 2019. He would go on to spend parts of 2020 with the Cleveland Browns before coming to Detroit.
In 2021, Brown showed himself as stable enough to make the team and played at center in relief of Frank Ragnow. While center is his natural position, he can also play guard, which might make him extra valuable to Detroit.
In terms of Logan Stenberg, he was a fourth-round pick of the team in 2020, and a player who was a first-team All-ACC selection for his work in 2019 as well as a second-team All-American at guard. In the NFL, Stenberg has played in 25 games with four starts, and showed himself as a potential replacement late in the year in 2022.
Tommy Kraemer also made the team out of camp as an undrafted free agent in 2021, but suffered an unfortunate injury in 2022. The team could consider him a key piece of the puzzle if he can get healthy for the 2023 season.
In addition to those players, the Lions could sign a new starter, or they could always draft one. There’s going to be options for the Lions if they decide upon this move with Vaitai.
Vaitai’s Career Stats & Highlights
If there’s one player that could make the most sense to be sliced from the roster next this offseason, it’s Vaitai. That’s due mostly to the contract he signed in 2020.
Vaitai’s deal pays him a total of $45 million dollars for five years, and doesn’t expire until after 2024. Early on, Detroit didn’t get a huge return on investment from Vaitai thanks to the fact he was injured and played just 10 games in 2020.
That number increased to 15 in 2021 amid a bounce back season for the guard. 2022, however, saw Vaitai have another back injury which cost him the season. Vaitai is now 30 years old, and was a top signing of Detroit’s former regime led by Bob Quinn. To that end, he could be a final purge by Brad Holmes.
Vaitai helped the Eagles win Super Bowl 52 after being a fifth-round pick in 2016, and is a veteran piece with position versatility up front. A big selling point when he came to Detroit was his ability to play either tackle spot or guard. He’s played mostly at guard, but has flashed at tackle.
The Lions will have to decide if his veteran savvy and versatility is enough to keep him, or if they simply want to move on given health problems. Vaitai comes with a $12,448,194 cap hit this year, and cutting him comes with a $2,948,194 dead cap penalty.
Arguably, he has the most bloated contract on the Lions, which could work to his disadvantage in Detroit.