Getty Jalen Reeves-Maybin celebrates the Lions win over Green Bay in 2022.
The Detroit Lions are starting to make moves on special teams, re-signing Pro Bowler Jalen Reeves-Maybin on a new two-year deal.
Insider Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network reported that the new contract sets an NFL record for a primary special teams player.
“The #Lions have agreed to a contract extension with Pro Bowl special teamer Jalen Reeves-Maybin, according to his agent @bd_mclaughlin,” Garafolo wrote. “It’s a two-year, $7.5 million deal worth a max of $8 million that makes him the highest-paid core special-teamer ever.”
Veteran Made Key Special Teams Plays
As Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press noted, Reeves-Maybin had a career-best season in 2023 with a league-leading 14 tackles on special teams and helped the team convert some other key plays.
“He also converted two fake punts, one on a 31-yard pass to Khalil Dorsey and one on a 3-yard run, and played a rotational role at linebacker in obvious passing situations,” Birkett wrote. “Reeves-Maybin had 20 defensive tackles and one sack last season and was elected to his first Pro Bowl.”
The #Lions have agreed to a contract extension with Pro Bowl special teamer Jalen Reeves-Maybin, according to his agent @bd_mclaughlin. It’s a two-year, $7.5 million deal worth a max of $8 million that makes him the highest-paid core special-teamer ever.
The seven-year NFL veteran has been highly valued within the organization, earning praise from Lions head coach Dan Campbell in 2021 for his performance in an otherwise ugly loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“In that sea of trash we were in that we had dug ourselves into that we were floating in, [Reeves-Maybin] stuck out like wow. He stuck out,” Campbell told reporters. “That’s why I’m saying that. Until I can watch film, I just know that I don’t ever doubt what he is and what he’s trying to do. I just know the way he’s made and the way he’s cut. That’s all I’m saying.”
Lions Making Moves on Special Teams
Reeves-Maybin is the second core special teams player to get a new contract from the Lions. The team also re-signed kicker Michael Badgley to a one-year contract after he emerged as the team’s starting kicker following an open competition.
Badgley served as Detroit’s kicker in 2022, but lost out to Riley Patterson in an open competition during training camp last season. Badgley bounced around the league before returning to Detroit’s practice squad, then took over as starter late in the season.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes made it clear that Badgley would need to compete again for the spot.
“Badgley, he’s done a nice job. He’s been clutch throughout his career. He’s done what we’ve needed to do, so he’s been good,” Holmes said in an interview on 97.1 The Ticket. “Now, with all positions, there will be competitions. And Badgley understands that, he knows there will be competition. But right now, I understand that he did a nice job, he signed, but he’s still gonna have competition.”
Holmes made it clear that the Lions would need to take a careful approach to free agency given their financial limitations, re-signing their own players where possible and looking carefully at what outside players to add.
“We’ve kind of kept it pretty strategic and selective in terms of the resources that we’ve had,” Holmes said. “But it’s very subjective what you deem a bigger fish (to chase in free agency). I think I have an idea because it’s the quote-unquote name, but again, it’s going to be the same approach that we’ve always had.”