Detroit Lions

Cap tricks

Every little bit helps, especially as the Lions try to squeeze their key free agents into a tight salary cap.

The cap sanctions against the Cowboys and Redskins yesterday would give the Lions $1.6 million they didn’t have before. But, those teams are going to fight the NFL’s ruling so it may be awhile before the Lions can use that money.

They also had a $1.47 million carry over from 2011 and, if they chose, the Lions could borrow another $1.5 million off future caps.

And here’s another loophole they can exploit to create up to $1.5 million. The CBA allows teams to get a $500,000 cap credit for up to three players with five or more years of service. The Lions have 10 players under contract that they use to obtain the credit.

So, if all those things went through, that’s $6.7 million of available cap space. Useful.

Chris McCosky
Chris McCosky has covered sports – prep, college and pros – in Michigan since 1980. Before taking over the Lions beat in 2010, he covered the Pistons for 16 years and then the Red Wings in 2009-2010. A graduate of Eastern Michigan University (B.S., 1980), McCosky began his long and winding journalistic journey – covering preps at the Observer & Eccentric, to being associate sports editor at the Muskegon Chronicle to covering University of Michigan football and basketball for the Ann Arbor News from 1988-1992. In that time he covered two Rose Bowls, the Wolverines' NCAA basketball championship run in 1989 and in 1990, he broke the news of Bo Schembechler's retirement. McCosky lives in Livonia and is the proud father of three grown kids – Ryan, 26, now the assistant varsity and head junior varsity baseball coach at Davenport University; Rory, 23, living and working in Livonia; and Molly, 21, in a medical assistant program at Davenport. He can he reached at cmccosky@detnews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @cmccosky.

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