We’re less than a week away from the deadline for franchise tagged players to sign multiyear deals with their teams and Lions defensive end Cliff Avril is feeling optimistic about his chances of signing one.
That’s what he told Adam Schein of Sirius XM NFL Radio on Tuesday, anyway. Avril said over the weekend that negotiations were ongoing with the Lions so this would seem to be a sign that a breakthrough looms just around the corner. A fuller look at his comments, however, paint a different picture about the need to buy a congratulatory balloon bouquet.
“I think we are moving closer. We are progressing. But there are still things that need to be ironed out, like the numbers,” Avril said.
Oh, just the numbers. That’s good. We’d hate to think they were getting bogged down on the type of paper that the contract would be printed on or which side pays for the bottled water for the press conference announcing the deal. It’s just those pesky numbers, which you might also know as the only thing that ultimately matters in the discussion of a new contract.
There hasn’t been any moment since Avril got tagged where it felt like player and team were in the same neighborhood when it came to the preferred value of a contract. Despite Avril’s perch on the sunny side of the street, we’re not betting that changes at the 11th hour.