Last year, the Lions kept defensive end Cliff Avril from hitting free agency with a franchise tag that paid him $10.5 million for one season.
This year, Avril is looking for something that provides more security, either in Detroit or elsewhere.
“Let’s be real you only get free agency once in your career so you definitely want to try and get some money, no doubt about that,” Avril recently told Erik Kuselias of Pro Football Talk on NBC Sports Network. “That would definitely be a big part of it. And then, just being somewhere. I just want to be settled in for the next four or five years.”
Avril doesn’t know whether that somewhere he’ll be settled in for four or five years will be Detroit. “I guess it’s 50-50,” Avril said regarding his chances of staying. “I don’t know right now.”
He also reiterated something he said back in February 2012: A hometown discount is unlikely for the Lions. “It depends on why I would be taking less money first off,” Avril said. “I really don’t know if I’d take less right now.”
The question becomes how much more someone will offer. He said he’d be interested in a warmer climate, if he doesn’t stay in Detroit.
The Lions could try to use the tag again, but it would cost $12.6 in cash and cap dollars for 2013. And that’s likely something the Lions couldn’t afford to do, again.