Lions announce Ziggy Ansah has signed franchise tender

Posted by Michael David Smith on April 17, 2018, 3:28 PM EDT
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Lions defensive end Ezekiel Ansah is locked up for another year.

Ansah, who was Detroit’s franchise player, has signed his tender. That gives him a guaranteed salary of $17.143 million this season. If the Lions don’t work out a long-term deal with him, he’ll either hit unrestricted free agency next year or he’ll be guaranteed a 20 percent pay raise, which would mean a guaranteed salary of $20.572 million next year.

Last year Ansah had an up-and-down season with three different three-sack games, but a total of only three sacks in all the other games.

Ansah will turn 29 next month and it’s unclear whether the Lions plan to work out a long-term deal with him or let him play out the season and make a decision about his future next year.

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13 responses to “Lions announce Ziggy Ansah has signed franchise tender”

  1. I’m a giants fan and I’m glad the lions didn’t let the way he manhandled Eric flowers last year cloud their judgement. That being said if they don’t draft an impact player on defense this year it kinda forces their own hand.

  2. Gordon Andrews says:
    April 17, 2018 at 3:33 pm
    I’m a giants fan and I’m glad the lions didn’t let the way he manhandled Eric flowers last year cloud their judgement. That being said if they don’t draft an impact player on defense this year it kinda forces their own hand.

    This is the problem. His stats were badly inflated because he went up against Flowers and a couple other terrible tackles. 25% of his sacks on the season were against Flowers. I say let him play this year out and my guess is that he gets hurt but if not it’s doubtful that he gets more than six sacks

  3. He has to show this year that he can bring it against playoff caliber teams, and not just put up fat stats on bottom feeders.

  6. Ziggy is another in a long line of Lions players that absolutely cannot make it two games in a row without getting some injury that nags on forever. They’ve done a better job recently of letting these types of players walk, and I hope this is the last we see of Ziggy. He probably won’t play more than 6 games in 2018 because he’s never fully healthy. He can’t even start a season healthy. He’s a talented player but we need consistency. I’m praying Davenport will fall to us to replace Ngata, then we get Ziggy’s replacement in round 2 or 3. We’re two years away from making the playoffs, but I’m a believer in Quinn so far.

  7. “Also, 3 3-sack games is pretty impressive no matter how you try to frame the narrative.”

    No it’s not. 3 against the worst LOT in the NFL … and 6 in the last 2 games of the season against punched-out teams cleaning out their lockers. No one is framing any narrative except with facts.

  8. Why would any player rush to sign the tag? Teams have until July 15 to workout a long term deal. Even if you know it’s not gonna happen never sign until OTA’s and mini camp are over. I’m willing to bet Detroit doesn’t have the stones to rescind the offer. The Walter Jones school of working the tag!!

  10. He’s always playing with an injury. When healthy he’s a good DE worth a decent contract. But I would personally be in favor of A. Seeing if he can stay healthy for a season, and B. Seeing how much Patricia can get out of him in his scheme before signing him long term.

    Now if ansah is healthy all year and records 14 sacks it will cost you more to keep him and maybe slow playing it burns you, but I’m skeptical of him staying healthy enough to put up those kind of numbers.

  11. 17 million plus for 6-8 games this year is a great salary
    Not worth it, too often injured , not a game changer

  13. I think he signed the tag so he can show some good will with a new coach, and Patricia at that. He might also want to take advantage of the Lions medical facilities to make sure he’s healthy. Still, Patricia is going to be the key to whether Ziggy hangs around. A good year to impress the coach will go a long way. I think if it was still Caldwell there, Zig would hold out.

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