DE Cliff Avril

The Lions franchised Avril this offseason, giving him 10.6 million guaranteed, but failed to reach a long term agreement with him, after he rejected their 3 year, 30 million dollar deal, with 20 million guaranteed. Avril skipped the early part of Training Camp in protest. Avril is an excellent pass rusher, who has managed 21 sacks, 10 quarterback hits, and 82 quarterback pressures in the last 2 seasons. However, the Lions have seemed weary of committing to him long term and, possessing adequate depth behind him at defensive end, I doubt they’d tag him again in 2013, at the rate of 12.72 million (120% of his 2012 salary, as per league rules), barring a massive season.

Likelihood: Unlikely

S Louis Delmas

When healthy, Louis Delmas is a solid safety and safeties have been franchised 4 times in the last 2 seasons because of how cheap the safety franchise tag is (just 6.2 million in 2012). However, I don’t think he’s quite yet on the level of Michael Huff, Tyvon Branch, Dashon Goldson, and Michael Griffin, all of whom have been franchised in the last 2 seasons. He’ll need to stay healthy and have a career best season in 2012 to be worthy of the tag. Since he had recent knee surgery and could miss the start of the season, that seems unlikely.

Likelihood: Somewhat unlikely

K Jason Hanson

Punters and kickers are the most often franchised because the franchise tag values for them are very cheap and franchising them makes a lot more sense than giving them a long term deal. Without another obvious candidate, Hanson makes some sense as a career 81.9% kicker, but that’s only assuming he still wants to play heading into his age 43 season in 2013 and that he can even still kick well at that age (not completely unheard of).

Likelihood: Somewhat unlikely

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