ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The Detroit Lions have had meetings over the past 48 hours that have delved into every one of their restricted and unrestricted free agents.
And the club has made decisions on some of them, but general manager Martin Mayhew was not saying who the team would like to bring back or move on from for the 2015 season.
The obvious keeper would be Ndamukong Suh, who the Lions are going to continue to negotiate with now that the season is over. Everyone else, though, appears to be up for debate.
“We just had that meeting yesterday, and I have not communicated with players who will be here, who won’t be here for the most part,” Mayhew said. “So I don’t want to get into each individual free agent and what their status is, but we are having those discussions right now.
“We had a big meeting [Wednesday] like I said, had a follow-up meeting with Sheldon White [Thursday] on the meeting from yesterday, and we’ll continue to talk about our roster and make decisions.”
Mayhew said they have made decisions to move on from players, but said they had not spoken with those players or their agents yet.
Detroit has 20 unrestricted free agents, two restricted free agents and one exclusive rights free agent in Jeremy Ross.
Other than the defensive tackle situation with Suh, Nick Fairley and others, some of the more critical decisions will come on the offensive line, where veterans Rob Sims and Dominic Raiola are both free agents. Both have settled into metro Detroit as their homes and have expressed a desire to return to the Lions.
“They are both outstanding guys, Rob and Dom, I think the world of both of those guys and they’ve been big contributors for us over the past few years,” Mayhew said. “As I said, we met yesterday and we’re still making decisions about how to proceed.”
Mayhew would not say whether or not bringing both Sims and Raiola back is an either/or proposition despite the presence of rookie Travis Swanson, who was drafted in 2014 to eventually become Raiola’s replacement at center. Swanson started four games at right guard and one game at center this season.
He also injured his knee in the playoff game against Dallas, but head coach Jim Caldwell said he doesn’t believe Swanson will need surgery.