{"id":677911,"date":"2026-06-01T13:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/677911\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T13:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T13:31:12","slug":"projecting-detroit-lions-2026-udfa-chances-to-make-the-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/677911\/","title":{"rendered":"Projecting Detroit Lions 2026 UDFA chances to make the roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every offseason, players selected in the NFL Draft receive a ton of attention. Everything from a player\u2019s background to their on-field performance to their contract is broken down in immense detail. At the same time, every team adds several players via the undrafted free agent (UDFA) market\u2014typically more players than they draft\u2014but these players often get overlooked or glossed over.<\/p>\n

This extra attention to drafted players likely occurs because this group makes their initial rosters around 45% of the time\u2014over 85% if drafted in the first three rounds\u2014while undrafted players make their team\u2019s initial roster only around 9% of the time. That being said, it\u2019s important not to discount undrafted players\u2019 chances of sticking around in the NFL because UDFAs make up roughly 30% of teams\u2019 53-man rosters during the regular season.<\/p>\n

In 2025, none of the Detroit Lions\u2019 UDFA class made their 53-man roster\u2014halting a 15-year streak of at least one UDFA making the team\u2019s initial roster\u2014but they still began the season with 17 UDFA players on their active roster (just over 32%).<\/p>\n

Immediately following the conclusion of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Lions signed nine undrafted rookie free agents<\/a>, and while we have broken down their on-field skill sets and potential<\/a>, the full details of each player\u2019s contract were not released until very recently.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a brief overview of how these contracts work. The NFL\u2019s base salary for rookies in the current season is $855,000; however, UDFAs can receive a signing bonus and have a portion of their base salary guaranteed as an incentive to join a franchise.<\/p>\n

When assigning signing bonuses, teams operate on a fixed budget\u2014the NFL sets the team\u2019s total UDFA class allotment at around $206,000\u2014but it\u2019s entirely up to the franchise how much they spend on each player and overall. To further entice players to join their organizations, teams have recently begun guaranteeing portions of a player\u2019s base salary. With no restrictions on this practice, teams often guarantee large sums to convince a player to choose them over another team. While this method can be advantageous, teams must be cautious because if a UDFA is released from their contract at any point, the remaining guaranteed money counts against the team\u2019s salary cap.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, let\u2019s look at the Lions\u2019 2026 UDFA class and the guaranteed money that was given to them in their contracts (via OverTheCap.com<\/a>):<\/p>\n

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While each rookie\u2019s performance during OTAs and training camp will ultimately decide their fate, an exploration of their contracts (specifically the money guaranteed) can give us indicators of which players the Lions are expecting to challenge for a spot on the roster.<\/p>\n

During the last five offseasons under this current Lions\u2019 regime, general manager Brad Holmes has given out a signing bonus of $20,000 (10% of their budget) just six times. However, in this UDFA cycle, Holmes gave out three contracts of at least that amount, including a new high mark of $25,000 to linebacker Erick Hunter.<\/p>\n

The Lions also set a new mark for total guarantees in a UDFA contract in this cycle, as defensive tackle Aidan Keanaaina ($267,500) and quarterback Luke Altmeyer ($257,500) both eclipsed last year\u2019s high (Jakobie Keeney-James: $254,000).<\/p>\n

While Priestly hasn\u2019t gotten as much hype as the other three players mentioned, his significant guarantees aligns with a pattern of Holmes being aggressive in acquiring UDFA offensive linemen. Kingsley Eguakun (2024), Connor Galvin (2023), and Obinna Eza (2022) all received a signing bonus of $20,000 and had the most guaranteed money in their respective Lions UDFA classes. Of this group, only Eguakun ($245,000) received more guarantees than Priestly.<\/p>\n

While securing large guarantees is typically a very advantageous position for a player, Lions coaches always reward players who earn their spots, regardless of their guarantees. This approach has made projecting the future of a UDFA highly unpredictable, as we can see in this regime\u2019s previous UDFA classes.<\/p>\n

Eight of the Lions\u2019 12 UDFAs from 2025 still play in the NFL at this time (90-man rosters); however, only four of those players remain in Detroit. One player has moved on to the Canadian Football League, while two have elected to enter the coaching ranks\u2014a common theme throughout the Holmes\u2019 UDFA class, which certainly illustrates how the Lions prefer to target players who love football and understand the game at a high level.<\/p>\n

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Entering last season\u2019s training camp, eight of the Lions\u2019 15 UDFAs from 2024 were still on the roster. Unfortunately, that number has been reduced to just two players who still remain in Detroit, as windows close quickly on UDFAs after one full season with the team. It\u2019s also worth noting that both remaining players were also near the bottom of this class in guarantees.<\/p>\n

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The Lions signed 16 UDFAs in 2024 and added a tryout player following rookie minicamp, but only two remain from this class as well. Like 2024, both players were near the bottom of their class in guarantees, yet they\u2019ve earned strong roles on the roster due to their work ethic and performance. Take notice of how the number of players no longer playing football continues to increase the further away from their rookie season.<\/p>\n

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Not only is there not a single player from the 2022 UDFA class still on the Lions roster, but just Obinna Eze, the player with the most guarantees in this cycle, stuck around for more than one season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Only one UDFA remains from Holmes\u2019 initial class (2021), but Brock Wright has gone on to earn a second contract with the team.<\/p>\n

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Will the Lions find another diamond in the rough with their 2026 UDFA class? Or will the depth of a championship-caliber roster squeeze this class out for the second season in a row? We\u2019ll find out in training camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every offseason, players selected in the NFL Draft receive a ton of attention. Everything from a player\u2019s background…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[2131,16911,2132,349,99],"class_list":["post-677911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-detroit-lions-analysis","tag-detroit-lions-draft","tag-detroit-lions-roster","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}