One of the biggest reasons why the Detroit Lions needed to get an extension done with wide receiver Calvin Johnson was because of the need to create cap room. With Johnson's old contract having a cap number of more than $20 million for 2012, the Lions were facing a tough situation with the salary cap.

With Johnson signing a seven-year extension that will give him $132 million over eight years, the Lions have saved themselves some cap space for this offseason. From Tim Twentyman:

Calvin's extension will save the Lions $9 million in cap space according to sources

— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) March 14, 2012

That's not a ton of extra cap space, but it's a significant amount considering how little the Lions had before this deal was done. Now they have room to attempt to re-sign some of their free agents, namely Stephen Tulloch. With the room created by Johnson's deal, the Lions hopefully will be able to get something with Tulloch done. Luckily, unlike Eric Wright, he hasn't already found a deal elsewhere.