T.J. Lang contract details: Lions ink free agent guard for 3-years, $28.5 million

Now that the dust has settled on the T.J. Lang signing, the terms of the deal are just now starting to go public. According to Ian Rapoport (and corroborated by Tom Silverstein), Lang will be getting $9.5 million per year over three years with the Detroit Lions:

That works out to three years for $28.5 million. Those are pretty high numbers for a player coming off a broken foot and hip surgery, but we’re also talking about a Pro Bowl player here. To put his terms into perspective, Larry Warford got about $1 million less per year and one more year on the contract:

What’s interesting is the Green Bay Packers are rumored to have only offered Lang just north of $7 million per year:

The Packers, who would likely know the best about Lang’s current status with injury and talent level, were not even close to the numbers that the Lions were offering. That may be a concern for Detroit, considering they now have a ton of money wrapped up on the right side of their offensive line, but it actually would have cost more to retain Warford and Riley Reiff by comparison:

Still, when you consider the Lions had a right guard and tackle on rookie contracts last year, Detroit has made a serious investment in the position, spending much more on the offensive line now than they had last year. As a result, they have a talented lineup. Now we wait to see if they live up to the hype.