2021 NFL free agency: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Detroit Lions fans!

Now that it’s beyond the 4 p.m. ET deadline, all trades and free agency signings may become official. That means all of the official team sites and social media accounts can finally play catch up and announce all the signings that we already knew about. It also means that players can officially sign on the dotted lines, making sure they don’t back out of their agreed-upon deals.

For the Detroit Lions, it means many things. Most notably, it means that the blockbuster trade that will send Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff, two first-round picks, and a third-round pick can become official.

Detroit also has another pending trade with the Rams that will bring defensive tackle Michael Brockers to Detroit for a 2023 seventh-round pick.

And because all 32 teams must be cap compliant from now until the end of the 2021 season, expect more cap cutting moves as teams try to make room for more free agency signings. The Lions still have two expected cuts that are not yet official: the releases of Desmond Trufant and Chase Daniel.

You can keep track of all the Lions moves with our Offseason Tracker or our Free Agency News and Rumors tracker.

And so as a new NFL season is upon us, so is a new era of Detroit Lions football. Let’s hope this is the beginning of something new and something huge.

Happy New Year!