A slightly more under the radar name is getting a huge payday. Former Eagles offensive tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai is signing a massive five-year, $50MM contract with the Lions, a source told Adam Caplan of Sirius XM NFL Radio (Twitter link).
It’s a pretty remarkable sum considering Vaitai has only started four games over the past two years. It wasn’t totally unexpected though, as we heard a couple of weeks ago that he would likely command between $8-12MM annually. Vaitai has clearly always had talent, but he was buried on the depth chart due to the Eagles’ abundance of tackles. Philly has announced that Jason Peters will be allowed to hit free agency, and they’ll move forward with Andre Dillard and Lane Johnson as their tackles.
Vaitai was drafted in the fifth-round in 2016, and he ended up starting six games as a rookie. The following year he started ten games, winning Super Bowl LII with the team. As the Eagles got healthy at tackle he took a bit of a backseat, starting only once in 2018 and three times this past season.
The Lions released starting right tackle Ricky Wagner a few days ago, perhaps foreshadowing this move. The Lions are also letting starting right guard Graham Glasgow, who has received very strong marks from Pro Football Focus, walk in free agency, so their offensive line is going to look a lot different next year.
Matthew Stafford missed half of last season due to injury, so obviously protecting him will be a priority in 2020. The unit is getting an overhaul, and they’ll have to build chemistry in a hurry as a result. Vaitai is 26, and together with 26-year-old former first-rounder left tackle Taylor Decker, Detroit is surely hoping they’ve established a long-term tackle pairing.
as an eagle fan, thank God we didn’t try to match that contract! Wow that’s an overpay
agreed
+1
Definitely an overpay there.
Typical Lions move
It’s like Bob Quinn is daring Martha to fire him.
This is insane
Wow, as a Giants fan I thought the Flowers contract for the Dolphins was the biggest gaff of the day!
Giving Leonard Williams 17 million for 1/2 a sack seems a little worse, but yeah Lions definitely have to overpay more than most for free agents, not sure what everyone was expecting.
Hopefully he develops into a solid starting RT, he at least has age on his side.
Sad to see big V go, but for that money, see ya.
Someone needs to remind Quinn that just because you can’t buy any TP at the store, that doesn’t give him the right to go ahead and $#!% the bed…
Bob Quinn is SO much smarter than everyone else, he just has to flex it every once in a while to remind those who may have forgotten.
He’s the second worst GM in the league. Lions can’t even win that category.
glad i became a brown fan. they got Conklin for cheaper. haha
This is not an overpay at all with the new CBA being passed and the salary cap set to go up about 10mil per year. In a year or two this deal will look great compared to other offensive tackle contracts in the future under the new CBA. All the old numbers for “good deals” has now changed
Why not just keep Glasgow for that kind of money? I don’t get the logic of this move at all.