One of the less taxing decisions for NFL teams in free agency is the fate of their restricted free agents. The team controls the players’ availability through tender offers and the ability to match any outside offers—if any other teams aren’t scared off by the initial tender offer.
One Lions restricted free agent who the team seems very intent on keeping is tight end Brock Wright. Per Over The Cap, Detroit will use the right of first refusal RFA tag on Wright.
In effect, the right of first refusal tender means the Lions will pay Wright $2.985 million for the 2024 season. He will then be an unrestricted free agent after the season, his fourth in the NFL. Another team can offer Wright more, and the Lions could choose to match that offer. Pro Football Network summarized it nicely,
If a player is tendered at the original round/right-of-first-refusal level and signs an offer sheet that his incumbent team declines to match, that club would be entitled to a draft choice equal to the round in which the player was selected. The team wouldn’t receive compensation if the player wasn’t drafted or was tendered at the lowest of the four levels.
It’s hard to see another team paying Wright $3 million for one season. The 25-year-old is coming off a broken arm that ended a season in which he caught 13 passes for 91 yards. In three seasons in Detroit since joining the Lions as an undrafted free agent from Notre Dame, Wright has caught 43 passes for 424 yards and seven touchdowns.
