Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes continues to invest in the offensive line.
The GM announced Monday on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit that the club agreed to a three-year extension with left tackle Taylor Decker. Decker’s agent announced the pact was worth $60 million with $31.83 million guaranteed. The team later announced the three-year extension.
Decker, who turns 30 next month, was set to enter the final year of his contract, earning $13.7 million. The extension keeps him in Detroit through 2027. The $20 million per year in new money average ranks seventh among left tackles and eighth among all OTs.
Earlier in the offseason, Holmes handed right tackle Penei Sewell the largest contract ever for an offensive tackle, at $28 million per year. The Decker extension will keep Jared Goff’s bookends in place for the foreseeable future.
Decker has been a solid, if not underrated, tackle throughout his tenure in Detroit. When healthy, he’s rarely out of position and owns the combination of smarts, strength and leverage. He might give up some sacks -- eight last season -- but he seldom gets beat clean. Entering Year 9, the former first-round pick is a reliable blind-side protector and one of the better pass-protecting tackles in the league.
Along with the Decker and Sewell extensions, the Lions inked guard Graham Glasgow to a three-year contract and added Pro Bowl guard Kevin Zeitler on a one-year deal this offseason. The investment in the trenches ensures that Goff will be well-protected as Detroit seeks another deep postseason run in 2024.