Breaking news! Stop the presser! The Lions have become the second team to utilize the franchise tag. Edge rusher Ezekiel Ansah has been hit with the franchise tag. Detroit becomes the second team to use the franchise tag after Miami did so with Jarvis Landry. Good news for Lions fans, Ezekiel Ansah isn’t going anywhere.
Field Yates of ESPN was the first to report the news:
The Lions have used the franchise tag on DE Ezekiel Ansah.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 27, 2018
The Lions will have to fork over $17.5 million to franchise tag Ansah. The Cowboys are expected to join the Lions any day now this week when they tag their own edge rusher, DeMarcus Lawrence. Interestingly enough, only 7 players topped Ansah’s sack production in 2017 which includes Chandler Jones, Calais Campbell, DeMarcus Lawrence, Everson Griffen, Cam Jordan, Ryan Kerrigan, and Joey Bosa. Ansah finished the 2017 campaign with 12 sacks, 44 total tackles, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
Ansah ranks 5th in Lions franchise history with 44 sacks all-time. Ansah is also a player that really struggles with injuries. He spent most of the past two years on the sidelines. In 2016 he missed 5 games but was able to stay on the field in 2017 despite spending most of the season on the injury report by the Lions. Defensive lineman Haloti Ngata is also a free agent that they would love to bring back.
Ansah will get a new head coach this year, Matt Patricia. The former defensive coordinator for the Patriots will get to deploy his hybrid scheme coming from the Bill Belichick tree. Patricia probably hopes that Ansah will be his Chandler Jones that can cause havoc on opposing quarterbacks. The Lions will lose most of their cap space by using the tag but will likely use some roster cuts to make more changes to their shaky defense.
