By Michael Stets
ALLEN PARK–Eric Ebron is coming off his finest statistical season as a Lion, but the team remains undecided on whether or not they will pick up the fifth-year option on the starting tight end’s rookie contract.
The deadline for the Lions to pick up the option is May 2, which is a few days after the 2017 NFL Draft. At his pre-draft press conference on Thursday, Lions general manager Bob Quinn was asked if this year’s draft could have an impact on Ebron’s future with the team.
“It’s a possibility,” said Quinn. “We are still in the process of evaluating Eric’s situation. We have until May 2nd. So, we will use our time.”
Ebron, 24, is entering his fourth year with the Lions since being drafted No.10 overall out of North Carolina in 2014. In 13 games last season, Ebron hauled in 61 receptions for 711 yards and one touchdown. He also scored once on a rushing touchdown in a Week 10 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Ebron’s best game of the 2016 campaign came in the last week of the regular season, when he reeled in eight catches for 93 yards against the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football.
Quinn did say that tight end was one of several positions that “jump out” in this year’s draft. The Lion’s have pick No. 21 in the first round, and there are two tight ends projected by many analysts to be taken in that round. O.J. Howard, the highly-touted tight end out of Alabama, will likely be gone before the Lions are on the clock, but there is a possibility that Miami’s David Njoku, another top tight end in this year’s draft, could be there for the taking. The Lion’s general manager, who is entering his second year with the organization, did say that he is “big into the best available player.” So, it is a possibility that we could be seeing another tight end in a Lions uniform come April 27, or even in the later rounds as well.
As for why the team is waiting until the deadline to decide on Ebron, after knowing what they have from seeing his body of work over the course of three seasons, Quinn said, “It’s just something that we’ve talked very little about over the past couple of months and the deadline is coming up in two weeks. So we’ll spend the next two weeks discussing it and we’ll kind of see how it goes.”
“I have an idea, but my mind is not made up,” Quinn added, when asked if he already knew what he wanted to do with Ebron.
Ebron is due to make a little over $1.5 million in base salary for 2017 with a $500,000 roster bonus. If the Lions pick up the fifth-year option on his contract he would then make an average of the top-10 salaries at his position for 2018, which would be around $8.5 million.