Lions Sign Halapoulivaati Vaitai To a Five-Year Deal

Vaitai played both left and right tackle during his four-year tenure in Philly. As per Adam Caplan’s report, he could also play guard if needed which helped him get legit interest from multiple teams on the market.

He was drafted in the fifth round in 2016 out of TCU and will experience a massive rise in his salary. During his most recent campaign, 2019, he earned about $2.5 million. The only year when he was a starter for the majority of the time was in 2017 when he had 10 starts at right tackle. In his other four NFL seasons, he started 6 or fewer times in each.

From their latest swap in Wagner for Vaitai, the Lions actually lost $4 million in cap space. That change of direction at tackle should have signaled a payroll dump. Now, the Lions have spent maybe too much without necessarily getting better. In fact, they might be going downhill after passing on high-profile names like Jake Conklin and others.

Vaitai is 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds and is only 26 years old. Therefore, the times that will determine if he’s capable of making it as an NFL starter are yet to come.

Detroit still has nearly $45 million to put into free agents. After they maintained Danny Amendola prior to the start of the league year, the core remains the same offensively. However, still, lots of work is ahead in the ground game and the defense in order for the Lions to catch up with the ever-developing NFC North environment.

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