The Lions agreed to terms on new four-year deals with right tackle Penei Sewell and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown on Wednesday that make them among the highest-paid players at their positions in the NFL.
A team source confirmed both deals, which have been in the works for months.
Sewell’s deal, which pays him $40 million in 2026 (the first new year of the deal), according to Sports Illustrated, tops Laremy Tunsil’s three-year, $75 million extension with the Houston Texans as the largest ever for an offensive lineman.
NFL Network reported St. Brown’s deal includes $77 million guaranteed and has a maximum value of more than $120 million, while ESPN pegged Sewell’s deal at $112 million with $85 million guaranteed.
Tyreek Hill was the NFL’s highest-paid receiver on an average annual value basis at $30 million per season.
St. Brown, whose new deal runs through 2028, was scheduled to make $3.366 million in 2024 in the final year of his rookie contract. Sewell had two years left on his rookie deal, including the fifth-year option, which SI reported the Lions exercised early Wednesday. His deal runs through 2029.
“At Ford Field,” St. Brown said in an Instagram story he posted Wednesday with the caption, “4 more years. Let’s run it.”
“It’s empty. Usually it’s rocking. I can’t wait. I’m here four more years. It’s up, it’s turnt. Detroit, what up doe?”
The Lions have gone from NFL afterthoughts to Super Bowl contenders in three seasons thanks largely to the roster Holmes has built through the draft.
He took Sewell with his first-ever draft pick as Lions GM, No. 7 overall in 2021, and grabbed St. Brown in the fourth round of the same draft two days later.
Sewell, who turns 24 in October, earned first-team All-Pro honors last season and is widely regarded as one of the best lineman in the game. He has made two straight Pro Bowls and has played in 50 of a possible 51 games in his career, making most of his starts at right tackle.
“I can’t say enough great things about Sewell,” coach Dan Campbell said last season. “I mean he’s – there’s a reason why he was the first pick we had two years ago; it was because we wanted to build around a guy like him. He’s our foundation, man. He’s one of those pillars that we talk about.”
St. Brown, similarly, has been one of the Lions’ most dependable players since he landed in Detroit.
He set a franchise rookie record with 90 receptions in 2021 and earned first-team All-Pro honors last season with 119 catches and 1,515 yards. In three seasons, he has 315 receptions – third most by any player through their first three years in NFL history – 3,588 yards and 28 touchdowns.
He has improved statistically in catches, yards and touchdowns in each of his three NFL seasons.
