Backus back for a while

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, July 13, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Detroit Lions
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The evening before contract deadlines were to expire, the Associated Press reported that the Detroit Lions had finalized the signing of a six-year deal with OT Jeff Backus.

In February, Backus' agent, Pat Dye, Jr., held his client out of contract negotiations with the Lions, playing wait-and-see in the hopes of getting Backus Detroit's "franchise player" label. The line at the time was that Backus would gamble on notching another solid season before entering the 2007 free agent market as a coveted prize. Ultimately, Backus was named the Lions' franchise player and signed a one-year deal with a nearly $7 million base.

The new six-year deal is worth about - you guessed it -- $7 million per year, for a grand total of $40 million. The deal made Backus the highest-paid lineman who has never appeared in a Pro Bowl game.

Official acknowledgement of caliber or not, Backus has earned a reputation as a notable talent on the offensive line. Backus has now started exactly 80 out of a possible 80 games for the Lions since joining the team as a first-round draft pick in 2001; he also never missed a game in his four-year turn at the University of Michigan. Though Backus reportedly played the last 11 games of 2005 with bone fragments in his ankle and had offseason surgery to clean it up, the big tackle has been given a clean bill of health.

Despite the tight deadline Lions negotiators were working with and the poker-faced stance Dye was taking, Detroit's brain trust never appeared to panic about re-signing the longtime Michigan resident. The only urgency was, well, urgency. The terms of Backus' contract stated that, had the Lions not signed him by July 14, the team would not have been allowed to use the franchise tag on any other player until Backus' contract expired. Now the option to label another Lion "franchise" is open.

And just in case there was any further doubt regarding Backus' willingness to stick around in Detroit, the OT reportedly closed on an area home the day terms of the agreement with the Lions were announced.

- Follow all the Detroit Lions' wheeling and dealing at Realfootball365.com
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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