Cliff Avril To Skip Detroit Lions Minicamp
By Mike Dyce
The Detroit Lions franchised defensive end Cliff Avril but when their mandatory minicamp begins you can expect Cliff Avril to be absent. They place the non-exclusive tag on Avril preventing him from becoming a free agent and testing the market. If another team wanted to sign him they’d have to be willing giving up 2 first round draft picks. Avril has yet to sign.
“It’s mandatory if you’re signed,” Avril said.
Avril has till July 16th to negotiate a long term deal or he’ll get one year at $10.6 million.
“To go from making the league minimum to that is not bad, but still you want a long-term deal,” he said. “I feel like I was a part of this team while we were not doing so well and 0-16. I want to be a reason why we’re getting better.”
Avril and team officials keep passing the proverbial ball saying it’s in the others’ court. But Avril wants a long term deal, and in a violent sport that offers him some long term security, and with the risk of injury always present it’s a priority. However Avril doesn’t plan on holding out once training camp starts, at least he hasn’t considered yet. Avril had a career year last season including 11 sacks.
“You still have to go work for these people and you still have to go out and play football, so you can’t make it personal,” he said. “They have to do what’s best for their team and you need to do what’s best for you.”
“We have been talking, so that’s good,” he said. “We’re going to continue to keep working and see if we can get something done.”
But worse case scenario he can sign his franchise tender and get top dollar for at least one year, but players always look for that long term security,
“I could, but you have that risk of getting hurt, that risk of your value going down,” he said. “And, they told me to do that last year. You can’t keep doing that for the next 10 years. I wanted a deal last year too and they told me to go out and perform and we’ll try to, I guess, take care of you in a sense.
“It goes back to being a business. They can do whatever they want — obviously. If it was up to me, I would’ve been signed long term, I would’ve been with my team already and trying to get this Super Bowl thing running.”