yes, minus the talent. Suh, Johnson, Bush all could be likely gone. Fairley as well.
This is old now but I just happened to stumble across this...
Bush sucks. Why would they care if he leaves/retires? I think they would send him off and be happy having all the extra cap space. For what they pay Bush, they could pick up a free agent that gives them way more production.
Johnson, as in Calvin Johnson? Why would they get rid of him.. that makes no sense. He is under contract for 5 more years anyways and the dead money would be insane. Thats if they even wanted to get rid of him, which obviously they don't. His cap goes up some, but every teams cap is going up significantly. There are rumors it is going up much more than expected too.
I honestly doubt they will let Suh go. They will just pay him 1 dollar more than McCoy so he can be the highest paid DT, and they'll easily be able to afford it and it would be well worth it for then. Despite all the injuries they've had on defense it continues to be the best D in the league when it comes to points allowed. Suh can play 90% of snaps which is insane, he never takes plays off, is never injured, and is elite defending the run and rushing the passer despite constant double teams. I'd love to have him here.
Fairley they could just give him the franchise tag.
The Lions have a lot of old vets make way to much money, guys they had to pay a lot to get go there after 2008. Guys like Tulloch are making a fortune yet can be kicked worry free without taking a dead money hit. They have a bunch of guys like that, but are backups now or on IR they don't need and won't create holes that are hard to fill.
Point is, their foundation is set especially if they sign Suh. Their LB Levy is the best 4-3 in the league even, with a insane 91 solo tackles, which leads the entire NFL. I see them only getting better, though next year could be a slight down year for them. We need to get our shit together, keeping these same Special person coaches in place will be akin to suicide because of the division we are in.