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The challenge for the Lions’ first-year general manager, therefore, was twofold: One, he had to sell the many players he’d targeted on joining the Leos and, two, convince a slew of Lions veterans the necessity of restructuring their contracts so Hervey could bring his vision to reality. The Lions now have 12 new players in their fold who seemingly address their most pressing needs. ...
“I told (the Lions’ vets), we want to be active in free-agency and that’s going to take a certain amount of money,” Hervey said Tuesday, as offensive tackle Joel Figueroa, his prize catch, was introduced to the media. “We spent a lot of time talking to players about the vision. It wasn’t a forced negotiation. It was a conversation about choosing to be a part of it nor not. ...
So how many are we talking about here? It’s well-known quarterback Jonathon Jennings had his contract restructured. Were there a couple of others? “Probably more than a dozen,” Hervey said. ...
He now says those weren’t easy conversations even if the end result wasn’t a massive pay cut, but rather a tweaking of their existing deals. Still, Hervey can now go back to foundational players like Solomon Elimimian, Manny Arceneaux and Bryan Burnham and say, ‘See, I told you I’d change things.’