Ziggy Ansah talked with the media today and talked about a few things – one was how he was happy for his friend Olivier Vernon on getting the huge contract, and another was about his future with the team. Is he ready for an extension? Will he be willing to hold out? Ziggy had some comments about that today.

Ziggy Ansah and his future with the Lions

Ziggy Ansah was talking about his possible extension after Detroit picked up his fifth-year option for 2017. He didn’t seem to indicate what he plans on doing with Detroit in two years, saying “As of right now, I think you’ve got to take it step by step. You’ve got to see how this season goes and I’m just looking forward as far as having a great season for this team.” Ansah is going to make $2.94 million for this upcoming season and with the fifth- year option picked up for next year, he will be making $12.7 million.

How much will Ziggy Ansah cost Detroit?

This is something Detroit will need to look into sooner rather than later. Detroit would be better off re-signing Ansah during this off-season, or even during the regular season rather than waiting until next off-season. Ansah will not come cheap. Olivier Vernon, who got a five year $85 million dollar deal for just getting 7 1/2 sacks last season, is setting the bar very high for Ziggy, who had 14 1/2 sacks last season. Ansah said “I’m excited for him. He’s a great player, and I’m happy for his situation, but that is him. I’ve just got to focus on myself and get better,” when talking about Vernon and his contract he got with the Giants. Now this doesn’t mean you could expect Detroit to pay about double for the guy, considering he did almost twice the production of Vernon. Also, Ziggy Ansah is 26, going on 27 and he will be 28 going into his final contract year with Detroit. He is nearing the age of 30, where most players start to decline and perform less and less. Detroit could use that as an advantage for them in contract talks. JJ Watt got his $100 million contract when he was 25 years old, three years younger than Ziggy Ansah will be in 2017. Vernon was also 25 when he got his big contract. Those three years make a huge difference in production. If we sign Ansah to a six year deal for $115 million, he will only be productive for the first two to three years of the deal, then he will start declining and become a factor in the cap space (see Calvin Johnson).

So how much will he cost? Should we extend him?

Well, I am not the main guy to go and break down the salary cap, so check out this article that Ash wrote about extending Ansah a few months back. I will give my opinion though and say Detroit needs to re-sign Ansah quickly, before the asking price increases. For me, I would do a five year deal for $75 million. Is it possible? I don’t know, but to me it seems like a safe move. We get Ansah from age 28 until 33 and while that is a lot of money, it is a lot less than Vernon and Watt, and Ansah is better than Vernon, and could compete for that number one DE spot with Watt. Overall, it seems that Ziggy isn’t focused on his situation with the team and he is looking forward to playing out this season, possibly to show the front office that they need to pay the man if he wants to stay in Detroit.

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