Lions Place Franchise Tag On Cliff Avril - Pride Of Detroit. It didn't take long on Monday for the Lions to decide to place the franchise tag on DE Cliff Avril. He's a young, proven pass rusher, and those players are the ones that every team has to keep once they have them.
The Lions only bought themselves another week to negotiate. They have to get under the salary cap by March 13th, and they'll probably have to get Avril signed to a cap friendly deal before then. His salary now counts for $13 million in 2012 and they could easily lower that number with a long-term deal.