By Michael Stets
ALLEN PARK — Lions wide receiver Golden Tate is entering the final year of his five-year contract, which he signed back in 2014, but the veteran doesn’t appear to be too worried about his next one just yet.
Tate, 29, told reporters on Friday morning he’s just focused on playing football for right now, and he’s letting his agent handle any contract discussions.
“My job is to come here and play football and put on a show for the Detroit Lions and the fans,” said Tate after the first training camp practice on Friday morning. “And that’s what I want to do each and every day. I got enough on my plate with just how things are going around the facility, learning my new teammates, learning the details of our playbook. So, I’m just trying to focus on all that stuff that I can control. I can’t control the contracts and extensions, but I can control how I show up as a pro, the product that I bring out on the field each and every day. And that’s what I want to do. I don’t want to stress about it.”
Would he be OK with playing out the entire year without a new deal?
“Look, I signed a five-year deal and that’s the contract that I signed and I’m going to honor it the best I can,” he said. “Just have another good year and help this team win more games and it will all work out exactly how it’s supposed to work out, I think.”
This past offseason saw several receivers cash in on big deals, like Jarvis Landry, who signed a five-year, $75 million contract with the Cleveland Browns, Sammy Watkins, who signed a three-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs for $48 million, and Brandin Cooks, who signed a five-year deal with the Los Angeles Rams worth $81 million, with $50 million guaranteed.
What was Tate’s reaction to seeing those deals?
“Hope there is some [money] left,” said Tate with a big smile. “Congratulations to all those guys that have gotten big deals. They definitely deserve it. All those players like [Brandin] Cooks, Sammy [Watkins], they are all hell of players. Who else? The guy that used to be in Chicago: Alshon [Jeffery]. He got a payday too. Congratulations to all those guys. I hope everyone who plays this game has an opportunity to earn a big payday. I’m happy for them.”
Tate, who has hauled in over 90 receptions and gained over 1,000 receiving yards in each of his four seasons in Detroit, is due to make just $7 million in 2018. According to spotrac.com, he sits at No.35 in the rankings for average salaries among NFL wide receivers. Lions GM Bob Quinn has re-signed several key players during training camp since joining the team in 2016, but will he reach a new deal with Tate before the season starts like he did with Matthew Stafford, Glover Quin and Darius Slay the last two summers, or let the nine-year veteran play out the last year of his deal? That will be one of the biggest questions of the preseason.
On if he thought he’d have a new deal by now, Tate deferred to his agency (Tate is represented by CAA) once again, “Like I said, I just let my agency handle it. I pay them a large amount of money for a reason. So I let him handle that.”
Whether a deal gets done in the coming weeks or not, Tate said, “It doesn’t matter.” He’s just going to play ball like any other season.
“Like I said, I signed a five-year deal and I’m going to honor my part by playing this season the best I possibly can, nitty-gritty football, trying to help this team.”
Plenty of players throughout history have held out for bigger deals during training camp and not reported to their respective teams until getting one. But that was never even a thought for Tate, who explained the reason why.
“Because I signed a five-year contract and I’m going to honor my part of the contract the best I possibly can, and I love the game a lot. I want to be out here around the guys building the camaraderie.”
