Haloti Ngata Wants To Continue Playing, Return To Lions

Lions’ veteran DT Haloti Ngata said that he wants to continue his NFL career in 2018 and that he would like to continue playing for Detroit.

I think if I finished the year healthy I would have been a little closer to probably retiring, but I want to finish the season so I think I want to keep on playing,” said Ngata, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “And definitely I loved being able to be here and help Detroit have more dominance in this league. We’ve had winning seasons, I just want to continue to build this franchise and get it to where it can be a dominant franchise and a great team.

Ngata added that he “definitely” wants to continue playing for Detroit, but that he will have to see what his options are when free agency begins. He is set to be an unrestricted free agent.

 “So I definitely want to be here, I definitely want to keep on playing, but we’ll have to see once free agency hits.”

Ngata, 33, is a former first-round pick of the Ravens back in 2006. He spent nine years in Baltimore before he was traded to the Lions in return for a fourth- and fifth-round pick that eventually became Shaq Riddick and Za’Darius Smith.

He was in the final year of a two-year, $12 million contract that included $6 million guaranteed. Ngata made a base salary of $5.5 million for the 2017 season.

In 2017, Ngata appeared in five games before landing on the team’s injured reserve and recorded seven tackles, two sacks and a pass defense for the Lions.

We have him featured in our Top 100  – 2018 NFL Free Agents list.

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