Lions Making A “Strong Push” To Sign ILB Stephen Tulloch

NFL.com’s Jason La Canfora reports that the Lions making a “strong push” to get ILB Stephen Tulloch under contract.

Tulluch a better fit than David Hawthorne, who is scheduled to be visiting Detroit in the coming days, mainly because of the fact that he’s playing in the same system for a number of years dating back to Jim Schwartz’s time in Tennessee. His asking price is high but every indication suggests that something will eventually get done.

We have Tulloch listed as the #6 best available free agent in our Top 50 Free Agents list.

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Aaron Wilson of Scout.com reports that the Detroit Lions will host MLB David Hawthorne on Tuesday.

This is most likely an attempt to lower Stephen Tulloch‘s salary requests which are said to be close to a five-year deal worth $42.5 million. Tulloch is a very good inside linebacker but not considerably better Hawthorne who has lead the Seahawks in tackles each of the past two seasons. In fact, we have Hawthorne slotted one spot behind Tulloch on our Top 50 Free Agents list.

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Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press reports the Lions tweets that the Lions will now look to re-sign MLB Stephen Tulloch.

Things have been very quiet for Tulloch to this point. In fact, he’s yet to even visit with an NFL team so he could be hoping that waiting until some of the other options at inside linebacker are off of the board like Curtis Lofton or David Hawthorne. The last we heard, Tulloch was looking for a deal that’s close to D’Qwell Jackson‘s five-year contract worth $42.5 million. Tulloch is a very solid player but NFL teams have been reluctant to commit to paying inside linebackers the kind of money that they’re seeking or at least at this point in time.