The task of getting some of the Lions' key free agents signed this offseason falls on president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew. Speaking to reporters at the Super Bowl, Friday, Lewand confirmed that he’s spoken with all of the teams key free agents, including defensive end 
Lewand also said the team has had talks with receiver
“They are all at different stages, they always are,” Lewand said of negotiations. “Different negotiations move at a different pace. Obviously, the challenges for us going forward are different than the ones we faced in the recent past, and that is keeping this nucleus of players that we have together for as long as we can.”
Lewand said it wasn’t dissimilar from when he started with the team back in the 1990’s and the team had a nucleus of Barry Sanders, Herman Moore and Chris Spielman.
“I’ll take the problems of trying to keep a lot of good players instead of finding good players,” Lewand said. “It’s definitely a better problem to have.
“You see teams around the league who face it all the time. You see teams that can reload on the run. You see teams who make tough decisions and let good players go. We’ve been in a situation where players we’ve let go end their careers and don’t play again. That’s not what we’re looking for."
The Lions have had plenty of those over the past decade. The roster is now at a point where tough decisions are probably going to be the norm moving forward. Determining a fair price to retain Avril’s services, deciding Backus’ future and securing Tulloch long-term are just a few of those decisions this offseason.
“Hopefully, we can keep as many of those guys together and that nucleus together as long as possible, but we know there are going to be some tough decisions we have to make along the way,” Lewand said.
The Lions have a large chunk of the $120 million salary cap tied into quarterback
“The fact of the matter is we have a lot of dollars invested in some really good players, and again, that’s a great problem to have,” Lewand said.
“When you’re talking about guys like Calvin Johnson and Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh, I’ve got no issue with what those guys are making. Those are the kind of guys who should command most of your salary cap and hopefully will for a long period of time.
Stafford, Johnson and Suh are the nucleus, but the right pieces have to be placed around them if the team is going to play for a Super Bowl of it’s own one day. The Patriots, for example, seem to do a good job every year of putting the right pieces around quarterback Tom Brady and their nucleus.
“We have to try and lock-down guys who are already on our team and we know what they can do,” Stafford said from the Super Bowl, Friday. “If we can go out there and do that, it would be nice.”
Lewand said the biggest key to signing players like Avril, Tulloch and Wright is the willingness of both parties to meet in the middle.
“Generally speaking, if we want to get a deal done (and) the player wants to get a deal done with us, it usually gets done,” he said.
“Calvin and Cliff and Jeff and others have said publicly they want to be here. They like where we’re going. We’ve said we want them here and that’s clearly the case and we’re going to work as hard as we can to get deals done for all of them an fit everyone into that limited budget that all 32 teams face when it comes to the salary cap.”
Avril told Detroitlions.com Thursday that he wants to remain a Lion and hopes a deal can get worked out.
"Hopefully it's done within the next couple weeks,” he said. “I understand it's a business and it's not all about what I would prefer. We weren't really talking that much prior to the end of the season and now my agent is talking to Tom (Lewand) and Martin (Mayhew)."
