Lions Insider

Source: Chris Houston, Detroit Lions agree to terms on five-year deal

Posted Mar 13, 2013

Retaining Chris Houston has been a top priority for the Detroit Lions this offseason

The Detroit Lions have always considered cornerback Chris Houston a big priority to retain in free agency. According to a league source, that priority converted to an agreement on a new five-year deal Wednesday.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! also reported Houston's deal to be worth $25 million over the length of the five-year deal with $15.5 million given over the first three years of the deal.

The team hasn't made any formal announcement of the move.

The move goes a long way to settling the team's cornerback situation in 2013 and beyond, though there's still the potential to add more players via the secondary free agent market and the draft.

Chris Houston"Chris (Houston) started out the (2012) season hurt, he had an ankle sprain coming into the regular season and missed the first couple of games. You realize how much you miss a guy when he's not out on the field," Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz said at the NFL Scouting Combine last month when asked about Houston.

"Chris this year added some things to his resume that he really didn't have before. There were a few games that he matched No. 1 wide receivers; guys like Andre Johnson, Brandon Marshall, people like that. That was something that we really hadn't used him for, he really hadn't done before."

Houston has started in 42 of the 43 games he has appeared in since joining Detroit in 2010 via trade with the Falcons. He's missed only five games over that time span.

Last season, he had 56 tackles, two interceptions, two forced fumbles, and 11 pass breakups.

The length of Houston's deal is significant in that the longer the contract, the less per-year cap space the total amount makes up.

With Houston in tow and free agent safety Glover Quin in Allen Park for a visit Wednesday, the landscape of the Lions secondary could be filling itself out.