Cutting Eric Ebron earlier this month was the most surprising move the Detroit Lions made during free agency. authentic nfl jerseys cheap And now, in his first public comments since making the move that landed Ebron with the Indianapolis Colts a week later, Lions general manager Bob Quinn said it all came down to money.

As in, they didn’t want to pay Ebron the money he would have gotten.

“Yeah, it was just a financial decision,” Quinn told reporters at the league meetings in Orlando. “The salary that came along with the fifth-year option was something that, you know, we weighed really up until the last minute to be honest. It was one of those things that we knew was coming down the pike.

“We obviously had some trade conversations with a few teams, didn’t work out. So honestly it came down to about the last hour or so before that four o’clock deadline.”

Quinn then reiterated again the move was strictly a financial one since the Lions would have had to pay Ebron $8.25 million for the fifth-year option had he remained on the roster. Whenever Quinn had been asked about Ebron and the fifth-year option, Quinn had said he was on the team.

But that was it.

Quinn said they discussed trading Ebron to “a lot of teams,” but that he often heard his salary was too much. Teams could have been waiting for the Lions to possibly release him, though, considering he ended up signing a two-year deal with the Colts at an average of $6.5 million per year.nfl jerseys for cheap So a little less money, but not insanely less considering a long-term deal could have then been worked out.

Cutting Ebron also left a hole in Detroit’s roster that wasn’t there before — a potential issue considering the Lions had other needs that were more pressing. Detroit ended up signing veteran Luke Willson at a cheaper price of $2.5 million for one year, but Ebron has shown to be a better player (albeit with more opportunities) than Willson was in Seattle.