{"id":38991,"date":"2018-03-13T10:52:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T14:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=38991"},"modified":"2018-03-15T19:38:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T23:38:04","slug":"star-lotulelei-signs-buffalo-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2018\/03\/13\/star-lotulelei-signs-buffalo-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Buffalo Bills to Sign Defensive Tackle Star Lotulelei to Multi-Year Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shoring up the interior of the defensive line was among the most pressing needs for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/bills\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buffalo Bills<\/a> this off-season. Enter <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/L\/LotuSt00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Star Lotulelei<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The team reportedly will sign the 28-year-old to a five-year deal at the onset of free agency, according to ESPN&#8217;s Adam Schefter who initially reported on the news. On Friday, NFL Network&#8217;s Tom Pelissero added that the new contract is worth $50 million and contains $18.5 million in guaranteed money upon him signing the deal. Lotulelei had spent the entirety of his five-year career with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/panthers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carolina Panthers<\/a>, who picked him 14th overall in the 2013 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Former Panthers\u2019 DT Star Lotulelei intends to sign a 5-year deal with the Buffalo Bills when free agency opens, source tells ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AdamSchefter\/status\/973553549635407872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 13, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Star Lotulelei\u2019s five-year contract with the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bills?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Bills<\/a> is worth $50 million with $18.5M fully guaranteed at signing, $25M in total guarantees. More big money for big men.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomPelissero\/status\/974421305364828161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 15, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><strong>Buffalo Bills to Sign Defensive Tackle Star Lotulelei to Multi-Year Deal<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Lotulelei was a highly touted defensive tackle coming out of Utah in the 2013 NFL draft. He began his rookie season as the starting defensive tackle and started all 16 games. He was very effective in his rookie season, finishing as Pro Football Focus&#8217; sixth-best interior defender. He was named to the All-Rookie Team and finished fourth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting.<\/p>\n<p>He followed up his maiden season in the league with another highly successful second year. He gained a reputation as a run stuffer and was part of a very effective Panthers defensive front. In 2015 he was an integral part of the Panthers run to Super Bowl 50.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his success in the NFL, he has been trending down in recent years. He has never been able to put up big sack numbers, but he has been known as a very effective defender against the run. However, it appears he has taken a step back in that regard. According to PFF, his \u201cRun Stop\u201d percentage has gone down every single year.<\/p>\n<p>In 2013 (his rookie season), he was third in his position against the run, but since then, he hasn\u2019t been any higher better than 28<sup>th<\/sup>. Lotulelei is still a very effective player since he attracts double teams, but his downhill spiral is cause for concern. He has shown he has the potential to be a top-tier defensive tackle but his recent production is not encouraging.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, despite his recent struggles, his overall potential and relatively young age make him one of the more sought-after defensive tackles in the league. And this signing reunites him with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/M\/McDeSe20.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sean McDermott<\/a><\/strong> who was his defensive coordinator in Carolina before he took the Buffalo Bills head coaching job.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"mFY8rDSJTAl0i-1TYc7SRA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/497891410\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'mFY8rDSJTAl0i-1TYc7SRA',sig:'jfB07PGv9Fpk8g9gbKYHj3bNl7_FbWJZkrKlsYMlczg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'497891410',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Star Lotulelei has been a fixture on the Carolina Panthers defensive front ever since the team drafted him 14th overall in 2013. With the Buffalo Bills signing him to a multi-year deal, he&#8217;s now reunited with his former defensive coordinator Sean McDermott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2124,"featured_media":39921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,36],"tags":[3502,329,61,40,3619],"class_list":["post-38991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-panthers","category-nfl-news","tag-2018-nfl-free-agency","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-star-lotulelei"],"modified_by":"John Bava","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}