A few more details on Calvin Johnson‘s new eight-year contract with the Lions:

As great as Megatron is, when you’ve got one guy counting over $20 million against the cap (which stays at a $120 million this season), you’ve got to make some moves.

Detroit couldn’t extend Johnson’s prior deal, because there were no years left in the contract to push anything into. They had to do seven years on top of the one-year pact that’s already there, so eight years in total.

The seven new years are worth just under $114 million — $53 million of that guaranteed. It’s a complicated structure. Johnson can void out some years at the end of the contract, but the Lions, if they still want him around and he’s still productive, can buy those years back for $3.5 million a year.

He’s going to be making just under $17 million a year, which puts him up in Larry Fitzgerald territory, which is frankly where he belongs.

Follow Jason La Canfora on Twitter @JasonLaCanfora.

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