Nick Fairley is taking the Detroit Lions' decision not to exercise their fifth-year option on his contract as motivation.

The Lions surprisingly passed on paying Fairley just $5.5 million in 2014 and keeping him on the roster for an extra year at a pretty cheap cost.

“I kind of said it's a good thing, kind of,” Fairley said per Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free-Press. “It kind of will put me into a new contract earlier than (other) guys coming out in my draft. They're picking up guys' fifth-year option, that gets me into a new contract. That's the way I look at it.”