Golden Tate was surprised to see only mild interest in signing him during his free agency during the offseason.

The Seattle Seahawks, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets and Detroit Lions were the only teams to express interest in Tate.

"I think because we had such a strong draft class, I think we had five or six or seven top receivers in this class," Tate said Friday. "So there's no need to go pay a lot of money when you get a rookie for pennies, I guess, relatively speaking.

"Maybe that's why. But I'm here. I'm wanted here. We're 7-2 and I'm playing decent football."

Tate signed a five-year, $31 million deal with the Lions.

"I'm not going to lie. I thought I would be a hot commodity. As it got closer, I thought I was going to have seven, eight teams on me," Tate said. "Wasn't the case at all, which is OK. All you need is one team to really love you. Same thing in the draft process.

"My presentation here, coach [Joe] Lombardi was super excited and I could definitely see that and I talked to coach [Jim] Caldwell and he seemed super excited and we both have the same goals in mind, to come here and make an impact on this organization and develop a sense of winning consistently, and right now that's what we are. We still have a long way to go and we're still working and grinding it out but sitting at 7-2, that isn't bad."