Building Depth

The War Room Detroit Lions — The Den
21

A stream of consciousness about what I’d like to see come the off season

QB:
I would like to see a vet brought in as back up who has a bit of athleticism. Goff is going to be starter next year, kick the drafting a QB can down the road to 2023. Someone like Brissett or PJ Walker on two year low cost deal.

RB:
Draft one late day three

WR:
DJ Chark - 4 years 50 million
Bring back Reynolds on a one year deal
Draft one late day one or in the second round - Different players but I think both Burks and Dotson will be there early in the second round. I’d like Dotson’s explosiveness to add to Chark’s speed.
X Chark, Y Dotson, Slot St Brown with Cephus and Reynolds as depth pieces and whoever else off the street or undrafted shows up well in pre season.
TE - Plenty of solid vets available for small money in FA. Just add one.

O-Line:
I think they will keep Vaitai for another year - cap hit improves and allows for continuity beside Sewell. Kraemer, Brown and Nelson all depth pieces. Add another developmental tackle in day three

D-Line and Pass rush:
Williams and Flowers gone, do you resign Charles Harris? He has certainly been a bright spot and has played his way into a med money contract but I wouldn’t keep him if we have to give him anything more than 10 million for a three year deal. Or 3.5 million for a one year deal.
Add KT or Hutchinson in the draft and a mid tier FA.

Line Backer
I think both JRM and Anzalone both return. JRM offers a lot in special teams and has shown he can handle a starters workload at LB. I think they will probably look to take another LB at a similar spot to where they got Barnes last year too depending how the board falls. Be interesting to see does Shaun Deon Hamilton return, coaches seemed pretty high on him last summer before injury.

Corner -
Don’t think we have any impending FAs or cap casualties here and the likes of Jacobs and AJ Parker look like guys who might be tough to dislodge from their spots and offer us cheap depth. Who knows how Okudah will be after his injury but I think a mid tier vet and a late day two pick could be on the cards here.
PJ Williams from the Saints or Darius Williams from the Rams look like obvious enough candidates.

Safety-
Pretty much flip the room. Walker hopefully to return. Harris has another year on his rookie deal but you would hope won’t see the field. Draft one high like Daxton Hill, Cantalon who I really like or Brisker and go and pay Marcus Williams 65 million over 5 years to play there. If you can’t get him then give a solid player like Diggs or Harris a two year deal.

Draft (Excluding comp picks):
First Round (1) KT/Hutchinson
Frist Round (2) WR - Burks
Second Round - Safety - Cantalon
Third round (1) Corner
Third Round (2) LB
Fourth - Defensive line
Fifth - OG/RB

Add in FA:
Chark and Marcus Williams on long term deals
Darious Williams and a Mid tier vet on DLine on 2 or 3 year deals
Jacoby Brissett on 2 years deal to be back up QB

1 Like
22

Depends on the guard. I’d have gladly paid 10m a season for someone like Hutchinson or Martin.

23

Achilles injuries are definitely tough and who knows what happens with these guys but I definitely
Wouldn’t bet against them. Romeo was a UDFA and he scratched and clawed his way to where he is at today. He is going to work as hard as he can to come back. Okudah is also known to have a very strong work ethic and with the way his rookie year went and then getting hurt I am sure he has a lot he wants to prove. Plus both of these guys are still young players which gives them a better chance at recovering

1 Like
24

For someone like that you are paying closer to 15mil+ at this point. High end safety money and high end guard money are pretty close. Give me a top safety over a top guard anyday of the week, IMO.

25

Michael Jackson Dancing GIF

2 Likes
26

Overall I agree with the majority of this. I would be very hesitant to committ big money to Chark as he has had an inconsistent career and is coming off injury. I would love to get him on a 1 year deal though or something with an out after year 1.

Only thing I definitely disagree with is Charles Harris. After the year he had there is no way he signs that cheaply, nor should he. He has proven he can at least be your #3 edge rusher and those guys are going to get 5-6mil a year at minimum. At that price I would pay up for him. I wouldn’t go much higher then that though.

27

Thriller it’s a thriller now… :musical_note:

1 Like
28

Yeah, I don’t think he comes back and would fully expect him to get 5 million + somewhere. I personally wouldn’t give him more than 3.5 million and think we should let him walk if he has more on the table

1 Like
29

Interesting.
It’s a good conversation. I expect that he is one of the guys that have earned a 2nd contract with the Lions. How much he should earn is an interesting argument. He’s not what we paid Okwara to be, but he still produced. If we conclude he’s a situational pass-rusher, what is that wage scale in the NFL?

30

I don’t think you can let him walk for $5M/yr, this team needs to keep some talent and if that is the market value then pay him. What I don’t want is a bidding war for him and end up north of the typical value (what others in his range) would get.

1 Like
31

I think that number falls in the 5-7mil a year range and is a 2-3 years contract. I don’t know if I would go up to the high range of that number if the front office expects to take an edge rusher early as we have Romeo coming back as well as Julian and Austin Bryant who have both flashed. I would definitely bring him back at the low end of that though.

1 Like
32

I know this is wishful thinking and best case scenario, but just think how much as impact this would be.

You sign Marcus Williams in FA . You already know the type of player he is and what he brings to the table. You also re-sign Tracy Walker

You draft Aidan Hutchinson. He develops into a JJ/TJ Watt type of player by year two.

You take Devin Lloyd. He pans out and turns into the next Darius Leonard.

Could you imagine adding Marcus Williams, TJ Watt, and Darius Leonard to this defense. I know that is a stretch to say those guys develop into those types of players, but could you imagine. With as deep a WR class as this is and as hard as it is to find good LB’ers I am starting to lean LB’er with our 1st.

Hutchinson
Lloyd
Burks/London/Williams/Olave/best WR available
trade up from top of 3rd for QB who slips (Likely Ridder/Willis)

You get two defensive centerpieces, a top WR, and a developmental QB.

33

Also - something else i forgot to mention, if we do manage to win a couple more games down the stretch and end up taking ourselves out of the mix for Hutchinson/KT I would have no problem taking Kyle Hamilton 3OA and then draft an edge rusher later in the first, like Ojabo or Drake Jackson

1 Like
34

Yes, that’s another good point. Falling out of the top DE pool does put you into Hamilton territory.

35

You focus on height and you miss out on guys like Buddha Baker, Tyrann Mathieu, Antoine Winfield, Dwight Freeney, Bob Sanders, London Fletcher, Elvis Dumervil, etc… The best safety of all time in my opinion, Ed Reed, was only 5’11. Ray Lewis was 6’1, Matt Milano is 6’0. Aaron Donald is only 6’1. Height should be a factor in our decision-making, but no one should be eliminated for being short.