Cleveland trades a late round pick for Deion Jones. How come we don’t make deals like this? Is our cap situation that bad? He’s a guy I’d pay next season.
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If there’s ever been a theme among Lions fans, it’s the cap excuse.
We watch other teams routinely remain competitive every year, and active in trading/free-agency every year, regardless of cap status.
But when the Lions fail to make any meaningful moves, it’s always the “cap.”
As though there’s a reward for fiscal responsibility in the NFL.
It’s the most absurd thing.
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two criticisms of Holmes so far
Drafting of injured players
His lack of noise/movement in the FA/Trade market
I know its prolly him trying to take it slow, but you need to find a balance, inject talent in this team when it needs it most
It needs it right now, we have the ability to create Cap easily and we have trade ammunition, we can make some fucking moves
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After the draft I felt trading for Jones could be a lower risk move that could really pay off. Especially at that point in time, his value is probably a little higher presently.
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He would’ve been a big upgrade. But we dont have money and it makes it even funnier to think no money and probably going to be drafting in the top 5. 
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Like dont get me wrong
Quinn hardfucked us for like 2 to 3 years cap wise tbh but like
we can make the moves to easily free up cap rn and get shit done
its a bye week
I fucking hope Holmes actually goes shopping this week lol
I don’t know, I mean we did trade for Trinity Benson. What more do you want?
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lmao you know what I mean
landing a slightly bigger fish lmao
Lions fans: “OMG Holmes is SO STUPID for bringing in these already injured players! Get some healthy guys you idiot!”
Also Lions fans: “OMG why did Holmes not trade for the LB that was on IR for the Falcons and hasn’t played all year?”
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Id honestly ship our 2nd
its a cursed fucking pick and we all know it, id rather get value out of it somehow
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I’ve been beating this drum for years. You watch teams stay competitive and sacrifice cap responsibility year after year.
It is much more easy to move money around than fans think. It’s a mindset. Some teams have it and some don’t.
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That’s quite the reframing of this topic and the discussion that followed.
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I’m more wondering about the making of moves for veterans at weak positions. I understand that Brad has been hamstrung by the lack of cap space. But it’s always the same teams making moves. I’m more wondering what is the cause?
Is it the lack of resources?
Is it fear of the unknown?
Is it the overall plan to build through the draft?
Or…Is it all of the above and more?
I’d like for us to discuss answers rather than unfunny sarcasm or conjecture.
It’s my understanding that Jones hasn’t been particularly good for a few yars.
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Exactly.
He hasn’t played a game in 2022.
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Matt Millen, is that you?
The Browns acquired veteran linebacker Deion Jones in a trade with the Falcons on Sunday night, swapping late-round 2024 draft picks with Atlanta to facilitate the deal , NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports.
not Deion Jones i mean for a trade equal to the player of worth
our second is cursed and we know it lmao
Flip side of the coin, it’s always the “cap”
As though there’s a penalty for fiscal irresponsibility in the NFL.
Both statements are true, and both statements are equally as frustrating when thinking about this team.
Building a team in UFA almost never works. Everyone likes to say that the Rams are built through UFA and while they spend a ton of money on outside free agents, they spend a lot on very few players and part of the reason they do that is because they haven’t had a 1st round draft pick since taking Goff in 2016. So they don’t have the $3M-$9M tied up in the potential of a 1st round pick. The secret to their success though is they draft well. People like to say that they are stars and duds. That’s not the case, they have a high number of compensatory picks since they started trading 1st round draft picks for established veterans. Players lost that qualified for the compensatory pick formula (22 total): 2023 - 5, 2022 - 5, 2021 - 3, 2020 - 2, 2019 - 4, 2018 - 3, 2017 - 3. By comparison, perennial comp recipients Baltimore had 22 and Patriots had 29. Make no mistake, the Rams are built through the draft and are supplemented by very high end outside free agents via either trade or signings.
If we wouldn’t have had stupid hiring a dummy who in turn hired an idiot, we would have had a stronger base of home grown players (Slay, Diggs, Glasgow, Reift, A Robinson, etc) instead of wasting money on Flowers, Collins, Trufant, Coleman, J James, Chase Daniels, Christian Jones, Vaitai (see Glasgow)). Also, if we didn’t have stupid hiring a dummy who in turn hired an idiot, we would have had $100M more in cap space that we could have attacked FA with (or trades). When Holmes came in and cleared out dummy’s UFA mistakes, there was not hardly in room to sign anyone for much more than the bear minimum. This chart from overthecap.com shows that we are one of the lowest teams in the league with available cap space through simple restructures. The Rams are able to create $40M more of cap space than the Lions, but that is what happens when you go into UFA and make a bunch of bad decisions. We have very little cap space and very little ability to create cap space
But I digress. Below is a chart of # of wins this year, APY spent on non-home grown players and rank of the team in terms of home grown players (drafted or original Undrafted rookie contract) on team. Yes, Dallas has only $9M spent on outside FA’s. Yes, that is Martin Mayhew of the Commanders trying to buy his wins with outside FA’s again, just like he did with the Lions. Generally speaking, it’s the amount of home grown players that you keep that determines success in the NFL. The teams that I picked were the teams with 4 or 5 wins, the teams with 1 win, the top 5 teams in terms of retaining home grown players. Teams in our division and teams that have been discussed on the forum recently as having done things right (Rams, Bucs, Ravens, Colts, Jags, Browns, Pats, Bengals, Saints).
| Non HG | Home Grown | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wins | Team | APY | Player Rank |
| 5 | Eagles | 57,000,000 | 7 |
| 4 | Bills | 97,000,000 | 9 |
| 4 | Vikings | 78,000,000 | 6 |
| 4 | Giants | 72,000,000 | 17 |
| 4 | Dallas | 9,000,000 | 1 |
| 3 | Buccaneers | 103,000,000 | 19 |
| 3 | Packers | 54,000,000 | 5 |
| 3 | Ravens | 50,000,000 | 2 |
| 2.5 | Colts | 95,000,000 | 4 |
| 2 | Jaguars | 135,000,000 | 21 |
| 2 | Browns | 131,000,000 | 16 |
| 2 | Rams | 108,000,000 | 3 |
| 2 | Patriots | 92,000,000 | 12 |
| 2 | Bengals | 86,000,000 | 15 |
| 2 | Saints | 61,000,000 | 8 |
| 2 | Bears | 36,000,000 | 29 |
| 1.5 | Texans | 100,000,000 | 32 |
| 1 | Commanders | 110,000,000 | 20 |
| 1 | Panthers | 80,000,000 | 22 |
| 1 | Steelers | 76,000,000 | 27 |
| 1 | Lions | 71,000,000 | 18 |
I am on board with trading for players still on their rookie contract, always have been.
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Nope but you need to sprinkle in both.