Maybe Crosby slides inside?
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pronounced hal-lah-poo-lee-VAH-tee VIE-tie
Maybe Crosby slides inside, maybe they think Beau Ben can step up, maybe they re-sign Wiggins, maybe they draft a good OG or sign an FA. We do know that Wagner had to go, he just wasnât playing up to his contract. So, they cut him, but now they gotta pay somebody to replace him unless they trust Crosby to start. But apparently not, they wouldnât be paying Vaitai that much if he wasnât going to be the starter.
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Well, this is the first sensible thing youâve said in recent memory, though salaries at every position will keep going up. Yes, he will be expected to play up to this contract and we wonât know what he can do in DET until September at the earliest.
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Seems like change for the sake of change.
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Has Crosby played inside recently?
I always thought he would be a good guard but I swear heâs only played tackle unless Iâm missing something
Can we just call him Hal?
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Here are some comments from another site âExactly the type of move I expected from the Lionsâ and âI like Vatai but lolâ.
Iâm willing to give it a chance but the general opinion seems⌠not good.
Iâve always thought the biggest chance for the Lions to make a splash was the draft anyway so whatever, hope for the best.
Maybe, but look at this way: Wagner wasnât playing up to his contract, hasnât been for some time now and the guy was in the last year of his contract. This way, we got an RT under contract for the next 5 years. Whether heâs worth it or not is another story, the Lions mustâve liked what they saw of him,
Itâs moves like this is exactly why we donât get better, your trading one avg player for another itâs not a good move or bad move itâs just a lateral move. But now it will be one of our big FA signings. When it really did nothing. Might as well kept wagner and focus on somebody that actually fills a need.
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Iâm skeptical about OL free agents, but in this case the Eagles have Johnson and Dillard so maybe he was a guy that got awayâŚ
Until the parameters of the deal are known how can anyone dislike a mauler in the run game âŚif this is a 3 year year deal at or below $30 Million Iâll like him a lot more
He has played both Tackle positions which in itself is valuable . He is fairly young with 20 starts and we are the Lions who have to over pay some âŚWe are morons though because we had to do just that âŚIâll reserve my judgment until we actually see what we have âŚbut with E.Flowers getting what he got âŚIâll take this guy at that money everyday of the week . Flowers sucks
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I donât love it. Unless heâs a beast. Then I love it .
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Letâs not forget that his best ever game was the Eagles super bowl win over Patricia and the Pats. He subbed in for injured Jason Peters and helped to stonewall Flowers and the rest of them to the tune of zero sacks. Maybe it sticks out still in Patriciaâs mind.
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Donât like it either. Wagner had a down yr, but from 14-18 was a top 15 RT, 3 of those yrs he was top 10, according to PFF. We now have a dead cap hit plus the added cost for a very unproven RT, that has been a poor pass blocker, with a QB coming off back to back yrs of a broken back. To toss GG out as well, a top 10 OG PFF, IMO, the entire right side of the line is far worse, especially when you consider lack of continuity, the wasted cap and dead money.
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Hey RW!
Howdy
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âMy Gosh can you get out of bed with BQ. How are you a massive fan for signing a backup? Cool top 10 run blocker? Well heâs 77th at pass block.â-Detroitsportschat
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We have a winner! Best post of this thread right here!
From PoD:
Money
First off, letâs talk about that contract. If youâve followed the NFL for any period of time, you know not to take the first reported numbers as anything other than a guideline. A deal of $10 million per, if we take the contract at its face value alone, would put Vaitaiâs deal at around 20th for offensive tackles. That sounds about right as Vaitai ranked 25th among tackles with at least 450 snaps (per PFF), one spot above Andrew Whitworth and only three spots below Taylor Lewan (both left tackles, Lewan the top paid prior to this off-season). So the money, as much as people will grumble about it, is about right. Like previous Bob Quinn deals, itâs pretty standard âat-marketâ cost for a starting tackle.
Talent
Which brings us to the âStarting Tackleâ part of this conversation. Though Vaitai started 10 regular season games and three playoff games during the Philadelphia Eaglesâ Super Bowl season, he has only started five games since (including their 2019 playoff loss). In 2019, he gave up only two sacks in over 330 pass blocking snaps and, more importantly for this scheme, had one of the highest run blocking grades on the season. His game isnât perfectâ you wouldnât have any rational person tell you it wasâbut the reason he wasnât starting was more about Jason Peters and Lane Taylor than it was Halapoulivaati Vaitai.
Scheme fit
The main reason Iâm excited about this signing isnât because Iâm blindly following my team (just look at my opinions on several of their coaching hires or previous draft picks if you question objectivity), but because I see a very clear fit between what the team has shown they want to do schematically and the player. Vaitai is one of the best run blocking tackles in the league, and the Lions want to run the football down teamsâ throats. They havenât been as successful doing so ,and their offense struggled. So it makes sense theyâd try to rectify that.
While Vaitaiâs pass protection has been suspectâin large part due to his lack of lateral agility to deal with speedier rushersâthatâs something the team found ways to mitigate in 2019 despite extremely poor play at the right tackle position. Itâs an issue, but itâs one theyâve already show an adeptness at limiting the impact of.
IMHO, the Lions pretty much had to replace Wagner. He wasnât getting it done and he was going to be gone anyway next year. So why not upgrade the position now and eliminate a future hole?
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