Lions Trade Golden Tate to Eagles

Lions deal Tate for a third rounder from Philadelphia. Are they calling it quits, or can his production be replaced? Discuss!

I hate this move but understand it. GT was my favorite Lion.

I’d like to see Theo in the slot a lot.

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Tate was always classy but I think MattyPatty isn’t going to have favorites. Of the business makes sense to move him, you move him.

I don’t know, bro. I have a hard time making sense of it.
The only thing that works in my head is that they were working a deal/plan that fell apart, which restructuring Marv’s deal would tend to support.
Maybe they did try to make a run at Peterson? We’ll never know.

With Tate gone who gets his reps in 3 wide sets? I think it’ll be pretty even between Powell and tj Jones with Jones getting the first nod but I believe by years end Powell will be the 3rd option in the passing attack. I went back and watched his tape and he runs good clean routes and finds a way to get open quickly. He sorta reminds me of a receiver in more of an Edelman mood than a Tate mood though.

I’ll try to keep my upsettedness low key, being a new board and all. Don’t wanna upset the tone.

I’ll say I understand the long term view a 3rd rounder can get us, and that I fully understand that Tate was not going to be in the long term plans.

Hate the message that it sends for this year. We were still in it. I’d rather Quinn start making moves to win now rather than always looking at next year, or the year after, or the year after…

I’m okay with this move and understand it. Also, the lions are more productive out of two receiver sets than three receiver sets. Add in the fact Tate is third in drops and going to be on the wrong side of 30 next season

I loved Tate but this was the correct move since we are not a Superbowl contender ,yet. If Quinn can pick another defensive gem like Hand in the third then it’s a no brainer.

best move the team has made. Signature move for franchise direction. Like Tate, love we got some return for a player on the way out. They knew what he was asking for and knew they would not be paying his price. Decisive, business decision.

He did have a lot of drops this year.

I’m sure everyone here understands this but here is a bit on what I tried explaining on the ‘EffBee’ to those average fans that didn’t know and were super upset… …and gotta get my post count up :wink:

Got to consider this; had Tate stayed and signed a big contract elsewhere after the season then we wouldn’t get a comp pick until 2020 and there is a very good chance that he isn’t the highest paid FA or even top 3-5. So that would give us the 2020 number 100-102 pick. Also, keep in mind that we have 41mil to spend next year in FA. If we had lost Tate to FA and wanted a 3rd round comp pick for him in 2020 then we’d have to use ALL that 41mil to sign our own players and no other FAs from around the league…

Instead we trade him for a guaranteed mid-late 2019 3rd round pick… AND, we can now participate in big FA spending while not worrying where it puts us in the 2020 comp pick formula.

And if we really wanted him and he wanted to be here we could go after him as a FA next year anyway… But I think they both wanted to go separate ways.

I think those that are upset, which there really are only a few of us, understand every point you’re making here. I know I do. I understand it completely.

I’m not very graceful in my replies to this, but I thought mojo was laying it out pretty good.

In a nut shell, some of us are sick and tired of waiting for “next year”. It’s always been about next year with Quinn. You say we will have around 41mil to spend on free agency, but we’ve had 40+ mil to use each of the last 2 off seasons, and yet here we are, still struggling to keep our heads above water.

At some point Quinn is going to have to take a chance and push the limits of our cap space. Quit playing it safe all the darn time. Be a GM, bring in some real talent to get us in the game, and figure out a way to manage the contracts it’s going to take to get that talent in here.

I get it SirLion… Many of us share those frustrations in wanting to get over the hump now, not later. And I know you and most everyone here is smart enough to understand the process…

But the EffBee crowd is not you guys. Most of them are clueless to how the business works and wouldn’t know have an idea about any of this. Just trying to educate them while sharing it here.

Someone on Twitter was posting our overall ‘success stats’ depending on personnel and formation, and the Lions are almost 25% more successful running out of 2WR sets than 3WR sets.

Maybe we start seeing more 12/21 personnel?

I’m thinking we’re going to see more options out of the backfield, with Riddick’s return and Kerryon Johnson coming along. Both are very capable YAC machines.

I really like liked Tate and the energy he brought to the offense. But I actually like this move. If anything I think the Eagles overspent.

We get a third round pick for a 30 year old slot WR who wasnt likely to resign with us anyway

Which leads to the question, is JBC starting to get neutered and we are seeing more of Jeff Davidson influence?

You don’t just replace the NFL’s leading YAC leader. Theo Riddick is slooowwww, he’s so slow I’m not sure he could outrun Teez Tabor. Theo is not the answer, I wish Jace Billingsley was as good as we all hoped he’d become, so we could snatch him off NE’s practice squad.
Not sure what the Lions are going to do but I don’t know if it matters anymore this year either.