Lions vs Chargers early talk

Never won when visiting that franchise.

But we HAVE won in Baltimore.

https://www.footballdb.com/teams/nfl/detroit-lions/teamvsteam?opp=26

True, but the last time they were out there, it was 2015. Think about that team and then think about this team.

Have the Lions ever played the LA Chargers in Los Angeles?

Sounds like 75% of the Stafford era Lions games.

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Ekeler is 28. Dalvin Cook is 28. RBs careers are short, and the decline is usually sharp and sooner than anticipated. Which is why they dont get paid.

Biggest thing about this game is Chargers are playing on a short week, and mind you they are playing in New York Tonight, so other side of the country

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Also the stands is probably going to be 50 percent Lions fans.

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Indeed.

One of the many reasons I was a bit surprised to see the Lions hand Montgomery (26) a 3 year deal.

At the time, I thought that might have been the only reason a deal didn’t get done with Williams. I suspected the Lions were offering him 1 year, but he wanted 3. When they handed Montgomery 3 years and nearly 2x the value I expected them to offer Williams, I was shocked.

I like Montgomery a lot more than I thought I would, but I still can’t say I love the deal. Especially with good backs usually being available in every draft.

I think the way Monty’s deal is structured it’s more of a 2 year deal if I remember correctly. Anzalones was for sure.

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I see.

I pulled up his contract and believe I understand how it works. That 3rd year has $0 gauranteed money which means the team can cut him with no cap hit, effectively making it a 2 year deal with the option for keeping him if desired.

Nice job, Brad! Thanks for pointing this out my friend.

Edit - After further review I see the dead money / cap savings part. So, I guess it’s not $0 cap hit to cut him year 3, but a much smaller one than if there was guaranteed money. This is the part of salary caps that confuse me…they show his base / guaranteed salary, but the numbers if a player is cut rarely, if ever, seem to align with either. There’s still something I know I’m not fully understanding about cap ramifications for cut players and their bonuses.

I believe, in Montgomery’s case he has the $1.125 prorated bonus in 2025 and also in 2026, so that’s where the $2.25m in dead money comes from.

In these cases, I don’t love what Holmes is doing. I understand the cap grows every year, but I am not huge supporter of pushing dead money down the road effectively impacting future years.

Both of their deals are the same dollar values in the 3rd year as the 2nd year. Typically they will inflate the 3rd year if its nothing but a dummy season. It seems like a legit 3 year contract for both of them.

Right but no guaranteed money in year 3. So if they get hurt or the Lions want to move on. They can.

I’m gonna be a debbie downer here, but I’ve had this game circled as one of the Lions losses all year and I don’t think I’ve seen anything that changes that. The Lions defense against good QBs (Mahomes, Smith, and Jackson) have been pretty bad. They have allowed more than 300 total yards of offense in all 3 of these games and gave up almost 400 against the Hawks and 500 against the Ravens. Not only that, the good QB play opens up the run game against us. These games were also 3 of the top 4 against us in terms of rushing yards as well. (Carolina was the other game, but a lot of their production was in garbage time).

Chargers have playmakers in Ekeler and Keenan Allen and Gerald Everett is a pretty good TE, better than he gets credit for. And Josh Palmer is sneaky good. I think the Lions are going to have their hands full and this isn’t Baker Mayfield missing open guys or Garapollo missing wide open Devante Adams. The Lions defense isn’t going to get bailed out by poor QB play in this one and I think it’s going to open up the run game for the Chargers. The Chargers have only been under 300 yards of total offense once this year (against Dallas) and I fully expect them to put 350+ up on the Lions.

It’s really going to fall on the offense to keep these game in check. If they can’t score, it’s going to look like the Ravens game again. If they can score, it’s going to look like the Seahawks. Not very confident on this defense being able to stop what the Chargers do because the Chargers offense is actually good.

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Cutting a player triggers a full acceleration of all of his remaining signing bonus allocation. That is step 1. Write that number down.

Step 2 is cutting the player will accelerate any guaranteed salary the player is owed. Typically a player will only have salary guarantees in the first couple of seasons. Or in rare cases a rolling guarantee that triggers on a certain date.

2024 - Monty is $1.125M x 3 to cut, plus $3M in guaranteed salary.

2025 - Monty is $1.125M x 2 to cut, plus $0 guaranteed salary.

Hope that helps. Trading away a player moves the guaranteed salary to the new team, but the Lions would still have the signing bonus acceleration.

Same concerns. I do think the Lions have a shot because the Chargers’ defense is quite hit or miss, so I could see our offense getting back on track for this game. There’s always a chance for a W in a shootout.

Also, FYI - Palmer was just put on IR so that’s at least 1 guy they won’t have to worry about.

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Oh, I didn’t know that! Is it Quentin Johnston time? lol He’s got some Jamo usage this season.

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Shootout seems very likely IMO.

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Yessir. It is Quentin Johnson time for the Chargers. Last week was his 1st significant usage due to others not being available.

All good points, this game will certainly be a test. QB pressure and getting home has to happen.

He’s one of the best route runners in the NFL. He’s going to a real matchup problem for our secondary.

The Chargers are the type of team we struggle against so I’m a little concerned.

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