Even his “wins” as you’ve laid out, are pretty bad. I’m not sure where this narrative that he “found” Tommy Kraemer has emerged - but the guy was flat out horrible. Yes, he found an undrafted guy that stinks. If that’s your big claim to fame as a GM… that’s how to go 0-16-1.
I do agree that the Jamal Williams signing was solid. I like that guy, I like how he runs, and I like that he’s clearly a Dan Campbell guy. I like Jacobs at CB, and Parker had his moments as well - although I wonder how much those guys were “finds” by Holmes, or whether that’s Glenn and Pleasant simply getting the most out of what they were given (that feels logical but obviously I dont know for sure). Evan Brown showed up I agree.
The TE situation though - another dumpster fire. The guy they targeted decided to retire rather than play here. Then the guy they signed to replace the guy that retired, well, he quit on the team half way through the season. Brock Wright has had a rough go, but he’s only being forced to play because the other decisions were so bad.
Woof. Here’s hoping the 2nd offseason produces better results.
This. If there was a mistake here, it was taking on Jared Goff. The restructure is/was mostly moot. When they decided to take on Jared Goff they took on this cap situation.
I think Kraemer is a tough guy. I like him. Powerful run blocker.
When it comes to defensive backs…well. instincts and ability cant really be taught in my opinion. You either have the skill and instinct or not. Look at okudah. He didnt improve at all under pleasant and Glenn IMO. Coaching schemes and some technique makes sense to top your hat to Glenn and AP…but Holmes found the skill
No… again… Goff’s restructure was done out of necessity to get under the cap in 2021.
It had nothing to do with 2022 and beyond.
Thank Quinn and Patricia for fhe salary cap hell the Lions had in 2021… with a minor assist to Stafford for not wanting to stick around for the next rebuild.
Not blaming Stafford BTW… but his dead money is part of the current situation.
The lions locked into a 40 million dollar obligation for Goff when they traded. No matter what they have to pay that. They got 3 draft picks and gave up Stafford. The hope is/was that Goff would be good enough to get this team rolling and they’d have flexibility in 2023 if it doesn’t work out.
The salary cap this year was WAY reduced because of Covid last year and no fans in stadiums. Lions had to restructure someone to pay for draft picks and free agents. It was Goff or Flowers and Big V.
So what did they do? Think of it like a credit card. They don’t want to pay all of Goff’s 2021 now so they are pushing $15 million into future years when presumably the cap will be much larger because of no covid and they will have shed over priced players like Big V, Flowers, and probably Goff. That means Goff will be eating 5 mill/year in cap in future years even if he is not on the team. 5 mill/year is not a huge pill to swallow, especially if you have a QB on a rookie deal when most teams will be paying ~$40mm a year by 2024.
Lions just hurt future cap by smaller amounts instead of being completely hog tied this year. It doesn’t change how long they have to keep Goff.
Goff is on the roster another year unless he is traded. Even if they draft a rookie, Goff would be the starter or backup unless they want to pay Goff $20mm to sit on the couch, which would be stupid unless he was some kind of locker room cancer.
Wow Holmes should be fired immediately, anyone stupid enough to take on Goff at 40 million has to be the dumbest guy in the NFL, this move alone puts him in the class of matt Millen. Just wow. Holmes set this team back another 5 years. No wonder everyone is laughing, Snead took Holmes to the woodshed. So after getting rid of all the dead cap, he put us right back there in one move.
Only the Lions could make a move like this, and Holmes put a real screwing to MCDC.
No, sir. Whatever we had deferred (15 mil) is accelerated into the current year (2022) if he’s traded. You can’t really cut him because so much of his 2022 salary is guaranteed.
We all knew he was ours for 2 years when we got him.
Many here and in the national media knew our trade compensation was as rich as it was partly due to our taking his contract.
Goff has never been anything more than a bridge QB to me since day 1 and I still wholly support the trade.
Damn one move just really set this team back. This is why you don’t hire a coach first and then pic a GM, Holmes just killed Campbell’s coaching shot in one move, if I was Campbell I would take Holmes in a dark closet a punch him dead in the mouth. Holmes put the Lions future in the hands of Jared Goff. WTF. We really are the joke of the NFL
Whenever you restructure somebody you turn unguaranteed money into guaranteed money. So I don’t care what anybody says, the restructure fucked us on the future cap when we go to cut him. because what you did was trade a lower salary in the immediate year for more guaranteed money in the future. And its the guaranteed money that is the cap hit when you go to cut somebody So it literally cost the Lions $20 million dollars to restructure him and then cut him this offseason. He ain’t restructuring for free. They didn’t just gamble on Goff, they doubled down with the restructure for a 2nd year. Somebody said "but but they NEEDED that money. THEN DON’T TRADE FOR HIM .
Personally, I think Holmes should be fired on his first year here. Its been a nightmare. He should be fired solely for thinking Jared fucking Goff was a good QB and trading for that ridiculous contract. Then he should be fired for being stupid enough to take a RT over a god damn QB. Either of whom would be a top 5 pick this year, Fields the top pick. Its so incredibly asinine what he’s done. /RANT
And the worst part is I’ve been saying this shit since Jan. This is not hindsight.
Yeah Holmes is just bad, people say you have to give them time, but you can tell alot the first year by there approach to the offseason. We could have had the 8th pic and no Goff or his contract. Snead put it to Holmes. But everyone got excited over that extra bean. But it will take 2 of them beans and 40 million in cap just to fixes this. And not a chance to compete for a long time.
Maybe I can clear some of this confusion up. Before we restructured Goff’s contract, he was owed 25.65mil in base salary in 2021. We converted 20mil of his base salary into a guaranteed bonus which spreads it over the life of his contract He had 4 years left including 2021, so that is 5mil per year. He is also owed a guaranteed roster bonus of 15.5mil in 2022. If he is traded we are not on the hook for that 15.5mil guaranteed roster bonus. If he is cut we would be. So regardless Goff has always cost 15.5mil in dead cap space in 2022 if he were to be released. Because of the restructure, we pushed 15mil in cap space into the future because we needed the cap space to field a roster in 2021 and didn’t really have many other options. So now instead of a 15.5mil dead cap hit we would take in 2022 by cutting him, it would now be 30.5mil. His overall cap hit in 2022 is 31.15mil so we would save 650k agaisnt the cap if we cut him. Now if we could find a trade partner, we would only take a 15mil dead cap hit and save 16.15mil in cap space.
Justin Fields has played like one of the worst QBs in the NFL. He may develop, but I was not a fan of his. I am glad we passed and Sewell was 100% the right pick.
Goff was a shot at getting a respectable QB and not having to give up assets to get him. He was a two time Pro Bowler, took his team to a Superbowl, and was what 26 when we got him? Sure he was coming off two mediocre years, but they were hoping they could turn him around. They were clearly wrong, but I can see why they made the move. Now they need to realize their mistake. If Holmes can’t look in the mirror and realize this, then I have a problem.
We will have to disagree. I like Sewell. I was a little doubtful when he couldn’t pick up RT, but he’s played well. But Justin Fields was the pick and I really think judging him on stats rn is a huge mistake. He is very very good. I think he’ll be an All Pro by the time its all said and done.
Goff was a talent evaluation mistake by a guy who was part of his organization his entire career. I don’t think it was a shot at all. It was optimistic Tomfoolery.
Something just never felt right to me about Justin Fields. I didn’t want him at all, but we will see how his career turns out. As far as judging him on stats, I am not. I am judging him by the way he looks. He has had terrible pocket awareness, bad decision making, and can’t seem to read a defense, not to mention he barely uses one of his best attributes in his legs. He is a rookie though on a team that isn’t that great. I won’t write the book on him in one year.
As far as Goff, I don’t think you can judge that easily. As you said Holmes has been there Goff’s entire career. He would have known how cancerous McVay and Goff’s relationship was. He may have thought that if Goff got out from under McVay he would be able to shine. He saw first hand how good Goff can play. I watched the Vikings Rams game live a few years ago and that was probably the best game I’ve ever seen a QB play throwing the football. Kirk Cousins even said to Goff after the game that was the best QB performance he has EVER seen live. Thats in a division where he watched Aaron Rodgers play twice a year. That wasn’t because of McVay’s coaching, that was because of Jared Goff.
I don’t know where that guy has gone, but I don’t ever see him coming back. I personally never wanted Goff in the first place either. All I’m saying is looking at it objectively, I can understand why they did it.
The Rams knew man. They knew whatever it is you saw was gone. That was the entire impetus for the Stafford trade. So its hard to give Holmes a pass on what they already knew. Maybe they need to hire a Sports Psychologist