New Contracts - Who is most / least important?

The Den
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From the 2022 and 2023 drafts there are six guys who are integral to the team:

  • Aidan Hutchinson
  • Jameson Williams
  • Kerby Joseph
  • Jahmyr Gibbs
  • Sam LaPorta
  • Brian Branch

For the sake of the discussion let’s ignore salary cap granularity and just assume that we can’t re-sign all of them. Which of these guys is most important for us to keep hold of, and probably more interestingly, which of these guys can we afford to allow to move on?

For me, I’m definitely keeping Hutch, Kerby, Gibbs and LaPorta, and I’d be OK with Branch and Jamo moving on.

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First, I 100% believe they will all be back.
I would not be OK with any of them moving on, but…
Because of Branch’s reckless tackling (breaking teammate’s arms, concussing himself, getting fined) and because of his cramping issues, I worry most about his availability. I just threw up in my mouth thinking about losing a player that is so naturally instinctive. Next would be Jamo due to WR money. For the money he’s going to command, he has to produce like a true #1 WR. I don’t know if he’ll ever hit that kind of production. Again, acid is forming in my stomach and I sense a bit of self-loathing develop by discussing these players in this way.

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Hutch and Gibbs are the most unreplaceable talent + skill of those guys and are automatic write the check be done with it

I think laporta is the most replaceable but is very closely followed by jamo. I don’t think they can let both of them go from a weapons in the offense standpoint.

I don’t they should be letting go of either Kirby or branch. They provide too much impact and allow other parts of the defense to play more freely. Believe this was the consensus among the staff in front office when they drafted cornerback in the first two rounds last year, wanting to be and understanding they have to be cost controlled at some of the positions

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I’m not too concerned about Sam, Branch and Gibbs yet. All still under contract for 2 more seasons. Gibbs 3 more if option picked up.

Kerby, Hutch and Jamo though we could be looking at new extensions soon. Hutch and Jamo have 5th year options we can pick up too. So we have options.

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I’m going positional value here.

TE and S are the easiest to replace.

Both Hutch and Jamo are more irreplaceable than Kerby. Both Branch and Gibbs are more irreplaceable than LaPorta.

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I think Kerby is a game changer. Where would the Lions be without his 9 ints, one returned for a touchdown and at least 4 of them were caught in the Lions endzone. I’d say Kerby won us 2 or 3 games last year.

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I’m the same way. And imo we can do it if we don’t add an outside contract like Crosby.

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I don’t disagree at all.

But I still think Hutch and Jamo are more difficult to replace than Kerby.

I’d definitely take Kerby over LaPorta.

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Since LaPorta hurt his knee last year he hasn’t looked the same to me. Hobbling around a lot.

Tweaked a hammy in training camp, missed most of preseason. Then rolled an ankle, then hurt his shoulder, and in the playoff game was sporting a giant elbow brace. That dude was nowhere close to healthy all year. Was still productive and didn’t miss much time but every time he got tackled he appeared slow to get up. A bit of a concern for a young player IMO. Looked more like an old vet trying to tough it out on Sundays

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All those guys are replaceable except Hutch.
Goff, Sewell, St. Brown, Hutch. Those are your Core 4, everybody else on the periphery are replaceable to varying degrees. Almost tempted to add McNeil to the core list.

I’d like to keep all these guys but I just don’t think it’s possible. The Lions are going to part with a player or two that will really hurt losing but that’s the reality of a salary cap world and being stacked with talent due for new contracts.

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