Q:One obvious question: Do the Lions make a move before the deadline? Either to acquire talent or more picks. – @mdjaxon
A:The trade deadline is next week (Nov. 2) and I expect the Lions to be sellers if anything at all, which is a big if, because I don’t know how much they have to sell. Maybe Tracy Walker, if they think they can’t (or don’t want) to re-sign him? All I know is they just spent months offloading assets to gear up for a run in 2022 and especially 2023, even if that meant sucking for a while in 2021. And now that they suck in 2021, they aren’t going to start giving away assets just to win a game or two or three in a season that’s already lost anyway.
The thought of dealing Walker has never crossed my mind. I honestly think he is turning into an excellent safety and I think he makes for a good leader in the back end. At the end of he day though he has been here four years now and even if he likes this staff he may be ready to go somewhere else. If he has expressed no interest in re-signing with the club this off-season, would it be worth trying to deal him for something? I would think a team like Kansas City would jump at the chance to add someone of Walker’s caliber to help fix a defense that definitely needs some help.
I know once again we will get all the critics talking about magic beans, but if Walker is going to walk, why not look into this? I honestly would rather re-sign him as I think he is worth more then whatever pick they would get, but I also would not franchise him in the off-season. Regardless my question is would you look into trading him and what is he worth? I think a team like Kansas City would give up a 2nd and maybe a 3rd/4th the following year.
Also to add to that, is there any other players on this roster that may be dealt? Looking over the roster the only other players I can see is maybe Nick Williams, and Dean Marlowe. Williams has played alright, but he isn’t part of the future and once Hand comes back someone has got to go. He would be solid depth for a contender and I could see him fetching a late rounder. Marlowe is obviously in the doghouse, but he has had success in this league. Maybe a team thinks a change of scenery can help and he fetches a late rounder. There is not a single other player I can think of that it would make sense to trade or may have value.
I would love to re-sign him. He is the best player on defense we got. At the end of the day though, is he worth the franchise tag if he refuses to re-sign? I personally would not commit that much cash to him.
I thought I heard it was around 12-13 for a safety. I could have heard it wrong but I think the Jamaal Adam’s contract raised the going rates for safeties.
I would absolutely re-sign him if the money was right. He’s one of our best players on defense but really what is that saying? He’s not one of the top Safety’s in the league but definitely looks like a capable starter. What we really need is elite talent and I’m in love with adding an elite talent (Hamilton) to play beside TW or replace him. So if a team is offering me some high value draft picks and TW is asking to be one of the highest paid safety’s, I probably make the deal.
The franchise tag number is projected around 13.5mil for safeties. Are you comfortable paying that much for walker? Like I’ve said how many times now my preference is to resign him. I think a 4 year 40mil deal is about what I would pay as that is very good safety money, but not top 5. If we are going to pay up at safety we should chase Marcus Williams who has multiple years of high end play.
If you are Campbell or Holmes and you approach walker now and he either says he doesn’t want to come back or he is asking for an outrageous amount (15mil+), then I would see what we could get. What we can’t do is lose him as a free agent for nothing because depending on what we spend we may not even get a comp pick.
Maybe they have had those conversations already and Walker wants to re sign. Nobody here would know that my post was purely hypothetical.
