I’m hoping he takes the Nick Williams route and agrees to take a pay cut to stay and be a starter. I think Sewell has been vocal about how much Vaitai has helped him. Having those 2 together on the right side for a season would be nice.
Vatai is an overpay for RG, but not so much next year at $6.5MM salary.
At a minimum, I think the can gets kicked down the road a year. Then, you can re-evaluate. There’s so much else to do with this roster, I have to imagine that anything that ain’t broke for 2022 won’t get much attention.
I think they’ll let him keep his money and let him stay. The Oline is coming together and they have enough other holes that they won’t want to create another to have to fill. There hasn’t been a peep about him complaining about the move to guard.
I think a restructure is the best bet. Make it so 2022 is his last year and his cap hit doesn’t change. Reduce his base salary by 2.8mil to 3.7mil so when the dead money accellerates to 2022 by voiding the final three years his cap figure doesn’t change. He still gets good money in 2022, but the Lions do not have cap dollars committed to him beyond 2022.
Personally I didn’t see much of a downgrade at RG last game. That speaks volumes to me. Continuity is great, but insane overpay for production should not happen to achieve it. Vaitai has continued to be meh. We’ve got that on our roster now for peanuts. We’re going to be dumping some vet salary with Flowers and Vaitai so if we could go get a younger FA vet that is better than Vaitai/Stenberg/Kraemer I’m fine with that. If you can’t dominate being flanked by Ragnow and Sewell, well… I’m not paying you 6.5M and Vaitai was not dominating.
I don’t disagree, but by the time you cut him, eat the cap charge, and then sign a new starter…. Did you save much? Not really sure the right answer here. If he’s awesome in the locker room and the guys love him - keep him. The cap charges gets much lower the following year to cut bait if I remember correctly. If he’s not loved by the coaches though and they think they can do better - fine by me. It’s not a decision that’s gonna make break the ‘22 roster.
We had 9 holding calls, something didn’t gel well with the new fella. Not saying it was his fault. But, the o-line had it’s worst game of the year as a unit. I’m sure the refs played an important role as well.
With all the preseason talk of him being garbage, he’s not really been an issue. In meaning, I rarely hear his name mentioned during games. That’s a good sign, right?
Keep him where he’s at and by all means, address the contract in the off season.
Sewell likes him, appreciates him, and plus great next to him.
Run game has been solid despite our best OL player missing the whole year - Rags
Any other course either creates a future issue, or opens another hole that is currently filled by an average or above starter entering his prime now.
Why?
Cut him is 4.2M dead cap- plus say 8-10M min for a quality starter- next thing you know we are bring in another Wagner, Lang, or Big V abs it costs 14M vs just 8 if we leave it alone.
I think the line is set for next year, upgrading on a more than adequate RG has to be way down the list of priorities for Holmes, even if there is a couple million bucks to be saved on the cap.
Maybe they can restructure and spread the money out, locking him up for even longer. Deck, Sewell, Vaitai, and Ragnow all on contracts. Niiiiice. OL could be all set for a little bit.