Talk me off the ledge.
Does Reader get his $4M roster bonus tomorrow? Will he be better with a full offseason or was his decline in 2024 a window into 2025? The hole at NT is too big for Brad to think of anything else than riding with him in 2025, right? He can’t depend of a rookie replacement, can he? Can’t have an obvious weakness going into the draft. Or?..
I think he gets it, and I think he’ll be fine. He’s always been a guy who thrives when there are others around him, an excellent cog in a line but not the focus of it.
I would guess restructure over cut but cap seems no problem at this point so lets pay our guys.
I’d be shocked if he didn’t get it. That’s not the kind of cheddar you create a big roster hole over.
I say yes. Because what option is there?
Nothing. Are they really gonna go into the draft with, Lopez, Bromart and Smith?
I dont think so.
So cut him now. $3.73m hit,
Sign a worse DT for $5+M
For a total of ~$9m
OR
Keep him for the $12.9M?
So basically upgrading for $4m.
And idk have to ask @DeadStroke
Im pretty sure they can restructure the roster bonus to a signing bonus and put that $4m into his void years.
I’ll be pissed if we cut him
He was ranked in the top 10 or 12 defensive tackles about a third of the way through the season so I’m not sure what people are talking about any decline
If you sign a guy coming off that injury on a 2 year deal how in the world do you cut him after 1 season? Would make no sense to me.
He’s definitely a guy that you have to look beyond the stats on.
That would correspond to the time when Hutch went down.
he wasn’t fully healthy and he was playing waaaaay too many snaps bc of injuries overall.
Reader was fine in 2024. Ranked in the top quarter of all defensive lineman, which includes DEs.
With NT types, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. A good example was Snacks Harrison. When he was added, that first 8-9 games, the Lions run defense improved dramatically.
I suppose a full offseason will do him good. Brad probably hasn’t drawn a line with Reader because what are his options with BroMart in neutral? You can’t negotiate without real options. Besides, he’s generous in sharing his experience and knowledge, so that should help our IDL draft pick(s) in the pipeline.
OK, I’m nearly off the ledge.
Classic Villain if BroMart ends up being useful.
I really have no idea why a portion of the Lions fanbase is down on him. We knew going in that he wouldn’t be a huge sack production guy…and he ended up having more sacks this season than he’s had in any season as a pro.
When he was asked to singlehandedly carry a DL for about half the season…he probably won’t be a gamewrecker.
$4M roster bonus is due on 03/15, so in order to include RB in restructure, it has to be done by the 15th though. We have $50M in cap space, not sure we need to restructure. If we don’t extend him, the entire cap costs for Reader hit either this year or next.
They paid Reader $11M in cash last year, he’s due $11M in cash this year. I think they liked what they got from him last year, so I think they keep him.
It would be a serious dick move to cut him now.
GM’s always cut vets early so they can hit free agency at the beginning. Cutting him now would shock me. Doesn’t feel like Holmes would do that to a veteran.
I agree, I don’t think there is any reason to cut Reader for all of the reasons above. The Lions are more likely to cut BroMart than Reader, which I don’t think they do either, at least until the 53 man roster is due.
We will see what happens, but I think the hope was if they got BroMart into an NFL conditioning program, and taught him some fundamentals, they could really have a man mountain style NT who could plow the middle of the pocket into the QB’s lap. It has not worked out, as even with a full offseason conditioning program, BroMart still looks very out of shape and his fundamentals are terrible. They let him start the Steelers preseason game and he spent the whole game getting blown off the ball. Fast forward to the 2nd Green Bay game, which was in December so a full 3 months later. BroMart had to play due to our many injuries, and I will never forget him being in on a goal line stand, a situation tailor made for his body size and strength, and watching him get spun backwards into the endzone like he weighed 140lbs, not 340lbs. That happens with bad balance and leverage, which he has spent 2 years working on. I don’t see it magically coming together for him. The fact the Lions were talking to Deone Walker, to me says the writing is on the wall. They may be hoping BroMart improved in the offseason, but they are already peeking for other options.
The Lions treat their players well. If there was any intention of cutting him they would have notified him in advance and allowed him to shop for a new deal. They wouldn’t wait until the day before his bonus was due and then cut him after teams blew their wad at the start of free agency.
I listened to Roy Lopez’s presser and he mentions Reader several times and how happy he is to learn from him… So I think we can put this topic to bed.