Your choice of FA

[zyxt9]

What FA do you wish the Lions would pick up in offseason.

DE: Osi...would love to see him in Honolulu Blue, would be less $$$ than Avril with better run stopping ability, high motor veteran like KVB. This is one guy I think Lions really need to go and get, and the Giants FO has repeatedly underpaid him. Get a good DE in draft to pair him with and Lions could see a huge improvement at DE play next year, especially vs run. Would be nice to get someone with one ring, let alone two, to bring that level of expectation, dedication, motivation, confidence, and leadership to the team, something sorely lacking at the moment.

 

[coel73]

DASHON GOLDSON!!!!! It's not happening; would be nice though

 

[tomdalton22]

What FA do you wish the Lions would pick up in offseason.

DE: Osi...would love to see him in Honolulu Blue, would be less $$$ than Avril with better run stopping ability, high motor veteran like KVB. This is one guy I think Lions really need to go and get, and the Giants FO has repeatedly underpaid him. Get a good DE in draft to pair him with and Lions could see a huge improvement at DE play next year, especially vs run. Would be nice to get someone with one ring, let alone two, to bring that level of expectation, dedication, motivation, confidence, and leadership to the team, something sorely lacking at the moment.

What makes you think Osi would cost less than Avril? He is a better player.

 

[zyxt9]

What makes you think Osi would cost less than Avril? He is a better player.

made $4+ mil less last year and avril is demandinng more. even if paying osi same as avril this year, it would be less while osi actually deserves it.

 

[Mitchrapp]

I would like them to sign any decent CB or S because we all know they won't draft one.

 

[zyxt9]

I would like them to sign any decent CB or S because we all know they won't draft one.

who? not knocking the idea, just curious who you have as your #1 realistic guy to go and get. not guys who will be re-signed or franchised by current team, but the lions could afford and actually get.

 

[mhughes0021]

who? not knocking the idea, just curious who you have as your #1 realistic guy to go and get. not guys who will be re-signed or franchised by current team, but the lions could afford and actually get.

Houston and Grimes id be happy with. With bentley in the slot. Woluldnt be a horrid secondary. Jairus Byrd would be a decent signing at safety, gholston is my pipe dream and laron landry proved he can stay somewhat healthy if we need a more physical presense. DRC you might be able to get at a discount coming off a poor stint in PHI.

 

[lionsFTW]

Very rough outline because I don't have a ton of time but...

Offense doesn't need a ton of change this year because we still can't really get out of the Dom contract on the cheap. Cut Burleson. Let Gosder walk, slide Backus to the right, give the left to Reiff. Bring back Joique and draft a later round change of pace scat back because Best is finished. Figure out what the hell to do with Titus (either trade or cut).

Defense is where the vast majority of all our off season resources should go. Immediately cut KVB. Let Corey walk. Let Cliff walk. Let Houston walk because his contract will be too large and the last thing we need is a high priced corner to prevent us from spreading the Cliff money around. Keep LoJack on the cheap. Keep Levy if its under 3-3.5 mill average per year for 1-3 years. Try to keep Durant on a one year deal for like 2-2.5 mill. Let Delmas walk because his knees are toast (I love the guys but lets be real, it doesn't look good going forward). Tender Speivey at the lowest designation and bring him back as super cheap depth. Who knows, it might click and if not he's costing us basically nothing. Tender Willie Young with the appropriate round designation. If he somehow slips through the cracks and nobody pony's up for SLH bring him back at around 3 mill per for 3 years. Him, Fairley and Suh is a hell of a group to have in the middle.

Draft. Take Dee Milner as our day one starter on the outside. Address the DE position very early also. Add depth at DB, DL, LB, OL, RB in some order.

Free agency. Hope Atlanta and San Fran let guys like Goldson and Wlliam Moore test the market and sign both of those guys as our back end. They are very physical and both (particularly Moore) have good ball and cover skills. This will go a long long way to making our back end better. Find a good value, short term speed rush DE to fit our scheme. Maybe add a 4th WR (assuming we have CJ, Broyles, and Thomas).

Obviously more that needs to be addressed but this is a good base without digging into the scenario too much.

 

[tsmith7559]

even in his 30's Q. Jammer is a good CB. I wouldnt mind offering a couple years to him, maybe that gives time to the 3 CB's we drafted last year to work themselves in

 

[dtroitlionsfan951]

reggie bush..if cheapish..for offense..would replace best nicely and give us the one on one matchup out of the backfield that we need to compliment the other two....on defense sadly this free agency is lacking...gonna have to build it through the draft...all the guys i want are offensive players..
jake long

reggie bush

greg jennings

or jared cook (i know we have two tight ends..but i think a tight end that could make a big play would put up huge numbers with stafford)

 

[Mitchrapp]

who? not knocking the idea, just curious who you have as your #1 realistic guy to go and get. not guys who will be re-signed or franchised by current team, but the lions could afford and actually get.

I have no idea but the past two years we probably thought there was a decent chance a CB would have been drafted early and yet its RB, WR and DT.

 

[mhughes0021]

even in his 30's Q. Jammer is a good CB. I wouldnt mind offering a couple years to him, maybe that gives time to the 3 CB's we drafted last year to work themselves in

jammer had a hell of a game against pittsburgh.

 

[LKP]

Houston, Delmas and Avril returning at decent contracts. Or a FA equivalent to each one of those players.

That is my wish list because we are cap strapped with Stafford and Suh's contracts rising after some restructures in the past. Very little wiggle room even with giving them a new deal to keep the important guys and also find other FAs. They should have about 20-25 million thanks to expired contracts compared to the rising contracts but they have alot of important starters to re-sign.

If we let Avril go, then we need two DEs. KVB sucks and is a cap casualty. CW gone, one of Durant or Levy gone, Burleson cap casualty, maybe Raiola or Peterman too, Gosder? Lee-Hill? Lawrence Jackson?. Hanson contract expires too(3 million).

 

[tsmith7559]

Houston, Delmas and Avril returning at decent contracts. Or a FA equivalent to each one of those players.

That is my wish list because we are cap strapped with Stafford and Suh's contracts rising after some restructures in the past. Very little wiggle room even with giving them a new deal to keep the important guys and also find other FAs. They should have about 20-25 million thanks to expired contracts compared to the rising contracts but they have alot of important starters to re-sign.

If we let Avril go, then we need two DEs. KVB sucks and is a cap casualty. CW gone, one of Durant or Levy gone, Burleson cap casualty, maybe Raiola or Peterman too, Gosder? Lee-Hill? Lawrence Jackson?. Hanson contract expires too(3 million).

It will be interesting on how the OL plays out. Backus is still decent. Reiff will play one OT position, but will it be RT or LT? I'd prefer we hang on to Backus one more year and let Reiff slide over in 2014....Gosder hasnt play too bad, maybe his best season, but dam, I dont want to commit money to him for the next 4 yrs and he goes back to his old ways

 

[LKP]

It will be interesting on how the OL plays out. Backus is still decent. Reiff will play one OT position, but will it be RT or LT? I'd prefer we hang on to Backus one more year and let Reiff slide over in 2014....Gosder hasnt play too bad, maybe his best season, but dam, I dont want to commit money to him for the next 4 yrs and he goes back to his old ways

Very true. That is an interesting decision. Either make Backus a cap cut and use that money re-sign Gosder or roll with Reiff/Backus for one year and find a RT in 2014. I think I like that option better given Gosders poor run blocking. Hilliard is a free agent as well and Jason Fox is restricted.

I'm worried about Gosder(inconsistent/poor run blocking), Avril(poor run D and taking up too much money) and Delmas(injuries) if we re-sign them long term. Hopefully they would be worth it.

OLB will also be interesting with Durant and Levy. I've soured on both of them this year with poor coverage and tackling at times. Palmer is a free agent who could be back cheap. If they bring one of them back I'll be interested to see what Whitehead and Travis Lewis can do but that has its experience problems as well. No clue how good or bad those guys really are.

 

[boogerlovejoy]

Very rough outline because I don't have a ton of time but...

Offense doesn't need a ton of change this year because we still can't really get out of the Dom contract on the cheap. Cut Burleson. Let Gosder walk, slide Backus to the right, give the left to Reiff. Bring back Joique and draft a later round change of pace scat back because Best is finished. Figure out what the hell to do with Titus (either trade or cut).

Defense is where the vast majority of all our off season resources should go. Immediately cut KVB. Let Corey walk. Let Cliff walk. Let Houston walk because his contract will be too large and the last thing we need is a high priced corner to prevent us from spreading the Cliff money around. Keep LoJack on the cheap. Keep Levy if its under 3-3.5 mill average per year for 1-3 years. Try to keep Durant on a one year deal for like 2-2.5 mill. Let Delmas walk because his knees are toast (I love the guys but lets be real, it doesn't look good going forward). Tender Speivey at the lowest designation and bring him back as super cheap depth. Who knows, it might click and if not he's costing us basically nothing. Tender Willie Young with the appropriate round designation. If he somehow slips through the cracks and nobody pony's up for SLH bring him back at around 3 mill per for 3 years. Him, Fairley and Suh is a hell of a group to have in the middle.

Draft. Take Dee Milner as our day one starter on the outside. Address the DE position very early also. Add depth at DB, DL, LB, OL, RB in some order.

Free agency. Hope Atlanta and San Fran let guys like Goldson and Wlliam Moore test the market and sign both of those guys as our back end. They are very physical and both (particularly Moore) have good ball and cover skills. This will go a long long way to making our back end better. Find a good value, short term speed rush DE to fit our scheme. Maybe add a 4th WR (assuming we have CJ, Broyles, and Thomas).

Obviously more that needs to be addressed but this is a good base without digging into the scenario too much.

Letting Houston go would be a MASSIVE blow to this defense. Set us back an entire year defensively.

 

[tsmith7559]

Very true. That is an interesting decision. Either make Backus a cap cut and use that money re-sign Gosder or roll with Reiff/Backus for one year and find a RT in 2014. I think I like that option better given Gosders poor run blocking. Hilliard is a free agent as well and Jason Fox is restricted.

I'm worried about Gosder(inconsistent/poor run blocking), Avril(poor run D and taking up too much money) and Delmas(injuries) if we re-sign them long term. Hopefully they would be worth it.

OLB will also be interesting with Durant and Levy. I've soured on both of them this year with poor coverage and tackling at times. Palmer is a free agent who could be back cheap. If they bring one of them back I'll be interested to see what Whitehead and Travis Lewis can do but that has its experience problems as well. No clue how good or bad those guys really are.

It would be nice to get Whitehead and the Lewis's some PT in the next 3 games other than ST

 

[zyxt9]

Reiff over goz or backus would be good flr teams future also. On d start only backups so opponents score faster, giving staff and cj more attempts.

 

[LKP]

It would be nice to get Whitehead and the Lewis's some PT in the next 3 games other than ST

http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/2012/12/dont_expect_detroit_lions_to_f.html

Not happening though unfortunately. Durant and Levy both could come back though. LBs are fairly cheap sometimes.

 

[lionsFTW]

Letting Houston go would be a MASSIVE blow to this defense. Set us back an entire year defensively.

set us back how? from being the 8th worst defense in points against to 5th? from not being able to come up with a stop when we need it to, what, not being able to come up with a stop ever?

that's our fucking problem now is we have too much money invested in just a handful of guys on the defensive side. if we resign Houston we're not getting a home town discount. his market value is at minimum 8 mill per. you really want to get out of the Avril deal and turn around and basically sign another Avril?

the price we would spend on just Houston alone could possibly be enough to sign both of the safety's I mentioned (Goldson and Moore). having both of those guys back there makes our defense, as a whole, much better than does just having Houston, imo. Both are young, have been healthy, can really help in the run game, both can make plays in coverage, and most importantly both will help with enforcing a physicality that we just don't have unless Delmas is on the field. Houston, while good, only adds to one or two of the five ways I just listed.

unless you're going to spell out why you believe what you believe so we can have an actual conversation about the merits of spending money on Houston vs not spending money on Houston then this will be my last post addressed at you. your unsubstantiated opinion with zero explanation means next to nothing.