Youre the GM

[mhughes0021]

2014 Free Agents

whats your 2014 plan to resurrect the Detroit lions! Below are some names I scavenged through FA lists to find.

Free Agency -

WR - I think we look impact guy in the draft

Role Players
Danario Alexander - big, matchup problem that can "post up" and create space
DHB - liked the idea of him coming here last year. Strictly a burner on the outside. Should come cheap.

Will probably cost too much and hasn't produced-
Hakeem Nicks
Kenny Britt

90 catch WRs that would probably come here and catch 50 passes
Julian Edelman
Jeremy Maclin

#3s and #4s
Domenik Hixson
Brandon Lafell

#2
Robert Meachem
Emmanuel Sanders
Eric Decker ...I think teams will outbid what we can afford


TE - This signing will largely depend on the OC we bring in but there are a lot of quality pass catching TEs available if we don't bring Pettigrew back....the worlds shittiest security blanket.

Dickson, Pitta, Olson, Finley

OT - hate to break it to you guys. But Jason Fox is a UFA this year and we will need to replace him.....I know...its going to be rough replacing all that production. Waddle could probably start, but the new regime might not be sold on him protecting Stafford. Resign Crayola....coming a good year sandwiched between 2 studs at guard and you don't want to change up too much for Stafford or his brain might explode.

Vlad Ducasse - mauler in college...plays a lot of guard but can kick out to RT....serviceable and flexible olineman.

Tyson Clabo - Miami has 3 guys on their oline they need to resign and reports are they want to get younger

DL - Again, largely dependant on the DC we bring in. If we move to a 3-4 we could need a major overhaul of personnel. If we stay 4-3 we should have enough coming back to sit tight. Willie Young and Idonije are UFAs but devin taylor showed he can be productive when hes on the field and Jason jones is coming back from injury.

3-4 personnel FAs

Robert Ayers
Terrance Cody NT
Jason Hatcher
Ziggy Hood
Tyson Jackson
Johhny Jolly
Arthur Jones
Ryan Picket
Anthony Spencer


LB - Only a need here if we move to the 3-4. Would need a rush OLB opposite Ansah.

Orakpo will be overpriced, aging and not a typical rush olb imo....not really what youre looking for but is the closest thing to it on the FA market. Will probably need to look at Barr or Khalil Mack at 10 in the draft if we go 3-4.

DB - and finally we get to the biggest need. First off....drop Louis "missle" delmas and his ridiculous salary. Im not sure if we can recover from losing Don Carey to FA who is an UFA (sorry LKP). We need help at cb and S....so here we go:

CB -
Shoot for the stars and restructure everyone you can
Aqib Talib

Not sure if hes any good
Vontae Davis
Sam Shields
Alterraun Verner

over the hill and overpriced
Deangelo hall
Brent grimes

Just overpriced
Dom R Cromartie

over the hill and injured
Charles Tillman

Backup/depth
Josh Wilson

the next darrele revis
Aaron Berry



S - I think quin can be a good SS. We need a FS that can not be like "step late" delmas. PS....Wendling is a UFA....fuck!

Nate Allen FS
Jairus Byrd FS
Antoine Bethea FS
Ryan Clark FS
Michael Huff FS wanted him 3 years ago...its probably 3 years too late.
Malcom Jenkins FS Not sure if they'll pay him now that they have Vaccaro. Could cost too much.

The one SS that is intriguing is Donte Whitner.

 

[zyxt9]

I've caught tons of flak in the past, but if I'm GM at this moment I look to trade Suh, CJ, and / or Stafford in order to get the finances rebalanced. The GMs who manage to drop the big contracts while drafting quality rookies and getting good FAs for a lower price will be the GMs who get rings. Yes the big names are nice to have, but as a GM you have to be willing to let even the best go when their price becomes a detriment.

And yes, I know there would be tons of dead money in trading all 3 guys in the same year, but I'll take that short term dead money hit with knowledge that in 5 years I will have a team with more balanced talent across the entire team and that will yield a better chance to get a ring.

 

[LKP]

91.5 million in dead money. They couldn't even field a team. The league clears all trades. League Wouldnt allow it

Basically you want an expansion team

 

[LKP]

You could trade Calvin and suh and cut Delmas and burleson. But that's a lot of talent with risks in return and most likely a terrible 2014

 

[cheeno]

Just playing with the Cap Simulator here were my transactions:

Some are June 1st...
Cut Delmas
Cut Burleson
Cut Houston
Cut Jason Jones
Cut Leroy Harris
Cut CJ Mosely
Cut Montel Owens
Cut Broyles
Cut Corey Greenwood
Cut DeJon Gomes
Cut Travis Lewis
Cut Akwasi Owosu Ansah
Extend Suh
Extend Dominic Raiola
Extend Don Muhlback
Extend Brandon Pettigrew
Extend Willie Young
RFA Bell (2)
RFA Durham (Original)
ERFA Greenwood
ERFA Ross

Need to look at some FAs but I got $30 mil to spend.

 

[Mitchrapp]

I've caught tons of flak in the past, but if I'm GM at this moment I look to trade Suh, CJ, and / or Stafford in order to get the finances rebalanced. The GMs who manage to drop the big contracts while drafting quality rookies and getting good FAs for a lower price will be the GMs who get rings. Yes the big names are nice to have, but as a GM you have to be willing to let even the best go when their price becomes a detriment.

And yes, I know there would be tons of dead money in trading all 3 guys in the same year, but I'll take that short term dead money hit with knowledge that in 5 years I will have a team with more balanced talent across the entire team and that will yield a better chance to get a ring.

I might have balked at it before but now-a-days I think it's the right thing to do. We need to get rid of some of our cap..

 

[mhughes0021]

Just playing with the Cap Simulator here were my transactions:

Some are June 1st...
Cut Delmas
Cut Burleson
Cut Houston
Cut Jason Jones
Cut Leroy Harris
Cut CJ Mosely
Cut Montel Owens
Cut Broyles
Cut Corey Greenwood
Cut DeJon Gomes
Cut Travis Lewis
Cut Akwasi Owosu Ansah
Extend Suh
Extend Dominic Raiola
Extend Don Muhlback
Extend Brandon Pettigrew
Extend Willie Young
RFA Bell (2)
RFA Durham (Original)
ERFA Greenwood
ERFA Ross

Need to look at some FAs but I got $30 mil to spend.

but broyles is going to be good in 2022. And I didn't know Ansah had a brother.

 

[lgolfer]

I've caught tons of flak in the past, but if I'm GM at this moment I look to trade Suh, CJ, and / or Stafford in order to get the finances rebalanced. The GMs who manage to drop the big contracts while drafting quality rookies and getting good FAs for a lower price will be the GMs who get rings. Yes the big names are nice to have, but as a GM you have to be willing to let even the best go when their price becomes a detriment.

And yes, I know there would be tons of dead money in trading all 3 guys in the same year, but I'll take that short term dead money hit with knowledge that in 5 years I will have a team with more balanced talent across the entire team and that will yield a better chance to get a ring.

You would have to essentially build solely through the draft. No free agent would want to come here if you let those 3 guys go. Plus, do you honestly believe we'd be able to draft well for the next few years? And like LKP said, you probably wouldn't even be able to field a team in 2014 with $91.5 million in dead money.

Lastly, do you honestly want to get be awful for another 3-5 years when we could get to the playoffs next year with a good coaching hire? No good player would ever want to come to Detroit again if they looked at how we treated Barry Sanders (he quit several years early because we sucked and weren't going to get better) and Calvin (in the situation we trade him).

 

[tonyballs]

I've caught tons of flak in the past, but if I'm GM at this moment I look to trade Suh, CJ, and / or Stafford in order to get the finances rebalanced. The GMs who manage to drop the big contracts while drafting quality rookies and getting good FAs for a lower price will be the GMs who get rings. Yes the big names are nice to have, but as a GM you have to be willing to let even the best go when their price becomes a detriment.

And yes, I know there would be tons of dead money in trading all 3 guys in the same year, but I'll take that short term dead money hit with knowledge that in 5 years I will have a team with more balanced talent across the entire team and that will yield a better chance to get a ring.

Ho.ly. SHIT!! LMFAO!!

Sounds fn great

 

[swami45]

I've caught tons of flak in the past, but if I'm GM at this moment I look to trade Suh, CJ, and / or Stafford in order to get the finances rebalanced. The GMs who manage to drop the big contracts while drafting quality rookies and getting good FAs for a lower price will be the GMs who get rings. Yes the big names are nice to have, but as a GM you have to be willing to let even the best go when their price becomes a detriment.

And yes, I know there would be tons of dead money in trading all 3 guys in the same year, but I'll take that short term dead money hit with knowledge that in 5 years I will have a team with more balanced talent across the entire team and that will yield a better chance to get a ring.

You caught flack for good reason, even if you were able to trade all three this offseason their cap hits would put the Lions 25 million over the cap. Meaning they could cut the entire roster and not be under the cap let alone have enough money to sign there draft picks so they would be useless.

Once you sign those long term deals with all that guaranteed money there is no trading them and that is a fact

 

[schles192]

Funny thing is if you trade them then go over the cap then lose draft picks for being that far over the cap

 

[LKP]

Stafford is helping with interviews. Just be observant and you can see stafford isn't going anywhere.

Calvin and suh you can trade but you lose talent. I don't care how many 1sts you get you lose immense talent. Suh is traded only if he refuses to do a long term deal

 

[boogerlovejoy]

Stafford is helping with interviews. Just be observant and you can see stafford isn't going anywhere.

Calvin and suh you can trade but you lose talent. I don't care how many 1sts you get you lose immense talent. Suh is traded only if he refuses to do a long term deal

I've said it for more than a year now......Suh should be traded. Not because he isn't any good, he's awesome. Best defensive player the Lions have had since Spielman......but trading him helps cure the cap problems the "big 3" are eventually going to run into.....and he probably brings a massive haul in picks in return.

 

[lgolfer]

I've said it for more than a year now......Suh should be traded. Not because he isn't any good, he's awesome. Best defensive player the Lions have had since Spielman......but trading him helps cure the cap problems the "big 3" are eventually going to run into.....and he probably brings a massive haul in picks in return.

I'd be curious to know what you consider a massive haul of picks? Two 1st round picks? A 1st and two 2nds?

 

[LKP]

I've said it for more than a year now......Suh should be traded. Not because he isn't any good, he's awesome. Best defensive player the Lions have had since Spielman......but trading him helps cure the cap problems the "big 3" are eventually going to run into.....and he probably brings a massive haul in picks in return.

2014 they wouldn't. 19 million in dead money. Extension is better than trade for 2014 cap room. Get through 2015 and they will be fine depends how they structure his extension. 2016 stafford becomes unguaranteed and suh restructures from rookie deal are off the books. See years 3 to 5 of Atkins deal for suh numbers in 2016 and beyond.

I would rather lose fairley than suh.

 

[cheeno]

2014 they wouldn't. 19 million in dead money. Extension is better than trade for 2014 cap room. Get through 2015 and they will be fine depends how they structure his extension. 2016 stafford becomes unguaranteed and suh restructures from rookie deal are off the books. See years 3 to 5 of Atkins deal for suh numbers in 2016 and beyond.

I would rather lose fairley than suh.

I know. We need Suh. It's like trading Sapp in his prime. Get some secondary coverage and watch Suh's sacks skyrocket. No one in the league beats double like Suh.

 

[cheeno]

Well the Chargers are going to cut Eddie Royal to save 5 mil so enjoy your new wide receiver Edie Royal!

 

[zyxt9]

You caught flack for good reason, even if you were able to trade all three this offseason their cap hits would put the Lions 25 million over the cap. Meaning they could cut the entire roster and not be under the cap let alone have enough money to sign there draft picks so they would be useless.

Once you sign those long term deals with all that guaranteed money there is no trading them and that is a fact

Only fact for people who want to keep them.

Trade one per year over next 3 years to spread out the dead money, or maybe keep one of them if they are willing to rework their pay into something more friendly (no, extending like they have been only prolongs the problem of cap space).

You don't like the idea, I get it, many don't. But don't think for a second that this team can compete until the big 3 are under 30% total cap, and preferably in 20-25% range. That's how teams make the playoffs, by building teams with balanced salaries and thereby balanced talent. Lions continue to be unable to prevent having glaring holes on the team due to not being able to pay for talent that reduce the glaring holes.

Soon Fairley will be off his rookie contract and will command a hefty sum. Do you honestly think we can afford to keep him alone when the big 3 eat up so much cap? What about when Warlord and Waddle eventually come off of their rookie deals? Lions are lucky to be paying those guys and others below their likely market rate, hopefully they will find more rookies on the cheap. How about when Dom gets replaced, they go from a C making league minimum to paying a higher premium.

But don't worry, we can keep feeding the big 3 and not worry about the other 19 primary and 50 overall roster spots.

 

[grandy]

Trade one per year over next 3 years to spread out the dead money, or maybe keep one of them if they are willing to rework their pay into something more friendly (no, extending like they have been only prolongs the problem of cap space).

Stafford and CJ are essentially untradeable for a few years due to dead money cap hits (in fact the Lions would lose cap space if they were to trade either two in 2014 or 2015), and I highly doubt any of the 3 would take a pay cut at this point.

Soon Fairley will be off his rookie contract and will command a hefty sum. Do you honestly think we can afford to keep him alone when the big 3 eat up so much cap?

There's probably a way to structure it so that the bulk of the cap hit occurs when the other three have a low cap number, but even then it's probably not worth it to have so much money wrapped up in 4 players. If Fairley doesn't want to stick around at a discount, I can't see both Fairley and Suh playing on this team in a couple years.

What about when Warlord and Waddle eventually come off of their rookie deals? Lions are lucky to be paying those guys and others below their likely market rate, hopefully they will find more rookies on the cheap.

To be fair, this is how a lot of teams become/stay successful. Draft well, have your young players contribute until their rookie contract ends, then either let them go and fill in through the draft or hope for a hometown discount/extension.

But don't worry, we can keep feeding the big 3 and not worry about the other 19 primary and 50 overall roster spots.

We're stuck with the big 3 for at least one more year, and trading Stafford/CJ isn't even a possibility until at least 2016.

 

[LKP]

You could trade Calvin and Suh Grandy. But they are far and away the Lions best talent the Lions have and an extension for Suh would reduce his cap number in 2014 more than a trade by a few million most likely. It would be dumb to trade either despite the possibility. Other than Suh refusing to sign a long term deal this offseason, then you trade Suh since you can't franchise him.


Calvin would have 29 million cap number instead of 13 with a trade. Increase of 16 million. Possible with a Suh extension (cap relief of 5-8 million) and cutting Burleson and Delmas (11 million). But then it's basically just the draft to add talent and probably lose Hill and Young and Pettigrew. But this team is pure garbage offensively when Calvin doesn't play. No holes for the run game and nobody else can get open consistently. 9 and 13 points scored without him. Never trade Calvin despite the extra 1sts you could get. If those WRs added fail, then it's a bigger problem.


Stafford is untradeable right now. 43 million in dead money. Increase of 28 million.