The Lions have some serious holes to fill
Let’s just drop the pretense: Detroit’s season is over. They’re 3-5-1 and likely need to get to ten wins to even be in the wildcard conversation – or, to borrow a quote from Bob Quinn, “9-7 isn’t good enough” to make the playoffs. Not that they’ll get there, anyway. Four of their remaining games are against the NFC East-leading Cowboys and three divisional foes they’ve already lost to. And if you think Jeff Driskel is capable of helping pull off some never-say-die miracle, you’ve watched way too many Friday Night Lights reruns and should leave the room and let the adults talk like grownups.
Anyways, the Lions are dead and buried and, with any luck, Quinn’s tenure as general manager will be laid to rest at an adjacent plot. But, regardless of who leads the front office into the offseason, the team has plenty of work ahead of them. While I won’t enumerate the top five – because arguing about semantics is pointless – I reckon that the Lions’ biggest needs heading into the offseason are edge, cornerback, off-ball linebacker, guard, and wide receiver, in some order.
Saying the team needs pass-rushing help is low-hanging fruit. Trey Flowers was a quality addition, but Detroit so obviously needs to add a bookend because their pass rush as currently constituted is a minor inconvenience for QBs, at best. They’ve badly failed a defensive backs group that hunkered down early in the season and desperately waited for the cavalry to reinforce them. The Lions simply cannot endure another season in which they allow opposing passers to play pitch and catch, especially considering that their best secondary member may not be hanging around Allen Park for much longer.
Darius Slay made very apparent his discontent following the trade of Quandre Diggs to Seattle, which may have inflamed any tensions he had following his failed holdout this past offseason. Slay is due to become a free agent following next season and will turn 30 when the clock hits midnight of the 2021 new year. A lot can happen in a year’s time, but gun to my head, I say that 2020 will be Slay’s final season in the Honolulu blue. At any rate, it’s time to start thinking about a successor, so a corner in the first few rounds would make perfect sense provided it’s not another speed-walking flats-trapper with character concerns.
And speaking of bad Florida prospects, the Lions unsurprisingly need a new three-down ‘backer because Jarrad Davis has been an absolute nightmare. Unfortunately, Quinn has a weird fetish for dinosaurs that are maladapted to the modern game. Christian Jones was recently given a two-year extension that will pay him roughly $2.3M in 2020, which is perfectly reasonable considering it’s late ‘90s money for a late ‘90s backer. The guarantees are low, though, so the Lions are by no means married to him and could easily part ways with him if something better comes along or if he voices his opinions.
Jahlani Tavai is the only linebacker who should figure into the long-term plans and it remains to be seen if the team figures him for a Will or Mike. Wherever they slot him, they desperately need a competent player at the opposite spot. The problem is that the linebacking draft pool seems shallow and that few quality free agents are hitting the market this offseason, which seems like a great excuse to keep making excuses for Davis.
The 2017 draft class wasn’t all bad, although its crown jewel, Kenny Golladay, is entering a contract year. The third-year receiver is a no-brainer extension candidate, but the same can’t be said for Marvin Jones, who will be 31 when he hits free agency in 2021. A short-term extension could make sense thereafter, provided he’s not the next fan favorite traded midseason for mild draft compensation. Nevertheless, the Lions have no long-term starters at wide receiver secured past 2020. And if the Lions can’t manage to keep Golladay around and otherwise fail to address the position – knock on wood – Stafford may be stuck throwing to an airplane boneyard in the twilight of his career.
Lastly, the Lions need to address the guard position in some manner this offseason. The idea of taking two interior offensive linemen in the first round in three years is absolutely nauseating, but so is the thought of letting Graham Glasgow walk and rolling with Air Raid tackle Joe Dahl and Kenny Wiggins as the starting guards. The list of suitable free agents is likewise discouraging. Andrus Peat will likely be resigned by the Saints and Brandon Scherff is very good, but the Lions may be once bitten twice shy about giving money to an oft-injured, albeit talented veteran guard. It seems prudent to retain Glasgow and take a flier on a free agent or a mid-to-late-round guard (or both), but if they take another interior lineman in the first, you can bet I’ll be taking a bath in cow blood and flinging myself into whichever big cat pit is nearest the entrance of my local zoo.
It is not impossible for the Lions to adequately fulfill all these needs in a single offseason, but it’s discouraging that many of them are at premium positions (edge, cornerback, wide receiver) and it adds insult to injury that the others are areas in which the team has recently invested significant capital (linebacker, interior offensive line). In all likelihood, they’ll have to make compromises somewhere, so let’s just hope that they prioritize passing game players this time around.
