Category: Trades

Eagles make Darius Slay the highest-paid CB in the NFL

Eagles make Darius Slay the highest-paid CB in the NFL with a 3-year, $50 million extension

Darius Slay was traded from Detroit for one reason: money. Slay made no secret of his desire to get paid more than he was already making on his 4-year, $48 million contract he signed with the Lions in 2017. The Lions regime of GM Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia was not going to give into his demands.

Slay’s overriding desire to become the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL worked out for him, just not with Detroit. The Lions traded the Pro Bowler to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday morning, just hours after he prodded them to make a move.

The Eagles sent a 3rd round pick (No. 85 overall) and a 5th-rounder (tbd, the Eagles have multiple) to the Lions to acquire Slay. The deal was contingent on Slay agreeing to a new contract, and that quickly resolved itself.

The $16.75 million per year average leapfrogs Byron Jones in Miami to make Slay the highest-paid CB in the NFL. Slay’s old contract ranked 14th, tied with Bradley Roby’s new deal.

The Lions balked at paying Slay for two reasons. First, his age. He’s now 29, and Detroit wasn’t willing to commit that sort of money to a player past his athletic prime. Secondly, he’s coming off his worst season since his rookie year and that arrow might not point back up again. It’s a risk the Lions were unwilling to take.

The Eagles did. Time will tell if their expensive gamble pays off.

Updating the Lions 2020 draft picks after Darius Slay and Duron Harmon trades

Updating the Lions 2020 draft picks after Darius Slay and Duron Harmon trades

In the last 24 hours, the Detroit Lions draft picks have seen quite a bit of movement, losing one pick and acquiring three in return.

The Lions traded Darius Slay to the Eagles and acquired a third and fifth-round pick, while NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported the terms of trade the Lions made with the New England Patriots for safety Duran Harmon.

In the Slay trade, the Lions saw two picks come in, picks No. 85 and No.166 overall.

And according to Peliserro, the Lions surrendered a fifth-round pick (No. 172) — ironically the one they acquired in the Quandre Diggs to Seattle Seahawks deal — and in return, they received Harmon and a seventh-round pick (No. 235) from the Patriots.

After these moves, the Lions hold nine picks in the 2020 NFL draft. Here are their draft pick slots:

  • Round 1 (No. 3 overall)
  • Round 2 (No. 35)
  • Round 3 (No. 67)
  • Round 3 (No. 85)
  • Round 4 (No. 109)
  • Round 5 (No. 149)
  • Round 5 (No. 166)
  • Round 6 (No. 182)
  • Round 7 (No. 235)

Darius Slay traded to the Philadelphia Eagles

The Detroit Lions have traded Pro Bowl CB Darius Slay to the Philadelphia Eagles

Darius Slay got his wish. The disgruntled cornerback will now get his desired new contract, but not from the Detroit Lions.

Detroit has agreed to send the Pro Bowl cornerback to the Philadelphia Eagles in a trade. Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com and validated by other sources from both sides of the deal, the Lions are dealing Slay to the Eagles. The reported compensation in return to Detroit is 3rd-round and 5th-round draft picks in 2020.

As part of the deal, the Eagles will do what the Lions would not: pay Slay a lucrative contract extension. Slay was entering the final season of his 4-year, $48 million contract and had been angling for more money for over a year.

Darius Slay throws gasoline on the trade sparks with the Lions

Darius Slay throws gasoline on the trade sparks with the Lions

Darius Slay has been fairly diplomatic about his status with the Detroit Lions. The Pro Bowl cornerback ended the playing nice on Wednesday night.

He wants out of Detroit and doesn’t care who knows about it.

That’s the only reasonable conclusion after Slay’s posts on Twitter in reaction to the Lions signing Desmond Trufant. In two separate posts, Slay pulls no punches. He asks for the Lions to hurry up and trade him.

The Pro Bowl cornerback has desired a new contract dating back to last offseason, but the Lions have held firm on making him honor the final years of his 4-yer, $48 million contract.

That appears to be up in flames now…

There’s not much grey area there. Slay wants out so he can get paid somewhere else.

Report: Lions trading for Patriots Safety Duron Harmon, swapping late-round picks

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is reporting that the Detroit Lions are trading for New England Patriots safety Duron Harmon.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport is reporting that the Detroit Lions are trading for New England Patriots safety Duron Harmon.

Immediate details of the trade compensation are not available but Rapoport is reporting that it is a mear exchange of late-round picks. Harmon is in the final year of his contract and will cost the Lions $4.25 million against the cap.

Harmon is capable of playing single-high safety and over the slot giving the Lions much-needed depth at a position of need. He will likely be a heavy contributor at the single-high position, due to his deep coverage range and ball-hawking skills.

His multiple years of scheme familiarity make him an instant impact player who is capable of starting the moment he sets foot in Allen Park.

Harmon is a terrific complement to the Lions Tracy Walker and Will Harris, who are both capable of playing at single-high, but their skill sets are more impactful in the box. This will allow a lot more movement and interchangeability from the Lions safeties than we have seen in the past two seasons.

Darius Slay and the trickery of reporting trade talks

Darius Slay and the trickery of reporting trade talks, with an anecdote that highlights the importance of language usage in reports

The No. 1 trend on my Twitter feed right now (it’s 3:42 p.m. ET on President’s Day) is “Lions have spoken to multiple teams about trading” Darius Slay, based on the report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday stating the same basic story.

“The Lions have spoken to multiple teams” is a very carefully worded phrase. That’s deliberate. It conveys what is almost certainly true despite not having on-the-record confirmation; there is no reason to doubt that the Detroit Lions have talked to other NFL teams about the possibility of trading the Pro Bowl cornerback. Of course they have! To not at least talk to other teams would be negligent.

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It’s the nature of the talks that don’t get clarity in the very specific language chosen by Schefter and/or the source(s) who gave him the info. And that is not an accident, something I can attest to firsthand.

Going back to the Senior Bowl in Mobile in 2008 (my first year there), I had a personal experience that exemplifies the trickery of word usage. Back then, it was before Reese’s became a title sponsor, when there were still bushes surrounding the field at Ladd-Peebles Stadium and when all credentialed media had open access to everything during practices. That includes sitting in the stands with NFL coaches and GMs, something that doesn’t happen anymore — not even for high-profile NFL reporters like Schefter.

One day in a sunny AM practice session, I was seated three rows behind New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. He was by himself, two or three rows up from the various Patriots coaches and scouts. Along came New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, and why semantics and journalistic judgment are important.

Payton somewhat startled Belichick with his greeting. It made me double-take too, as it did to the Washington Redskins scout I was seated with.

“What would it take to get that Brady guy off your hands,” Payton opened with as they made eye contact. Payton was quite obviously joking, and Belichick quite obviously knew he was joking too. We were witnessing a clear inside joke, an icebreaker and nothing more. They laughed as Payton sat down for a couple of minutes before he got up. While I wasn’t privy to their breaths, it did not appear the two said anything else to one another beyond “good luck” as Payton parted.

I could have credibly reported, “Saints and Patriots engage in trade talks over Tom Brady”. Technically I would have been correct, even though it was plainly misconstruing and misrepresenting what happened. It would have been hooey, and everyone would have instantly known it. But by the letter of the language, it would have been “true”. My editor at the time didn’t want the sensationalism and wisely protected me from myself and did not publish it in my daily practice summary.

The point of this anecdote, one I’ve used before on several different radio shows, is to make you aware of the use of language and how it can manipulate facts. I’m not saying whatsoever that Schefter is purposely misleading here, not at all. I am saying to be careful and not read too much into the deliberate, nonspecific language in the reports you read. That’s where facts get twisted.

Schefter: Darius Slay trade must include new contract for the Pro Bowl CB

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports any Darius Slay trade must include a new contract for the Pro Bowl Lions CB

ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter brought some national cognizance to what those of us in the Lions media have known and reported for several weeks now: Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay could be traded this offseason.

There is something new and quite noteworthy in Schefter’s tweeted report. He states that the team acquiring Slay will need to compensate him with a new contract as implied terms of trading for him. That is significant on a couple of levels.

First, it takes away the risk from a team trading for Slay that he’s just a one-year rental. Slay’s contract is up at the end of the 2020 season and he eagerly seeks more money. That’s why the Lions would have interest in trading him — they know what he wants and don’t intend to give it to him, so they would get something in return.

Slay’s camp mandating that a new deal by the new team is part of the trade actually helps the Lions. They can boldly ask for more in return because the new team has insurance that Slay will be there longterm.

Secondly, the more public acknowledgment of the Lions actively listening to calls (again, this is not anything new or profound) ramps up any potential market. If a team really covets Slay and is willing to meet his lofty contract demands, the pressure to get it done before anyone else does just escalated. That helps the Lions maximize the return on any trade involving Slay.

We still don’t know if Slay will be traded or not. We still don’t know what the exact desired compensation is for either Slay’s contract demands or the Lions’ trade demands. We just know now that the rest of the NFL world is more acutely aware of the possibility that Slay will not be in Detroit in 2020 or beyond.

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Trading Stafford is a bad idea, but it’s not out of the question

The Lions and GM Bob Quinn trading Stafford is a bad idea, but it’s not out of the question – a different viewpoint

When NBC’s local Detroit affiliate reported late last night that the Lions were actively shopping Matthew Stafford, I was skeptical. It seems like every offseason, his name comes up in trade talks and nothing ever comes of it. On top of that, he just turned 32 years old, was playing arguably the best football of his career prior to missing the second half of the season, and would account for $32 million in dead cap if the Lions were to trade him.

Most rational people would conclude that it would be foolish to trade him.

But, what if the person calling the shots isn’t acting rationally? What if they’ve performed unsatisfactorily in a high-pressure industry and have retreated into the small, reptilian part of their brain that is responsible for fear and the decision to draft Teez Tabor in the second round? What if self-preservation is their motive?

Fan confidence in Bob Quinn is at an all-time low. If he wants to keep his job beyond 2020, he has to do something to restore long-term optimism in the direction of the organization. Luckily for him, trading Stafford would be a great way to kick the can down the road. Fans would certainly react negatively to the move, but it wouldn’t get him fired because a seismic shift like that almost certainly requires ownership sign-off, and a vote of approval to trade Stafford would be a vote of confidence in Quinn’s future with the team. At that point, ownership would be committed to a rebuild and it seems unlikely they’d allow a lame-duck GM to pick their next franchise quarterback.

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And to make matters worse, the hypothetical choice they’d have at third overall would be unappealing. Assuming the Bengals take Joe Burrow, Detroit can choose from one of two consolation prizes. Tua Tagovailoa has the hips of a German Shepherd and is naturally right-handed, although I’m sure his father’s attempt to reconfigure the lateralization of his brain has nothing to do with his medical concerns, just as I’m certain those concerns won’t derail a promising NFL career in which he’ll be able to subsist on RPO glances to four first-round receivers lined up against future pyramid scheme participants.

If you ask me, Tagovailoa is just Chevan Cordeiro with better marketing, but he’s still a better option than Justin Herbert, whose most prestigious collegiate distinction was being named to the 1st Team PAC-12 All-Academic team in 2017, which may help explain why his pro comp is Josh Allen with 25% more neural activity.

Nevertheless, fans are happy to talk themselves into a quarterback of the future regardless of what it costs to get them or how improbable their success may be. People believed in Mitch Trubisky, after all. So, if Quinn can get ownership to sign off on a Stafford trade, fans will inevitably rationalize the trade and acquiesce to the promise of a brighter future.

As for the dead cap hit: why should Quinn care? If he’s writing off 2020 anyway, he may not miss the money that much. And if it does negatively affect the organization long-term, he won’t be the one who has to clean up the mess.

These are not the best management practices. Trading Stafford would all but guarantee that 2020 will be yet another season of uninspired football, and I’m not confident that Quinn would be able to maximize the returns to effectively rebuild the team. However, he has a track record of moving the goalposts and he’s up against a wall, so I’m not going to rule it out. As crazy as trading Stafford would be, desperate people do desperate things. And if Stafford is indeed moved, a fanbase that has long been desperate for a contender will find itself yearning for a better tomorrow once again.