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Lions trade up with the Dallas Cowboys to draft Alabama CB Terrion Arnold
The Detroit Lions waited a while before making their move in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft. The Lions traded up to the No. 24 overall pick from No. 29, dealing with the Dallas Cowboys to jump up and select Alabama CB Terrion Arnold.
The Lions traded No. 29 overall and a third-round pick, No. 73, acquired in the T.J. Hockenson trade from the Minnesota Vikings. The Cowboys traded No. 24 and a seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL draft to land Arnold.
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Video: Recapping the Detroit Lions moves on the first day of NFL free agency, plus Marshawn Kneeland’s pro day
It was a busy Monday in Lions land, the opening day of the NFL’s free agency “legal tampering” period. Teams were free to agree to deals with free agents, though the contracts cannot be signed or made official until Wednesday afternoon.
The Lions made a few moves:
–Re-signing RG Graham Glasgow
–Trading for Buccaneers CB Carlton Davis
–Agreeing to terms with Vikings (and ex-Saints) DE Marcus Davenport
–Waving goodbye to LG Jonah Jackson
I shot a quick little video reaction to the day’s action in Detroit. It was also Western Michigan’s pro day, and the Lions were among 23 teams in Kalamazoo to check out DE Marshawn Kneeland. It leads to a little bit of draft talk at the end of the video.
An audio-only version will be available via your favorite podcast provider by Tuesday morning.
Davis has started 75 games in six seasons in Tampa Bay and is under contract through 2024
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a trade!
The Detroit Lions have traded a third-round pick in the 2024 NFL draft to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In exchange for the pick, Detroit will receive starting cornerback Carlton Davis, a 2024 sixth-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick.
It’s a move that brings instant stability and credibility to the Lions at the outside cornerback position. Davis, 27, has started 75 games for Tampa Bay over the last six seasons.
The 6-foot-1 Davis is entering the final year of his contract. He is due $14.5 million for 2024 and will be an unrestricted free agent after the season unless the Lions agree to a contract extension.
Trade:
đLions receive: CB Carlton Davis, Buccaneers 2024 6th-round pick and a 2025 6th-round pick.
đBuccaneers receive: Lions 2024 third-round pick.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 11, 2024
Detroit held two picks in the third round and is sending their own pick, No. 61 overall, to the Buccaneers in the deal. The Lions will keep Minnesota’s pick at No. 73 overall from the T.J. Hockenson trade. Tampa Bay has two sixth-round picks in 2024 and it is not yet clear which of those conveys to Detroit in the trade.
Lions should have real interest in the Eagles’ desire to trade EDGE Haason Reddick, but there are complicating factors in making it happen
Last night’s Super Bowl officially ended the 2023 season. It’s time now for free agency and the draft, and loading up the Detroit Lions for another deep playoff run, hopefully one that culminates in playing in next year’s final game.
There’s another way to add impact talent to the roster: trades. And the Philadelphia Eagles have created an opportunity for the Lions to answer one of their biggest questions on defense.
The Eagles have given permission to edge rusher Haason Reddick to seek a trade. Reddick has hit double figures in sacks in each of the last four seasons, with 11 in 2023 after 16 in his fantastic 2022 campaign. The two-time Pro Bowler is one of the most consistent stand-up pass rushers in the league.
Yes, the Lions should have interest in trading for Reddick. But it’s not as simple as GM Brad Holmes calling up his Eagles counterpart, Howie Roseman, and snatching away a good starter for nothing.
First, there’s the matter of salary. Reddick is due $15.5 million in the final year of the three-year, $45 million contract he signed with the Eagles in 2022. There’s also a $1 million roster bonus due on March 15 that likely serves as an unofficial deadline for the Eagles to get a trade done.
The Lions can readily absorb the $15.5 million hit. But one of the reasons the Eagles are prepared to move on is because Reddick, who turns 30 in September, has already been angling for a deal similar to what Montez Sweat (Chicago Bears) and Rashan Gary (Green Bay Packers) have gotten recently. That’s in the range of $20 million to $24 million per year.
Making that kind of contract fit would be difficult for Detroit. Remember, the Lions have to pay (in no particular order) Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell, Jared Goff and at least one of their starting guards a lot more money than they get now â all in the next six to 12 months.
Of course, the Lions could view Reddick as an expensive one-year rental, but that would figure to lower what Detroit would be willing to give up to acquire him. The Lions will not be the only bidder. Pay attention to the wording from the Eagles, too. They’ve given permission to Reddick to seek a trade. Read as: Reddick and his representation get to seek out the best deal they can find, and then the Eagles have to agree to it. Reddick wants to cash in before he turns 30 and before his decline in overall play starts to get more noticeable. He has never been a great run defender or tackler with the Eagles, Panthers or Cardinals, so keeping up the sacks and pressures is mandatory to his value.
The 11 sacks were great, and the manner in which Reddick gets them would perfectly fit into the Lions defense on the opposite side of Aidan Hutchinson. Detroit should definitely be interested in paying Reddick for the 11 sacks and the closing speed around the outside edge that the team sorely lacked in 2023. But they have to be careful not to expect the 16-sack season that Reddick posted in 2022, when he was named second-team All-Pro. That sure looks like an anomalous peak season.
That distinction might not seem important, but it certainly is for Reddick. This is most likely his last chance to get a big paycheck, and he’ll emphasize his peak. So will the Eagles in any trade discussion, and that’s the difference between (spitballing here) two Day 2 picks over the next two drafts or a second-round pick this year and a sixth-round pick swap in 2025. For a team like the Lions, who build so carefully in the draft, that’s a big deal.
I would expect Holmes and the Lions to be a leading contender to acquire Reddick. They should be, anyway. He’d make for a wonderful complement to Hutchinson and give the pass rush the dimension it sorely lacked from the likes of Charles Harris, Romeo Okwara and an injured James Houston in 2023. But the price will need to be right, and that’s something the Lions cannot control.
McVay: “I think weâre all better being able to look back on those things and I do have more appreciation for him as time goes on.â
Jared Goff is having a fantastic run as the quarterback of the Detroit Lions. It took a little time for Goff to get to this point after his messy divorce from the Los Angeles Rams and head coach Sean McVay.
Now that Goff is facing his old team and coach in Sunday’s postseason game in Ford Field, McVay admits that time has healed some of the wounds. McVay also acknowledged he inflicted those wounds on Goff and is pleased that the Lions quarterback is back to playing really good football.
McVay was asked about the impression that he never took a stake in the moment with Goff in Los Angeles in dismissing Goff after three playoff runs in four seasons.
âI just think growing as a person, handling every situation the way that you want to with perspective, respect, appreciation,” McVay said. “The thing that I’ll never run away from are mistakes that I’ve made in previous instances. But when you look back on it the gratitude for those four years, all the good memories that we had. And then when you end up making a change that ended up being difficult and could it have been handled better on my end? Absolutely. I’ll never run away from that.”
An introspective McVay continued,
“But the further you get away from it, the more that you try to grow as a man, as a person, as the leader that you want to become. He deserved better than the way that it all went down. Iâll acknowledge that. I think he knows that too. Iâm not afraid to admit to those things, but I think weâre all better being able to look back on those things and I do have more appreciation for him as time goes on.â
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Breaking down what the Detroit Lions are trading for in new wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones
Welcome home, Donovan Peoples-Jones!
The Detroit native and former Michigan Wolverine wideout is the newest member of the Lions. The team traded a sixth-round pick in 2025 to the Cleveland Browns for Peoples-Jones ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline.
He’s a familiar name for a lot of fans, of course. A speedy 6-foot-2 wideout from Cass Tech High School, Peoples-Jones has spent his entire NFL career in Cleveland. I covered his first three seasons there for Browns Wire and have watched him closely since Cleveland selected him in the sixth round of the 2020 NFL draft.
“DPJ,” as he’s known, is a vertical threat of a receiver with excellent straight-line speed. He was a part-time player for the Browns in his first two seasons, rising from 14 catches as a rookie to 34 in his second season. His rookie campaign was spent primarily as Odell Beckham Jr.’s backup.
The 2022 season was his first time getting a chance to start and he blossomed into a useful No. 2 receiver opposite Amari Cooper. He saw more action working his speed out of the slot and it worked well, catching 61 passes for 839 yards and three touchdowns–all career-highs.
Despite playing a lot in 2023, the production has gone down: 8 catches on 18 targets. The Browns have had a revolving door at quarterback and that has hurt Peoples-Jones, who is a wideout who needs trust from his quarterback to play well. The Browns offense has deployed him more on shorter routes and that takes away from his strengths; he’s not a “get-open-quick” kind of player or a shifty route runner.
Drops haven’t been a big issue, though fumbling after the catch (or return) is something that has dogged DPJ going back to Michigan. He’s never been a great runner after the catch aside from being out in space. Peoples-Jones won’t break many tackles and goes down on first contact more than desired. He is a tough blocker who understands his assignments well.
He’s also proven to be an accomplished return man. He only returned kickoffs as a rookie but has maintained his role as a punt returner into 2023. He was one of the NFL’s best in 2022, though he’s not been so effective this year with a 6.5-yard average on 13 returns.
This is a move made for depth more than on-field impact. Peoples-Jones figures to be a versatile backup for Josh Reynolds and Jameson Williams who can also play the Kalif Raymond role with more size, if needed. Peoples-Jones checks the boxes of a smart player on and off the field who is competitive and works hard, mandatory qualities for the Lions.
He’s in the final year of his rookie contract, making DPJ a free agent at the end of the season. In that sense, it’s an audition for a potential one-year extension or for coming back as an unrestricted free agent.
The Lions dealt a 2025 draft pick to Cleveland to bring the Detroit native home
It’s been a pretty quiet run up to the NFL trade deadline for the Detroit Lions, but the team did make an acquisition ahead of Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline. The Lions have agreed to a trade with the Cleveland Browns for wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones.
The Lions are sending a sixth-round pick in 2025 to Cleveland for Peoples-Jones. The wideout is a Detroit native and played collegiately at Michigan. He was a sixth-round pick by Cleveland in the 2020 NFL draft.
The Lions will keep their own 2025 6th-rounder and the Jets hold onto their 7th-rounder that year now that Mims is waived
The Denzel Mims experiment ended earlier than hoped for both the Detroit Lions and the fledgling NFL receiver himself. The Lions waived Mims on Friday with a waived/injured designation.
Mims had not practiced in two weeks since suffering a leg injury in a practice-time collision with teammate Tracy Walker on August 5th. He had been working primarily at that point with the second-team offense, with mixed results. Mims had been emerging as a potential special teams asset, however.
Now that Mims is gone, so is the conditional draft pick that the Lions agreed to send to the Jets in the trade for the 2020 second-round pick earlier this summer. The Lions and Jets effectively canceled the trade, which involved a late-round pick swap in the 2025 draft. Both picks involved were conditional, based upon Mims making the Lions initial 53-man roster.
Mims is subject to waiver claims, though that seems unlikely given his injured status. If he goes unclaimed, the wideout reverts to the Lions’ injured reserve, with a five-day window to reach any potential injury settlement.
The Lions and Jets are doing a late-round pick swap in the deal for Mims to head to Detroit
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There will be a new wide receiver in the Detroit Lions training camp right after it starts. The Lions are trading with the New York Jets to acquire fourth-year wideout Denzel Mims from New York,
According to a report from NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, it’s a conditional 6th-round pick in 2024 headed to New York as compensation for Mims. New York will include a 2025 seventh-round pick as well.
The Jets were looking to unload Mims after two underwhelming seasons. There were reports indicating the team was prepared to release Mims if they didn’t find a trade partner. Detroit GM Brad Holmes was intrigued enough with Mims, a second-round pick out of Baylor in the 2020 NFL draft, to send two late-round picks and take a chance on the reclamation project.
In three seasons (30 games) with the Jets, Mims caught 42 passes on 92 targets for 676 yards and zero TDs. He caught 11 passes in 10 games for New York in 2022, including four starts.
Patterson made 30-of-35 FG with the Jaguars in 2022 after spending half the 2021 campaign with the Lions
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The kicking carousel continues to spin in Detroit. On Thursday, the Lions made a trade to bring back one-time Detroit kicker Riley Patterson from the Jacksonville Jaguars in a trade.
Patterson was available after the Jaguars signed free agent Brandon McManus, who was released by the Denver Broncos a day earlier. Terms of the trade are not yet official, but it’s believed to be a 2026 7th-round pick.
Patterson kicked for the Lions in the 2021 campaign. In seven games, Patterson made 13-of-14 field goal attempts with a long make of 49 yards. He did not handle kickoff duties in his first stint in Detroit. For the Jaguars in 2022, Patterson made 30-of-35 field goals with a long of 53 yards, and produced a touchback rate of 50% on 88 kickoffs.
The trade came a few short hours after Lions special teams coach Dave Fipp gave a strong vote of confidence in current Lions kickers Michael Badgley and John Parker Romo. The Lions now have three kickers on the 90-man roster; to make room for Patterson, the team waived undrafted rookie wide receiver Keytaon Thompson.
