Tag: Logan Thomas

Don’t expect many of the Lions’ own free agents to return in 2020

Don’t expect many of the Lions’ own free agents to return in 2020

When free agents are free to sign with new teams starting Wednesday afternoon (barring any coronavirus-related intervention), several Detroit Lions from the 2019 roster will officially become ex-Lions. Some of that will be by choice of the team itself, as is the case with starting right guard Graham Glasgow and punter Sam Martin. Some of it will be by the choice of the players themselves, too.

Don’t expect many of the pending free agents to be back in Honolulu blue and silver.

Dave Birkett of the Free Press offered his odds on each of the team’s pending free agents returning to the Lions den in 2020. His most likely to stay in Detroit are sensible: backup TE Logan Thomas, rotational OL Kenny Wiggins and backup QB Jeff Driskel.

Those aren’t the big names like Mike Daniels, A’Shawn Robinson or Glasgow. Don’t expect any of those players back, though Daniels has expressed some desire to stay in Detroit. The Lions have the money to spend to get younger, more dynamic and more impactful upside with players from the outside at those spots.

Keeping Thomas at tight end might be hard too. He emphatically outplayed last year’s big offensive free agent, Jesse James, from the very first day of training camp. But James earns over $5.2 million this year and more in 2021 and 2022, and his dead cap figure in 2020 means eating over $8 million of the just over $50 million in current cap room. The Lions also like what they’ve seen from 2019 seventh-rounder Isaac Nauta as depth behind first-round rookie T.J. Hockenson. There might not be room to keep Thomas.

As for guys like Robinson, Martin, Glasgow and erstwhile starting safety Tavon Wilson, to quote Johnny Utah at the end of Point Break, “he’s not coming back”.

Logan Thomas would be the Lions’ emergency QB

Thomas has a crazy stat line form his brief time at QB for the Cardinals in 2014

Matthew Stafford has a broken back. Jeff Driskel has a hamstring injury. David Blough is the only healthy quarterback on the roster, and he’s an undrafted rookie who has never taken an NFL snap.

What happens if Driskel can’t play and Blough gets hurt in the Thanksgiving game against the Chicago Bears?

The obvious answer is tight end Logan Thomas, who was a collegiate QB at Virginia Tech and even competed as a quarterback at the 2014 Senior Bowl. Lions coach Matt Patricia was asked about Thomas’ possible emergency role in his press conference.

“We have a couple emergencies out there just in case,” Patricia said Tuesday. “We always do that anyway. Just when you activate only two for the game, just in general, you make sure that you always kind of have a third in mind from that standpoint… Obviously Logan with his background, is a pretty good possibility in there too from that standpoint. But really you do that on game days just in general in case something happens.”

Thomas posted one of the craziest stat lines in NFL history during his (very brief) time as a quarterback for the Cardinals back in 2014. He completed 1-of-8 passes for 81 yards and a TD. Thomas was also sacked twice in the 41-20 loss to the Broncos. He did complete his one pass attempt in 2018 as a Buffalo Bill on a gadget play. That’s his entire NFL passing log.

In college, he was a dual-threat QB with a huge arm but not a lot of accuracy. Thomas completed just 55.5 percent of his passes in his three years as a starter for the Hokies, tossing 52 TDs and 39 INTs.

Here’s hoping the Lions don’t have to break that emergency glass open…