It’s the NFL my boys.
We will never have this easy of a schedule again, and this down of a season for the rest of the division.
Coveting draft picks for FUTURE years doesn’t help the here and now. How long have y’all been lions fans? We aren’t ever legit contenders. We needed to take advantage of this opportunity and go for it with an edge.
Oh well.
It’s sad that any criticism of this team is labeled as SOL, doomer, or just being a hater.
If this team was as perfect as some here believe we wouldn’t be 31yrs removed from our last playoff win.
There were really only 2 trades that took place that effect us, Young and Sweat. Of the two, the latter was really the only guy that I think would have been a good fit for us but I don’t think he was worth a # 2 pick. He’s a very good player but not elite. Keep in mind that Von Miller (at the time arguably the best pass rusher in the league) went for similar compensation when the Broncos traded him to the Rams.
Sweat is not near as dominant of a pass rusher as Miller was. The Bears overpayed and will also end up paying him top dollar next year because they are the Bears.
Do you think it would have made sense to bring in Young or Sweat and make them the highest paid players on our defense when both would just be supplemental players to Hutch?
Goff, Sun-God, Alim, Glasgow, Jonah Jackson, Josh Reynolds, Barnes, Jerry Jacobs, CJGJ, Houston, Cominsky. Which of them are you okay with letting walk?
These are all guys who are currently or likely could be major contributors for us, but whose contracts are up in the next 2 seasons and whose current performance means they are significantly underpaid. Obviously, we’ve got some overpaid guys on the roster still (eg Romeo) but letting them go or resigning them for cheap will not give us the cap space to give all our core guys their raises AND pay the studs we would have spent our draft capital on.
I’m completely fine with keeping the guys we know are culture fits and who can perform well instead of showing them the door in favor of someone with more name recognition.
Of course we’re not likely to, for example, land a Chase Young-level player with a 3rd round pick, but the value of draft picks isn’t just getting talent on your roster, it’s getting talent that is underpaid compared to their veteran peers. You can’t be a contender without guys on rookie deals making peanuts so you can pay your vet stars. That’s why we need to keep draft picks.