What the movie Hitch can teach Detroit Lions fans about Brad Holmes and the NFL trade deadline
The Lions had the resources to make a significant trade, but the market for cornerbacks and linebackers never materialized. There’s an important difference between players who might be available for the right price and players teams simply won’t trade.
The Detroit Lions did not make a needle-moving trade, or even a slight needle-moving trade, before the 2026 NFL trade deadline, and fans are understandably upset.
The truth of the matter is that this was the perfect year for the Lions to make a deal in all of the years that Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell have been here. When I say that, I mean it was perfect for them in the sense that they were financially built to acquire a player at this time.
The problem is that it was the absolute worst time for the league to trade the players the Lions actually needed. The Lions needed a cornerback, and only one got traded this season. The Lions were in on him, but were outbid. No other team was able to pry a cornerback away from anyone, no matter what they offered.
The Lions needed a linebacker, and only one got traded all season long. The Lions should have been in on that deal, and maybe they were, and maybe they’ll regret not getting anything done. But no other team was able to pry a linebacker away from anyone, no matter what they offered.
The two different availabilities
That’s the thing: a good deal of Lions fans are ignoring the idea that 31 other teams also couldn’t get the positions the Lions needed, and they’re thinking emotionally and not logically. This is not an abnormal thing. It’s a coping mechanism, and that is ok because it’s a totally human thing to do.
But the complaint I keep getting back is, “Well, player X was unavailable, and then team X got it done anyway. The Lions should have offered more.”
There’s something worth talking about there, and it’s more than the fact that all the player Xs do not play the position the Lions needed and, again, nobody traded away players at the position the Lions needed. It all boils down to the two different availabilities.
The Hitch availability
Here’s the thing: How do we, as outsiders, know when a player is or isn’t available? It’s when the Insiders tell us on social media platforms like Twitter, right? You’ll see them come out of nowhere and say something like, “Teams have checked in with the Titans about All-Pro defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons, but the Titans have told teams they don’t want to trade him at this time.” Or something like that. That’s a hitch in availability.
When I say Hitch, I’m talking about the Will Smith movie Hitch. In the opening monologue, Hitch talks about how women will say things like “I just need some space” and “I’m really into my career right now,” and how he interprets that as them saying either “Get away from me now.” Or possibly, “Try harder, stupid.” What that update on Simmons was is the latter.
Insiders have a give-and-take relationship with teams. Teams will give them information, but then they also expect them to take on the responsibility of being the middleman. In this case, it’s to get the word out that teams are calling about Simmons and create urgency. Because urgency creates mindlessness.
When I say that, I mean teams are like, “Oh crap, we want that player and a bunch of other teams are trying to get him; let’s offer them something much bigger than what our original offer was to pry him away.” Hence, “try harder, stupid.”
The real unavailability
Then you get stuff like you saw with Sam LaPorta this week. An update that was “Teams have been informed that the Lions do not want to trade Sam LaPorta as they believe they can get a deal worked out with him.” I’m paraphrasing a bit. But the idea here is, “Hey, stop calling us.”
There were others like “The Colts have informed Jonathan Taylor that he will not be traded.” Which is essentially,” Go look somewhere else.”
Then there’s stuff like what I do. I look around the league, and I don’t really see any opportunity to make a trade for a cornerback outside of the Joey Porter move, and I tell you that over and over again, but I talk about the handful of players who might be available. But nobody ever truly said they were. Everyone, myself included, speculated on their availability, and fans took that as if these teams were just waiting for the Lions to call them at this point. Maybe they did, but the fact that none of them moved shows you that maybe they were just truly never available. Maybe some of those players even knew they weren’t getting traded.
So what now for the Lions?
Well, now you hope that the way your defense has played, which has been a top 5 unit since Week 5, is not a mirage and continues to play the way it’s been playing. You get Brian Branch and Sam LaPorta signed to extensions, and then you wait till the off-season to splurge.
Make no mistake, the Lions are still very much in good position to splurge. They’ll have a lot of cap space this off-season even after the Branch and LaPorta deals. Plus, they’ll likely restructure Jared Goff again in a move that could open up a lot of money. Beyond that, they don’t have any major extensions coming up for quite a while. If there were ever a time for big moves, it’s this offseason.
As for now, the Lions are still a very good team. We’ll see where it goes.
Detroit Lions News