Detroit Lions mailbag: Are there any other free agents that can help?
Week 11 is here and its time or another Detroit Lions mailbag. As always, we have a lot of good questions from Lions fans. Let's jump into them. We'll start with a free agent question. There's no question that the Lions could use some help in the secondary. Especially after a rough outing like they […]
Week 11 is here and its time or another Detroit Lions mailbag. As always, we have a lot of good questions from Lions fans. Let's jump into them. We'll start with a free agent question.
There's no question that the Lions could use some help in the secondary. Especially after a rough outing like they had against the Chargers on Sunday. But is there really anything out there? Not a ton, but here's some names that come to mind.
- Greedy Williams: This is actually a guy that I wrote about a while back after the Eagles had moved on from him. The former second-round pick hasn't caught on in the way that people thought he would. But there's always reason to believe that such a young player just hasn't found the right home yet. The Lions a have a strong history of turning around players like that.
- Bradley Roby: Roby is a veteran option that played a couple games in relief for the Eagles this season. He's had trouble finding a home this year. He has a ton of starting experience. Roby started 10 games for the Saints last year and he's started 46 of the last 64 games he's played.
- P.J. Williams: Here's a guy that I'm shocked the Lions haven't signed yet. The reason being that Williams spent his entire career with the Saints and was there with Dan Campbell and Aaron Glenn from 2016 to 2020. Williams is not a world beater, but he's a guy the Saints felt good enough about to keep around for seven seasons. Could be a good depth piece in Detroit in a familiar system.
There aren't a lot of splash plays, but the play has been been good from Walker all season. It's hard to convince people of that after a game like Sunday where the Lions allowed 38 points, but Walker is playing well. Receivers are catching the ball just 57.9% of the time they're thrown his way.
Walker has another year left on his deal, so he'll be here in 2024. Beyond that, I don't know. He's a locker room leader and a former team team captain, so the Lions may look to make a deal.
In terms of the rest of the safety position, I wouldn't be surprised if the Lions tried to work out a new deal with C.J. Gardner-Johnson. He's not a player to just throw away because of an injury. They're set with Kerby Joseph, but I would imagine they go out and draft another safety in April to help out. My guess is that this unit looks very similar to this years next season.
In my opinion, I have never understood the Hendon Hooker pick. The Lions needed a premium backup. I understand that much, but I felt they would be better off drafting a younger one later in the draft and developing him and/or getting a guy like Teddy Bridgewater. Which they did.
If Hooker were younger, I would say this is a smart pick down the road for when Goff ages out or begins to age out. But he's pretty close to Goff's age. Hooker will be 26 in January. Goff just turned 29 a month ago.
I think they trade him. I think a team comes calling during the offseason or after the preseason and he gets shipped out. If I were him, I would want to be traded. I likely have no future here.
I fully realize that I'm mostly on my own with this take.
You're likely to never hear his name, but he's invaluable to this staff. Fox has 34 years of coaching experience in the NFL. That's just the NFL. He has another 11 years of coaching in college and also played in the NFL for short period of time. That's a ton of knowledge on the Lions sideline.
Glenn is able to draw from that and ask for advice from a guy that's seen everything. Dan Campbell can also ask for advice from a guy that was head coach in the NFL from 2002 to 2017. Players can go to him too. I can't remember what came it was, but earlier this year, you saw Fox talking with a group of defensive players sitting around him. There's a reason for that.
I don't know if this is a John Scott Jr. problem necessarily. Teams just have this defensive line figured out right now. Shotgun, no huddle and double Hutchinson seems to be the same game plan that teams keep running. It's working.
The personnel opposite Hutchinson needs to take advantage and they just can't. The Lions really need an upgrade there next year. Right now they have a lot of good depth pieces, but nobody that can step up and make a difference.
If the Lions go out and grab a guy next year and they still can't get significant pass rushing out of this unit, then we can really have a conversation about Scott Jr.
Patterson is a good kicker for a team that's as aggressive as this one is because they're never going to ask him to kick from long range unless they absolutely have to. The problem there is that they they'll also avoid it at all coasts because they don't trust that he can make the long kicks.
Patterson will have to do because it's very hard to find a kicker these days. Ask the 49ers. They drafted Jake Moody in the third-round and he's struggled a lot for them. Kickers just aren't what they used to be back in the day when seemingly everyone had a good one. So you have to stick with what you got. Patterson showed up big on Sunday.
Lions ran a play from the Chargers playoff nightmare
It's kind of hard to not feel bad for the Los Angeles Chargers. I grew up a Detroit Lions fan. There's a lot of empathy to feel there. I've also seen a lot of collapses and losses that you can't believe just happened. The Chargers suffered one of the their worst losses last year in […]
