The Lions made the right choice by not bringing Za’Darius Smith back and letting him go to the Eagles
It’s over; we no longer have to talk about Za’Darius Smith potentially returning to the Detroit Lions because he has now signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. I’m sure that there will be some Lions fans who are upset about this, and they won’t want to hear it today, but the Lions made the right move […]
It’s over; we no longer have to talk about Za’Darius Smith potentially returning to the Detroit Lions because he has now signed with the Philadelphia Eagles.
I’m sure that there will be some Lions fans who are upset about this, and they won’t want to hear it today, but the Lions made the right move by not bringing Smith back.
Why letting Za’Darius Smith go and not bringing him back was the right move for the Lions
The expense
For starters, the Lions released Smith after the season because they said that they couldn’t afford him. He had a void year in his contract that, when triggered once the league year started, would have had his deal go from $5 million to $11 million. Now, he’s signing with the Eagles for $9 million on a one-year deal that I would bet my life savings has a void year attached to it. At that point, you’re paying $9 million to a player who turns 33 next week and a guy who would not start for this team.
When Holmes said in August that there were two sides to the story and two different expectations, it’s pretty clear that Smith still wanted to get paid like a high-end player, and the Lions didn’t want to do that. It would explain why they stopped talking.
He missed the entirety of camp
Look, it’s not my money, and it’s not my roster, but if I’m paying a guy to be here, I want him to be here from the word go. Smith never said it out loud, but it was pretty clear to everyone, and Holmes alluded to it in August that Smith didn’t want to take part in training camp for whatever team he wound up on. That means the Lions didn’t even know if he was in shape, and he never took part in a training camp run by the Lions.
I don’t know if you’ve been paying any attention to the new players in Detroit. But they’ve been saying all summer that nobody runs camp with the physicality that the Lions do. So you’re giving $9 million to a guy who hasn’t participated with you all summer long and now probably has to spend a week or two getting back into football shape. It’s not ideal.
Smith was good for the Lions, until he wasn’t
I am not trying to demean Smith here. He was a nice guy and played hard for the Lions. But his time with the Lions was a tale of two halves.
His first four games in Detroit were tremendous, with 20 pressures and four sacks. The five games after that, he put up 20 pressures and one sack. That includes the divisional-round game as well. The early returns were great, but down the stretch, he didn’t add much.
