I'm sure that the immediate reaction to this idea would be the thought that there's no way Brad Holmes and the Detroit Lions would do that, but recent comments from Holmes show that the Lions might not be far off from making moves such as this and that the Lions might be operating off the same playbook the Rams have had with Les Snead. 

"Yeah, that's a really good question. Because me and our assistant general manager Ray Agnew we were both with Les and he was actually a more integral point person in the free agent process because of his role as a director of pro scouting at the time. But we talked about how, When Les first got there in 2012, you know, obviously, he drafted for a lot of years, and you know, you're attacking every single position in free agency. You're trying to build the roster. When Ray and I got here in 2021, we had to take the same approach. But, as you kind of build the roster, and get more stronger in certain areas, your process alters a little bit because you can be a little bit more, we've always been strategic and selective, but you can even be more selective than you have in the past. So, we're not quite there yet, where Les and the Rams are, you know, where he really started to be very, very, very selective there. But me and Ray were just talking about that and we are getting there, we're getting closer."

There's no doubt that the Lions have built well through the draft. They've built so well that most of their draft picks won't even start this year because they simply don't have to. So now you wonder when Detroit will go out and make its big move and could this be the moment? 

Source: #49ers All-Pro WR Brandon Aiyuk has officially requested a trade after an offseason of unsuccessful attempts to reach an extension.

Despite a recent meeting, the Niners haven’t been willing to engage in negotiations since May so Aiyuk has respectfully asked out. pic.twitter.com/EWxYMvsHch

— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 16, 2024

What exactly would it cost the Lions to make this move? It's not going to be cheap. Not long ago NFL analyst Brett Kollman suggested a crazy trade that saw the Lions send Jameson Williams and a draft pick to the 49ers for Aiyuk. That's not the route the Lions would go.

The more realistic offer would be similar to what the Raiders recently traded for Davante Adams. So it would be something like this: 

Lions get: Brandon Aiyuk
49ers get: 2025 first-round and 2025 second-round picks

Aikuk isn't going to come cheap. He's been one of the better receivers in the league and he's still just 26-years-old. The 49ers might even wind up getting more than this from a more desperate team.  

Would the Lions trade draft assets? Yeah, they definitely would and definitely already have. If there's one thing we've seen from Brad Holmes is that he doesn't mind losing those assets to go get his guys. We just saw trade up multiple times in the last two drafts using future assets. 

Here's the real sticking point though, the contract. Aiyuk is going to want a lot of money. He's going to want Justin Jefferson type money. He's not going to get it, but he still wants it. At the least he's going to want more than Amon-Ra St. Brown. 

Can the Lions afford to do it? Yes if it's structured right, but it's going to hurt down the road when the Lions are looking to lock up last years draft class on extensions. Things can be moved around and you can make things happen, but the Lions are more than likely not going to want to have to deal with that. 

You make this move if you're sure that you're winning a Super Bowl this season. It could absolutely make that happen for Detroit and it would be indicative of Brad Holmes following the the Snead blueprint as he's been expected to do. Imagine a world with St. Brown, Aiyuk and Williams going along with Sam LaPorta and the run game. How do you stop that offense?

Still, the Lions are a team that wants to have sustained success and you can do that by picking up big time talent in the free agency, but it's a little harder to do it in this case though because you're losing the assets and the money. So no, I don't think the Lions would be in on Aiyuk. But I also don't think it's insane to think that they ever would be. 

Amon-Ra St. Brown gets big love from NFL execs, but still feels underrated

On Wednesday ESPN continued their positional rankings with NFL execs series by ranking out the NFL's best receivers. Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown made the list at seventh after being on the honorable mention side last year.  Here's what they had to say: St. Brown famously watched 16 receivers get drafted ahead of him […]