Karnage84 Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Now that we are officially into draft season with the end of the college football season, here's a new mock to chew on. Restructure Marvin Jones to reduce cap hit Trade Theo Riddick for a late 6th round pick Let Walk Legarrette Blount Ezekiel Ansah Dashawn Shead CUTS Nevin Lawson Christian Jones Tavon Wilson Kenny Wiggins Glover Quin TJ Lang Jerome Cunningham Rick Wagner CAP SPACE = $81M RE-SIGN Levine Toilolo - $1.5M Don Muhlbach - $720k Eli Harold - $1.5M Bruce Ellington - $720k Zach Zenner - $720k Romeo Okawara - $1.5M Nick Bellore - $720k Matt Cassell - $720k TOTAL CONTRACTS = $8.4M CAP SPACE = $72.6M FREE AGENCY Trey Flowers, DE - $15M Steven Nelson, CB - $8M Eric Rowe, CB - $4.5M Chris Hogan, WR - $6M Mark Ingram, RB - $4M CJ Uzomah, TE - $3M Ja'Wuan James, RT - $8M Chance Warmack, RG - $3.5M Marcus Martin, OG/OC - $1M TOTAL CONTRACTS = $53M CAP SPACE = $19.6M The focus in free agency is to add an impact pass rusher on the defensive line and shore up some of the holes on defense. Flowers will bring the reliability that was not there with Ansah. Nelson and Rowe are brought in to help opposite of Slay. Hogan is a reliable pass-catcher that should help replace the loss of Tate. Ingram should be an upgrade at RB over Blount and will help reduce the wear on Kerryon Johnson. Uzomah is a young, upside TE who has flashed production in Cincy. James should help shore up the right side. Warmack and Martin are brought in as part of a competition to replace Lang and add depth to the OL. Martin has struggled with injuries but does provide versatility. DRAFT 1 - Devin White, LB, LSU 2 - Irv Smith, TE, Alabama 3 - Charles Omenihu, Edge, Texas 4 - Dalton Risner, OG, Kansas State 5 - Jakobi Myers, WR, NC State 6 - Jalen Jelks, Edge, Oregon 6 - Dawson Knox, TE, Ole Miss 6 - Dontavius Russell, DT, Auburn 7 - James Williams, RB, Washington State 7 - Blace Brown, CB, Troy CONTRACTS - $8M Cap Space - $11M Devin White is drafted to be the MLB of the future. He will push Jarrad Davis to the outside where he will likely be more comfortable. Smith should be our playmaking TE and will help shore up the position along with Uzomah. Omenihu is a young pass rusher who could make an instant impact. Risner is a mauler that could win the RG position. Myers is a big bodied slot receiver with decent size. He could develop into playing on the outside as well. Jelks is a raw but highly athletic edge rusher. Knox could be a big-time playmaker with some development. The Patriots have drafted two TE's in past drafts and Quinn could look to do the same here. Russell is a stout run-defender. Williams is a good balanced RB that has the potential to rise up draft boards. Brown is a developmental, small-school CB with good size and upside. SUMMARY My focus was to close off some of the holes that were issues for the Lions this past year. Offense: Need to improve the right side of the OL, get more production out of the run game as a whole and improve the TE production. Defense: Add reliable impact pass rushers, improve the LB corp and improve the talent opposite of Slay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Want A Title Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 I think Tyrell Crosby is being groomed as a long-term solution at RT. He played LT at Oregon and like Wagner, he was a fifth round pick. He played well in extended duty. I would rather find a quality back-up for that position rather than bring in Ju'Wuan James. Kenny Wiggins settled down after a rough start and is worth keeping as a back-up. Trey Flowers is a good player but I think Romeo Okwara is at the same level. I would rather solve that with a player who is already here. I like Uzomah and think he is kind of underrated. Nelson is a good signing. Christian Jones is unspectacular but solid and worth keeping . I like the idea of adding Devin White if we can legitimately solve our edge issues in free agency. Risner and Brown will be off the board well ahead of where you have them slotted. Doing picks for all seven rounds takes a lot of effort. Overall, this is pretty solid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karnage84 Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 2 hours ago, Just Want A Title said: I think Tyrell Crosby is being groomed as a long-term solution at RT. He played LT at Oregon and like Wagner, he was a fifth round pick. He played well in extended duty. I would rather find a quality back-up for that position rather than bring in Ju'Wuan James. Kenny Wiggins settled down after a rough start and is worth keeping as a back-up. Trey Flowers is a good player but I think Romeo Okwara is at the same level. I would rather solve that with a player who is already here. I like Uzomah and think he is kind of underrated. Nelson is a good signing. Christian Jones is unspectacular but solid and worth keeping . I like the idea of adding Devin White if we can legitimately solve our edge issues in free agency. Risner and Brown will be off the board well ahead of where you have them slotted. Doing picks for all seven rounds takes a lot of effort. Overall, this is pretty solid. I would like to see Crosby develop and wind up being the RG or RT of the future. I also don't want to rely on a late-round guy without having contingencies in place. It's possible that we just keep Wagner (PFF ranking of 70ish - above average) and let Crosby battle it out. I've read that Lang could come back on a reduced salary. Maybe Wiggins is a viable back up guy as well. Overall, I'd just like to add pieces to solve the right side. There's $11M in cap space so there's a few other guys that we could bring back as you've suggested. We're going to lose Ansah and we shouldn't be relying on UDFA's and mid-round draft picks to solve the end position. Flowers is a guy that has had a lot of success in the defense Patricia wants to run and he would come in to be a leader on that defense. He's a young guy and should be a Lions for several years to come. I do think we have some complimentary pieces already on the roster. That was the same line of thinking with Rowe. There's familiarity which will help the overall transition. I've seen mocks with us signing a guy like Adam Humphries. I don't quite see that happening. He's going to get a contract of $10M +. There's a pretty good chance that he stays in Tampa and is paired up with Evans in Arians' new offense. Otherwise, someone is going to pay big dollars for him. Golladay is coming into his 3rd year, Marvin Jones will be back healthy, Ellington didn't look too bad in his short time here. If you add in Chris Hogan to play the Golden Tate role and a rookie along with improved TE play, the passing game should get back to where it was. A combination of KJ, Ingram, Zenner and a Riddick-like player (not 100%) would help balancing things out. For the draft, Ferrell was already off of the board. I used Matt Miller's big board in FanSpeak, so you could be right on where some of the guys fall. White was the top rated player at a position of need. The edge was still a priority, which is why I addressed it twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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