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Lions sign OL Halapoulivaati Vaitai (5 year, $50 M)


RaidersAreOne

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1 hour ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

He spent considerable time at LT in PHI due to injuries, which is clearly not his ideal fit. He's a much better fit at RT, where he'll play here, and will significantly upgrade our rushing attack, a focus for this team.

Sure. That's what they've said for five or six consecutive years about the players they've added on the OL. I'm going on my fourth consecutive year of I'll believe it when I see it.

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Similar to the Nicholas Williams signing, this seems like a lot for someone so unproven.  Sounds like he is better than Wagner but its been in limited action and he struggles more in the pass game which makes me nervous.  Hopefully we do dedicate to the run game because we need to keep our D off the field. 

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8 minutes ago, Sllim Pickens said:

Similar to the Nicholas Williams signing, this seems like a lot for someone so unproven.  Sounds like he is better than Wagner but its been in limited action and he struggles more in the pass game which makes me nervous.  Hopefully we do dedicate to the run game because we need to keep our D off the field. 

I’ll admit I haven’t personally scouted the player but from what I’ve gathered pass protection is more than a slight weakness with him, he’s downright bad.  I don’t do pff as I find there system/method to be assininly flawed but I’ve seen charts that rate him in the bottom 1/3 of the league in regards to pass pro

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7 minutes ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

I mean, we can't ignore the fact that he's a clear RT that lined up at LT on numerous occasions for PHI.

Is he a good pass protector? No. Decent? Probably not. But we can't ignore that him playing out of position may have affected that.

I dont think we are ignoring it, but you should also not ignore the facts and film when offering up contracts.  If he wanted to move to Rt and prove himself, sign a 1 or 2 year deal at 6 or 7 and then get paid.  But no, we skip that and jump right to making him a top 8 paid RT.  

I'd easily rather have Conklin alone than Vaitai and Williams combined.  

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1 minute ago, Sllim Pickens said:

I dont think we are ignoring it, but you should also not ignore the facts and film when offering up contracts.  If he wanted to move to Rt and prove himself, sign a 1 or 2 year deal at 6 or 7 and then get paid.  But no, we skip that and jump right to making him a top 8 paid RT.  

I'd easily rather have Conklin alone than Vaitai and Williams combined.  

You mention film: I'm confident that they watched his snaps at both LT and RT before offering him this deal. On film, he's a very good run blocker. That clearly means something to a GM that has wanted to build a running game here for years.

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2 minutes ago, TL-TwoWinsAway said:

You mention film: I'm confident that they watched his snaps at both LT and RT before offering him this deal. On film, he's a very good run blocker. That clearly means something to a GM that has wanted to build a running game here for years.

I get why they wanted him, but its an experiment.  You dont give him a 5 year deal at top 8 salary at his position for an experiment. 

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