Louis Delmas Cut

[Bretsky]

Steelers want him, and Jim Schwartz loves him as a long term player. I know everybody dogs on Schwarts but he's a great DC and on the NFL Network ...Pat Kirwin..was noting Buffalo may pursue him.....and anytime he wanted to put Jim Schwartz in a good mood he'd either play Metallica or talk out Delmas

[Guiness]

The Lions are already under the gun, as noted above, and so doing this, as you suggest, will squeeze them some room but will put them in an incredible bind very shortly. They're working the Mike Sherman School of Capology.

I'm just not sure what other option they have. Outside of Suh, their cap is bad but not brutal. Stafford counts for 16, Johnson for 13 against the 2014 cap, pretty reasonable for thehm. After the 3, the numbers are fairly low, all but one under 5M. Fairley only counts for 3.2M.

The Lions have a little over 4M in cap room left, not enough for the draft class, but it's something. The problem is more that after the top three, there is not a lot of room to move on anyone else's contract, so if they want/need room the Lions will have to talk to one of them. Considering they've all been playing well, it's not likely any of them are going look favorably on anything that loses them money. The guy that is way overpaid for his position is Suh, and considering that cutting him would result in a 3M savings (and 19M dead money!!!) they're in a tough spot.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/detroit-lions/cap-hit/

[The Shadow]

Bad knees.
Pass.

[mraynrand]

"Considering they've all been playing well"

Stafford was brutal down the stretch last year. But that doesn't at all mean he would be willing to restructure.

[run pMc]

I'm just not sure what other option they have. Outside of Suh, their cap is bad but not brutal. Stafford counts for 16, Johnson for 13 against the 2014 cap, pretty reasonable for thehm. After the 3, the numbers are fairly low, all but one under 5M. Fairley only counts for 3.2M.

The Lions have a little over 4M in cap room left, not enough for the draft class, but it's something. The problem is more that after the top three, there is not a lot of room to move on anyone else's contract, so if they want/need room the Lions will have to talk to one of them. Considering they've all been playing well, it's not likely any of them are going look favorably on anything that loses them money. The guy that is way overpaid for his position is Suh, and considering that cutting him would result in a 3M savings (and 19M dead money!!!) they're in a tough spot.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/detroit-lions/cap-hit/

Yep. Speaking of Fairley, he's a UFA after 2014. Don't think that DL is gonna stay together without some negotiations with Suh. Complicating their situation is Stafford/Megatron take up $46.5M in cap space in 2016. Granted, that's 2 years away, but they really don't have a very good cap situation, especially if they keep "renegotiating" like they have. For comparison, the Rodgers/CMIII combo never gets higher than $37M, and if Matthews can't stay healthy I think they'd revisit his contract.

Fitting Suh under the cap on top of that and keeping some of their mid-level players won't be easy. I think they'd like to bring Delmas back, but I also think he'll get enough interest that someone offers him more money.

[denverYooper]

Bad knees.
Pass.

What? He'd be a nice addition to the PackIRs tub.

[3irty1]

Delmas could be something if you can scrub the lions off of him and with his injury history he'd certainly fit right in. There are other options I'd want to exhaust before signing him though.

[Guiness]

"Considering they've all been playing well"

Stafford was brutal down the stretch last year. But that doesn't at all mean he would be willing to restructure.

Well, they seem to be happy with him?

Started all 16 games in 2013 for the 3rd year running. Passed for 4600 yards, 29TD and 19INT. On paper, that doesn't look bad. At least not bad enough to make them think they bring him back to the table and give some money back.

[mraynrand]

Well, they seem to be happy with him?

Started all 16 games in 2013 for the 3rd year running. Passed for 4600 yards, 29TD and 19INT. On paper, that doesn't look bad. At least not bad enough to make them think they bring him back to the table and give some money back.

Not counting the final loss at MN, Stafford had 1 TD versus 5 INTs in the last three losses to Philly, Baltimore and the Giants. The stats look great, and you need a QB, so the instinct is to do nothing, except bring in a new coach to clean it up, thinking that the talent is great. But what if the talent is great, but inherently flawed? We shall see next fall...

Still, Det has a very solid backup QB in Sean Hill. You could win with that guy, with everyone else playing up to par. But Stafford isn't going anywhere...

[Fritz]

No, they've hitched their wagon to Stafford, and it remains to be seen if coaching can "clean up" his delivery issues, or if he's doomed to be Brent-like in his capacity for throwing interceptions.

The offseason is, outside of some Packerrats, apparently no time to be realistic. Despite the cap mess in Detroit - even if they renegotiate Suh's final year, they're gonna have to pay him big down the road in order to clear cap space for this year - the writers there are positing that Mayhew will bring in a couple free agents at wide receiver and safety. Names like Hakeem Nicks and Emmanuel Sander at wide receiver, and James Ihedigbo of the Ravens and Antoine Bethea of the Colts, are being mentioned prominently. But they just cut a receiver and a safety to get under the cap, so unless they structure Suh's contract to free up a lot of space, I'm not sure how they sign two mid-level or higher guys, given especially the line below by Chris McCosky of the Detroit News:

"Of their own pending free agents, tight end Brandon Pettigrew, defensive end Willie Young, running back Joique Bell (restricted) and quarterback Shaun Hill, are likely to be priorities for the Lions."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2tmFogjlE

Personally, I wouldn't want Pettigrew back at all. He's got hands that make Jermichael Finley's look great. I can't tell you how many times Lions' announcers groaned when Pettigrew dropped a pass while wide open. And as for Shaun Hill, he might get a decent contract - he's a very solid backup, and there is a market for that.

I believe that Mayhew and Lewan think they're getting one last spin of the wheel, and they'd better win, so they're going all in for the next two years. I love the slightly sour smell of desperation coming out of the Lions' front office, and I think they're setting themselves up for cap hell in two or three years, tops.

They're gonna have three hugely paid players - Johnson, Stafford, and Suh - and Fairley due up after 2015. They were one of the older teams in the league last year, and they've got only six draft choices this year.

Can a new coach really get it done with this set-up?

[3irty1]

No, they've hitched their wagon to Stafford, and it remains to be seen if coaching can "clean up" his delivery issues, or if he's doomed to be Brent-like in his capacity for throwing interceptions.

The offseason is, outside of some Packerrats, apparently no time to be realistic. Despite the cap mess in Detroit - even if they renegotiate Suh's final year, they're gonna have to pay him big down the road in order to clear cap space for this year - the writers there are positing that Mayhew will bring in a couple free agents at wide receiver and safety. Names like Hakeem Nicks and Emmanuel Sander at wide receiver, and James Ihedigbo of the Ravens and Antoine Bethea of the Colts, are being mentioned prominently. But they just cut a receiver and a safety to get under the cap, so unless they structure Suh's contract to free up a lot of space, I'm not sure how they sign two mid-level or higher guys, given especially the line below by Chris McCosky of the Detroit News:

"Of their own pending free agents, tight end Brandon Pettigrew, defensive end Willie Young, running back Joique Bell (restricted) and quarterback Shaun Hill, are likely to be priorities for the Lions."

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz2tmFogjlE

Personally, I wouldn't want Pettigrew back at all. He's got hands that make Jermichael Finley's look great. I can't tell you how many times Lions' announcers groaned when Pettigrew dropped a pass while wide open. And as for Shaun Hill, he might get a decent contract - he's a very solid backup, and there is a market for that.

I believe that Mayhew and Lewan think they're getting one last spin of the wheel, and they'd better win, so they're going all in for the next two years. I love the slightly sour smell of desperation coming out of the Lions' front office, and I think they're setting themselves up for cap hell in two or three years, tops.

They're gonna have three hugely paid players - Johnson, Stafford, and Suh - and Fairley due up after 2015. They were one of the older teams in the league last year, and they've got only six draft choices this year.

Can a new coach really get it done with this set-up?

Seems like they are already in cap hell. I don't think the future could possibly look bleaker than the present. They have been thrashed by the contracts they signed for their 1st and 2nd overall picks before the rookie pay scale existed. Going forward chronic sucking should be much more affordable.