Motown Bombers

Glad you brought up Steve Young. The 49ers didn't draft Steve Young. He played in the USFL and then was on Tampa. He was then traded to the 49ers because Tampa drafted Testeverde. That worked out well for Tampa.

Well your welcome to leave the conversation then.

Or hopefully we have a front office who can identify the next Drew Brees. Keep in mind that Holmes was part of the front office that identified Goff as the best QB in the draft and traded multiple picks for.

Drafting a backup QB in the first round may be even dumber than drafting a QB for cap space. If you are drafting a QB in the first round, you are drafting him to replace Goff. Sooner rather than later.

And Goff has been resurrected but that's not good enough for some people.

Orlovsky was also drafted at a time when everybody thought they would be drafting the next Brady. What a time that was.

I mean, I originally said the Lions could have drafted Goff and not signed Stafford to an extension. It's a similar comparison but yeah they likely wouldn't have signed Kitna if they drafted Rodgers. Guess it's better to play in the fantasy world where the Lions draft Mahomes.

Holmes passed on a QB who was better than Richardson to draft a tackle.

Well this doesn't make any sense since Rodgers was drafted while Stafford was still in high school and Jon Kitna was on the Bengals at the time. When Goff was drafted, that a year before Stafford signed his extension. Think of the cap savings!

Brad Holmes was in the room that drafted Goff and the guy that drafted Mahomes drafted Baker Mayfield. Ligthning doesn't strike twice and the grass isn't always greener.

Once upon a time the Lions could have drafted Goff and played him on a rookie contract instead of extending Stafford.

Everybody thinks they are going to draft the next Mahomes.

Honestly, the Geno Smith contract doesn't seem that bad. It was a tough situation because you don't just want him to walk. It seems like Seattle tied themselves to Geno for two years at roughly the rate of the franchise tag. If he's the real deal, you have him for three years, if not, you're only committed to two years and Seattle is in good shape cap wise. Without knowing the specifics, I actually like the deal. I think the risk was worth taking. On a side note, I'm just surprised Pete Carrol didn't get more consideration for coach of the year. Making a star out of Geno Smith and getting to the playoffs when you were expected to be terrible, I think he should have got as much consideration as Daboll.

A lot of people suggested (not just on this forum) drafting a QB because of the cap savings. That's what started this whole thing about having to pay Goff $40+ million. It would be stupid to draft a QB for cap space. It would be same old Lions to draft a QB because you don't want to pay your QB. Like I've said, you get a temporary cap savings in years where the Lions have a ton of cap space. You still have to sign the rookie QB if he is good. I'm assuming we want the Lions to draft a good QB.

No it doesn't. You also have the option of not drafting a QB. If you do not draft a QB, you can save cap space in year one by restructuring Goff. If you do draft a QB, you basically take that option off the table and end up with more cap space tied to a QB in year one. Years 2-4, when the Lions have tons of cap space, you would most likely save cap space with a rookie QB. You get temporary cap relief at a time the Lions don't need it.

It's off the table if you draft a QB. Perhaps you should read the rest of the post. Retructuring Goff would save cap space in 2023 but it would commit you to Goff for two years. I'm assuming if you to draft a QB for cap savings over Goff you want to move on as soon as possible.

Wait, doesn't Seattle need a backup QB? They can draft a QB to sit behind Smith and save cap space. Weird how Seattle doesn't need to think about drafting a QB when they signed a 32 year old with only one good year in his entire career.

I mean, you can use the same creativity with Goff.

It would only help in cap space for a stretch of three years. This is assuming they keep Goff in year one. Then years two through four, assuming no extension, you will save. If the QB is good, you will want to sign him after year three. Lots of good players sign their extensions after year three. I expect Sewell and St Brown to be signing extensions at this time next year. Goff signed his extension with the Rams after year three. Same with Josh Allen. Even if you don't, the 5th year option on a 1st round QB is not cheap. The highest tier is $29 million. In 5 years that would likely be in the low 30's. The Lions have the 6th most projected cap space in 2025 right now. They have that because they haven't given out multi year contracts. The only players under contract in 2025 right now are their 2022 draft class plus Ragnow. The Bears have a ton of money and if they start dishing out contracts, their cap space in 2025 is going to go down fast. The Lions have no bad contracts right now that will affect cap in the future. The Lions simply don't need future cap space. They have plenty to sign a QB like Goff and sign their young stars.

Not as bad as I thought would be.

The Lions will need to sign those players but Holmes has done such a good job of not locking into free agents. The Lions as of right have a projected $236 million in cap space in 2025 and $122 million next year. They have $122 million in cap space next year and that includes Goff. They are in great shape cap wise. I mean, why not draft a tackle and WR for cap savings instead of signing them to large contracts? I only said Goff would be cheaper in 2023 because you can restructure him. Once I again, I said the cap relief is temporary and the Lions don't need temporary cap relief. It is a stupid reason to draft a QB.

In 2023 their cap hit in QBs could be roughly $18 million if you restructure Goff. That would be off the table since that would commit you to Goff for two years. There is a $5 million cap hit in 2024 to trade Goff. Year three, or 2025, is when players are eligible to sign extensions. If the new QB is good, you would need to resign him there and his salary in year four would go up. Your cap savings are really for two seasons and you lose potential cap savings in year one. You don't need to sign the QB to an extension but then you run into a Lamar Jackson situation. On top of that, the Lions are in fantastic shape cap wise in the future so they don't even need the future cap space. It's such a dumb reason to draft a QB.

Zach Wilson his first year had a cap hit of $6 million so a QB taken 6th this year would be in that ballpark so about $36-37 million in QBs for 2023. You can restructure Goff and save $12 million or so this year so your cap hit at QB in 2023 would be significantly higher because a restructure is off the table. If you sign Goff to an extension it can be structured in different ways. If the drafted QB is good, you only get temporarily cap relief and you can still get temporary cap relief by restructuring Goff. The Lions are in such good shape cap wise in the future that they don't need cap help anyways.