2026 Detroit Lions Offseason Thread

[MichiganCardinal]

35 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Busy Monday 

 

I’m guessing this was a conversation had in January and he had the option to retire in lieu of being released but declined.

Perhaps someone will want him after their linemen suffer injuries

[Sports_Freak]

 

[1984Echoes]

1 hour ago, 1984Echoes said:

Someone I'd be interested in if ...

He's healthy next year:

Joe Mixon.

[CMRivdogs]

I'm not familiar enough with the cap rules, but I wonder if the team and Glasgow came to some sort of an  agreement prior today's announcement. 

Would a buyout affect the cap?

[MichiganCardinal]

 

[buddha]

6 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

Twitter being Twitter—half see this move as a positive given the reasons stated here.  The others think this is the worst move ever with the Lions not getting nearly enough in return.

i dont see how anyone doesnt see that as a great trade for detroit.  every "trade ranking" post ive seen have given the lions an A or A+ for that trade and the texans a D.  detroit got great value.

[Motown Bombers]

People who don't like the trade don't like it for sentimental reasons. 

[buddha]

2 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

I'm not familiar enough with the cap rules, but I wonder if the team and Glasgow came to some sort of an  agreement prior today's announcement. 

Would a buyout affect the cap?

glasgow was bad last year.  he's done.  there is no need to bring him back on any type of deal.

football is a young man's game.  time to retire for graham.  he had a great career and got paid.  go fish with ragnow and enjoy your life.

i have a lot of reservations for decker for the same reason.  i think he's likely done.  better to retire before the game retires you.  but i hope i'm wrong.

[buddha]

Just now, Motown Bombers said:

People who don't like the trade don't like it for sentimental reasons. 

same folks who were mad when they let jamal williams walk.

[Motown Bombers]

It's better to move on from a player a year early than a year late. I think Montgomery has at least one good year in him. You see with Glasgow they moved on a year late. 

[Motown Bombers]

I'd also put Anzalone in the category of moving on a year early. 

[NYLion]

I hate to see Montgomery go but I get it from a business standpoint. He's a 29 year old running back with a lot of tread on the tires and he seemed unhappy. To get a 4th+developmental center+7th is really nice work by Holmes and certainly more than I thought Monty would garner on the market but I loved Monty so it sucks from that standpoint. Same thing with Glasgow but that was much more of a no brainer.

I'll be interested to see if the Lions restructure some contracts now, looking at you Goff, to clear more cap space because there are quite a few needs and a lot more question marks going into this season than there has been in a long time.

Edited 10 hours ago by NYLion

[NYLion]

10 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Getting a 4th and clearing out the cap space makes this a good deal if there was truly no way to keep Monty here. If Holmes uses that cap space to extend his own guys now and doesn't go into free agency to plug a hole or two I'll be disappointed. If he turns right around this offseason and extends Branch, Gibbs, and LaPorta right away, I don't know that this is the right series of moves at this point in time. Extending Gibbs at this point would be waaaaay too premature. Extending LaPorta, without knowing fully what his long-term health lookout will be is a big risk to take.

There's no way he's extending Branch without knowing if he'll ever come back from that injury (look at Tracy Walker as a recent Lions example). I'd honestly be surprised if Branch ever returns to his previous form and who knows about Kerby for that matter. All of a sudden safety went from a major strength to a major need.

LaPorta same thing as well with his back issue that could very well be a chronic thing. I can't see him getting an extension right now. I bet they extend Gibbs soon, I think the writing is on the wall with that one.

[NYLion]

9 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

I don't see any reason to pay Gibbs this early. I want to churn and burn him. We need to get as much usage out of him as possible and then make the determination as to whether not he is worth giving a second contract too. He's obviously a very talented player and deserves a second contract given his production and talent-level today. But RBs also fall off quickly and we have no idea what Gibbs will look like in 3-4 years after all of this usage. I'm holding off on paying Gibbs for now.

Gibbs is an elite talent and, thus far, durable just entering his prime. I don't care what position he plays, you sign those guys.

[Jimbo]

This was a great trade for Detroit.  You get two draft picks and a possible depth player with some salary cap relief for a 29 year old RB (when you already have a top 5 RB).  The fact that we don't have a 3rd pick this year, adding a 4th round pick was very important.  Also it seems like this year is deep with RB talent.  Monty is a very good RB and loved his running style although with certain players getting big contracts we don't have the luxury of having veteran high salary depth.  We need to add depth in the draft.  So I don't think looking to add a RB in free agency isn't the solution. This is really where Holmes is going to show how good he is as a GM compared to other GMs.  He had one of the best starts to being an NFL GM in history.  Although the last couple of drafts have not been great (they could look better if some of the draft picks start to show up as good depth this year).   To keep on being competitive you need to find ways to save $ (restructuring contracts), get good value with free agents, and find more of those contributing late draft picks.

[RedRamage]

10 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

People who don't like the trade don't like it for sentimental reasons. 

I don't like the trade because I don't feel like we got enough immediate value for Monty. STOP: Let me explain.

I do feel like for an aging running back we got a really good return... much more so that I would have expected. I'm not saying that it's a bad trade because Holmes got fleeced.

What I'm saying is that I don't feel like the team is better right now because of the trade. I feel like Juice is a depth piece. I feel like the 4th rnd pick might or might not amount to something in a few years, and the 7th rnd is just a throw in for next year. I don't feel like the 2026 Lions will be better because of this trade.

What if (all my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen) Gibbs gets injured? Now we're trying to piece together the RB spot with Saki or Reynolds or who?

Now: I also believe I might be completely wrong here and the trade will end up being fantastic... and I really hope that this turns out to be the case. I hope that Juice becomes a serviceable starter. I hope that the 4th round turns into a star player of ARSB quality. I also hope that Monty has a good career and does will, except when he's playing against the Lions.

EDIT TO ADD: I also think it's entirely possible that Monty asked for the trade and the Lions were trying to honor his wish. I don't think he demanded a trade, but I do think it's quite possible he said something to the effect of: "Look, I get it... Gibbs is phenomenal and I totally understand why he's getting the bulk of the carries. But given that he's gonna get 80+%, I'd rather go somewhere else we I can get more playing time if you can work it out."

And, now that I'm typing that, there's probably a reason to say the trade is good here with that same logic. Monty is a very good RB and IF Gibbs gets hurt, he'd step right in as the new #1. But if Gibbs doesn't get hurt, you're waiting his value on the bench. Even if Juice is only a rotation guy and the 4th round pick sees only limited playing time in '26... might that still be better than 20% of Monty?

[RedRamage]

10 hours ago, buddha said:

i have a lot of reservations for decker for the same reason.  i think he's likely done.  better to retire before the game retires you.  but i hope i'm wrong.

I'm hoping that Decker has enough in him for one more good, productive year. I'm not expecting great things from him, but if he can at least be, to quote Sean Baligian: gaverage (somewhere between good and average) I'll take it as it'll give us more time to sort out a crumbling OL.

[RedRamage]

10 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

It's better to move on from a player a year early than a year late. I think Montgomery has at least one good year in him. You see with Glasgow they moved on a year late. 

I think Glasgow was more a of a necessity than a desire. I've heard reports that Ragnow's decision, while not a surprise, also not known about before FA. I heard some guy on the Locked on Lions... can't remember who the beat guy was... say that the Lions gave Ragnow as much time as he needed to make his decision, but sorta realized after the fact that they gave him too much time and had to scramble a bit to work out what they were going to do when the decision was made to retire.

(This came up with the discussion of Decker possibly retiring and the guy basically said: The Lions learned their lesson with Ragnow: Give Decker time to make his decision, but not too much time that it limits their ability to navigate the off season successfully.)

So, all that said: I agree that the Lions should have moved on from Glasgow, but I don't think the Lions felt they could move on last year.