Lions 2021 off-season FA. Something for nothing or nothing at all ?

[Thruthefog]

I like this. The offense, specifically TE's in this segment, will be built around what the coaches see in each player and then they'll develop a scheme.

Lions TE coach Ben Johnson offers up a deep philosophical change in Detroit's approach

Johnson talked about seeing what players do before implementing the full scheme

lionswire.usatoday.com

new Lions tight ends coach Ben Johnson

“Until we get the guys here … I don’t know exactly skill-set wise what direction we’ll go,” Johnson said, explaining that he hasn’t seen newcomer Darren Fells on the field yet or seen T.J. Hockenson since January.

“We haven’t really finalized exactly what we’re going to do on offense,” Johnson later elaborated. “We’re going to see these players before we make good decisions on the direction we’re going to go in terms of scheme.”

This staff is open to adaptation. They’re not painting themselves into a corner with demands and strict guidelines on what a person at a given position must offer.

It’s a philosophical divergence from the way things have been done in the past in Detroit.

Johnson made it clear that nothing schematic is set yet.

“Right now, I don’t know exactly what this (offense) is going to look like,” he stated.

Good. Figuring out what the players do well and building the offense around that instead of asking the players to fit a rigid scheme is a smart step for the new-look Lions.

Oh...gee. What a novel idea. Why didn't I think of that?

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Lions 2021 preseason schedule features 3 AFC playoff teams from 2020

All NFL teams now play just 3 preseason games

lionswire.usatoday.com

The schedule

• August 13: Buffalo Bills, Ford Field, 7 p.m.
• August 21: at Pittsburgh Steelers, Heinz Field, 7:30 p.m.
• August 27: Indianapolis Colts, Ford Field, 7 p.m.

 

[Mebert]

Lions 2021 preseason schedule features 3 AFC playoff teams from 2020

All NFL teams now play just 3 preseason games

lionswire.usatoday.com

The schedule

• August 13: Buffalo Bills, Ford Field, 7 p.m.
• August 21: at Pittsburgh Steelers, Heinz Field, 7:30 p.m.
• August 27: Indianapolis Colts, Ford Field, 7 p.m.

I am glad the Lions have one of the most difficult schedules this year. Gives us a chance to show consistent improvement and get better throughout the year, but not have improving get in the way of the draft pick. difficult preseason is just an extension of that.

 

[Old Lion]

Oh...gee. What a novel idea. Why didn't I think of that?

Thats why you are not an NFL coach.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

adding one of @Mebert boys to the roster

Detroit Lions sign offensive tackle Darrin Paulo

The Lions have added some offensive line depth before the start of OTAs.

www.prideofdetroit.com

Paulo (6-foot-5, 317 pounds) was a three-year starter in college for the University of Utah. He started 26 games at right tackle and 14 games at left tackle (as a senior). In that final season in college, Paulo was named first-team All-Pac 12 as the Utes enjoyed the best rushing offense in the conference.

Solid anchor in pass pro, Paulo has the strength to hold his ground. He will struggle with athletic defensive ends and needs to improve his bend to prevent losing leverage, but he has the potential to improve.

We may get our first glimpse at Paulo and the rest of the Lions offensive line depth this week during Organized Team Activities, which are set to begin on Tuesday.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

 

[Mebert]

adding one of @Mebert boys to the roster

Detroit Lions sign offensive tackle Darrin Paulo

The Lions have added some offensive line depth before the start of OTAs.

www.prideofdetroit.com

Paulo (6-foot-5, 317 pounds) was a three-year starter in college for the University of Utah. He started 26 games at right tackle and 14 games at left tackle (as a senior). In that final season in college, Paulo was named first-team All-Pac 12 as the Utes enjoyed the best rushing offense in the conference.

Solid anchor in pass pro, Paulo has the strength to hold his ground. He will struggle with athletic defensive ends and needs to improve his bend to prevent losing leverage, but he has the potential to improve.

We may get our first glimpse at Paulo and the rest of the Lions offensive line depth this week during Organized Team Activities, which are set to begin on Tuesday.

Utah is usually pretty well coached in the trenches. They have gotten quite a few subpar athletes drafted based on film they produce for the team. I hope Paulo takes off though.

Bill Barnwell thinks Lions will sign Trai Turner after June 1st. That would be absolutely awesome. Only 28, 5 time PB, had a down year for injuries. I think with him we have our starting 5 for the next 3-4 years, with time to draft and build depth.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Bill Barnwell thinks Lions will sign Trai Turner after June 1st. That would be absolutely awesome. Only 28, 5 time PB, had a down year for injuries. I think with him we have our starting 5 for the next 3-4 years, with time to draft and build depth.

They would have to trade Vaitai.

Technically, Vaitai's 2021 cap hit is 10.4M but they wouldn't have to pay his base salary of 9M if he were to be traded as that would fall upon the new team. He has a cap hit of pro-rated bonuses of 1.4M for each of the next 4 years (2021-2024 total 5.6M). They might have to eat 2-3M of that salary in a "trade only scenario" in order to facilitate acquiring Trai Turner.

Getting Turner would be great and gives time for one of the other OG currently on the roster time to prep to possibly take over that RG spot should it not work out with Turner.

Halapoulivaati Vaitai Contract Details, Salary Cap Charges, Bonus Money, and Contract History | Over The Cap

Halapoulivaati Vaitai contract and salary cap details, including signing bonus, guaranteed salary, dead money, roster bonuses, and contract history

overthecap.com

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Fraley was talking up Vaitai but that appears to be nothing more than coach speak from my point of view.

I'm not sure what Fraley sees from Vaitai other than some clips that shows he has the ability to perform but it sure as hell isn't consistent as Fraley states in that article.

Lions’ OL coach Hank Fraley: Hal Vaitai ‘can do a lot of things that people in this league can’t’

Lions have confidence that Vaitai can succeed in Detroit.

www.prideofdetroit.com

“Everything didn’t go right for him (Vaitai) last year and it starts with just being healthy,” Fraley said to the Lions media. “If he’s a healthy player—he was having a really good training camp, but unfortunately he had to fight through his injuries and it really affected him all year.”

Fraley wouldn’t go on to talk about how difficult it is to stay healthy in the NFL but when Vaitai was, he was consistent—something Fraley values highly.

“If he stays healthy, his consistency before he got hurt was really good, he was having a great training camp, and that injury really set him back” Fraley continued. “I’m looking forward to year two with him, because he is a large man, and he can move the line of scrimmage.”

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

“That guy can do a lot of things that people in this league can’t,” Fraley concluded. “He’s athletic, he’s big, moving the line scrimmage in this league is hard to do, you can pull him, you can anchor in pass protection. I’m excited for him. He’s played a lot of ball. He played a lot of ball in Philadelphia. I mean, he was the starting left tackle when they won the Super Bowl. He’s played a lot of ball, he’s experienced. And why couldn’t he be part of this puzzle?”

BB_72: by default, due to Peters injury, Vaitai was a starting LT. He gave up 8 pressures in that SB Game .

 

[Old Lion]

Utah is usually pretty well coached in the trenches. They have gotten quite a few subpar athletes drafted based on film they produce for the team. I hope Paulo takes off though.

Bill Barnwell thinks Lions will sign Trai Turner after June 1st. That would be absolutely awesome. Only 28, 5 time PB, had a down year for injuries. I think with him we have our starting 5 for the next 3-4 years, with time to draft and build depth.

Hard to believe but that would be great.

 

[Old Lion]

They would have to trade Vaitai.

Technically, Vaitai's 2021 cap hit is 10.4M but they wouldn't have to pay his base salary of 9M if he were to be traded as that would fall upon the new team. He has a cap hit of pro-rated bonuses of 1.4M for each of the next 4 years (2021-2024 total 5.6M). They might have to eat 2-3M of that salary in a "trade only scenario" in order to facilitate acquiring Trai Turner.

Getting Turner would be great and gives time for one of the other OG currently on the roster time to prep to possibly take over that RG spot should it not work out with Turner.

Halapoulivaati Vaitai Contract Details, Salary Cap Charges, Bonus Money, and Contract History | Over The Cap

Halapoulivaati Vaitai contract and salary cap details, including signing bonus, guaranteed salary, dead money, roster bonuses, and contract history

overthecap.com

Exactly. They could also trade Decker though too. One of them would have to go unless we are going with a 6 man line

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

They could also trade Decker though too.

They could but it won't happen outside of receiving a Laremy Tunsil package in return.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

Strange that NFL and NFLPA set a cap ceiling nearly 9-10 in advance.

2022 Salary Cap Ceiling Set At $208.2M

According to Dan Graziano, the NFL and NFLPA have agreed that the 2022 salary cap will be no higher than $208.2 million. That would be a 14 percent increase from the 2021 salary cap of

nfltraderumors.co

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

While it’s not a given that the cap will increase to that amount, the “ceiling” represents an increase of nearly $26M over where the 2021 salary cap landed ($182.5M). This year’s salary cap was obviously impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

As Nick Shook points out in his article on the NFL’s website:

“While this might seem irrelevant to those solely focused on 2021, it’s highly important for front offices and player agents as they understand how each side can go about working on long-term deals and planning well beyond 2021.”

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

There's one down already. Doubtful he would made the final roster.

Report: Lions DT Joel Heath suffers torn ACL, out for season

Unfortunately, Heath’s season is over before it even started because of a ‘freak’ injury.

www.prideofdetroit.com

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Detroit Lions defensive tackle Joel Heath suffered a torn ACL at practice as will miss the entire 2021 season. Per Pelissero, Heath went down in a “freak” injury during individual bag drills.

The Lions signed Heath back in February to a futures deal to add help to their defensive line depth. A former Michigan State Spartan, Heath spent four years with the Houston Texans, playing in 32 games and starting 16. His best season was in 2017 when he amassed 24 tackles and 1.0 sacks in 13 games.

He signed with the Denver Broncos in 2020, but opted out due to COVID-19 concerns. Now he’ll unfortunately miss a second straight season, this time due to an unlucky injury.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

NFL salary cap won’t exceed $208.2 million in 2022

The floor is not finalized but establishing a salary cap ceiling will help guide GM Brad Holmes.

www.prideofdetroit.com

After the season is concluded (typically in February), the league’s accountants will determine how profitable the season was and the salary cap will be finalized at that time. But for the time being, general managers at least know how cautious they need to be with their team finances.

At the time of this publication, the Detroit Lions have 42 players signed for the 2022 season, accounting for an estimated $182.3 million of the salary cap next season, per OverTheCap.com. From a league perspective, that slots them in with an estimated 16th most salary cap available heading into next offseason.

Now, that number is still very fluid.

The Lions have 90 players on their current roster, and depending on who makes the 53-man roster, some of the 42 players may no longer be under contract next season and the estimated cap may be lower. There will also be players cut in the offseason which will lower the number even further. Additionally, there will be some leftover cap from the 2021 season that GM Brad Holmes can carry over into 2022 helping increase their spending amount.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

NFL alters 2021 roster cuts deadlines, dates

Roster cuts will now likely come on a Tuesday, rather than their typical Saturday drop.

www.prideofdetroit.com

The NFL decided on Wednesday that they will be changing the schedule of mandatory cutdown deadlines for the 2021 season, per multiple reports. Recently, the NFL changed its format to allow teams to carry their 90-man roster all the way until the 53-man deadline date, typically on the Saturday following the final preseason game. Although last year, COVID-19 restrictions mandated that team only carry 80 players into training camp.

This year the NFL will instead adopt a three-step cutdown process. Here’s how it’ll work.

August 17 — four days after the Detroit Lions’ first preseason game

NFL teams are required to cut down to 85 players.

August 24 — Three days after Preseason Game 2

NFL teams are required to cut down to 80 players.

August 31 — Four days after Preseason Game 3

NFL teams are required to cut down to 53 players