PODcast
http://www.lionsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-darius-slay-jersey , I said that I didn’t expect the Detroit Lions to be serious players at the NFL
trade deadline. Big trades typically don’t happen in this league, and the Lions
were still too unproven to act aggressively. It took me about 12 hours to be
completely wrong, and I couldn’t be happier. There is no other way to put this,
but the Detroit Lions absolutely fleeced the New York Giants—and the rest of the
league—by trading a fifth-round pick for Damon Harrison. A fifth-round pick for
an All-Pro talent still performing at an All-Pro level is unthinkable in the
NFL. There are so many reasons to love this trade. Let’s break down a handful of
them.Run defense saviorThrough seven weeks, the Lions are one of the worst teams
at defending the run. They’re allowing the third-most rushing yards per game
(139.3) and the most yards per carry (5.3). They’re 30th in run defense DVOA.
Damon Harrison has been an absolute monster at defending the run for his entire
six-year career. Harrison doesn’t have a Pro Bowl to his name, but players like
him don’t tend to get a lot of attention from fans, mostly because he doesn’t
rack up a ton of traditional stats (5.5 career sacks, 3 career forced fumbles).
However, beyond the box score, “Snacks” is a game-changer. At 6-foot-3, 355
pounds, Harrison is now the biggest Lions player by over 20 pounds. He is a
mountain of a man that is almost impossible to move from that nose tackle
position. Putting him next to Da’Shawn Hand is going to make opposing running
backs’ lives a lot tougher.This year has been no different. Harrison leads the
Giants with five tackles for loss, and he’s currently fourth in run defense
among interior defenders according to PFF’s grades.Value! Value!It goes without
saying that getting Harrison for a fifth-round pick is highway, freeway,
driveway, Meijer-parking-lot robbery. I know the Giants are in fire-sale
mode
Tavon Wilson Jersey , but it’s hard to imagine they couldn’t have gotten a better deal for Snacks, especially after recouping a fourth and seventh-round
pick for Eli Apple earlier in the week. The Lions just so happened to have an
extra fifth-round pick after sending Laken Tomlinson to the 49ers, so this is a
move the Lions could really afford. But this a great deal for the Lions because
this isn’t just a rental for Harrison. The nose tackle is signed through 2020
with a fairly reasonable contract. Here are his cap hits for the next two
years:2019: $8.6 million2020: $10.85 million(Note: As pointed out by Andrew
Kato, these numbers represent the full cap hit for Harrison. The Lions won’t be
responsible for prorated signing bonus portion of the cap hit, which accounts
for $1.6 million per year. So the actual hits for the Lions will be $7 million
and $9.25 million, respectively.)By comparison, guys like Geno Atkins ($15.1
million cap hit in 2018), Ndamukong Suh ($14.5 million) and Aaron Donald ($17.1
million cap hit in 2019) are going to be making a lot more. With Ezekiel Ansah
unlikely to come back next season, Harrison can slide easily into the Detroit’s
salary cap with little implications on free agency next year. DependabilityFor
as good as Harrison has been his entire career, they say your best ability is
your availability. Defensive tackle is a rough position to play, but Harrison
has somehow not missed a singled game since his rookie year as an undrafted free
agent. Harrison is currently riding an 87-game starting streak. That may come to
an end this week as he adjusts to life in Detroit, but that kind of durability
could really come in handy come December. I couldn’t imagine a better trade
deadline move for the Detroit Lions, and if someone had proposed this exact
transaction, I would’ve assumed they were playing Madden. This move gets an A+
from me.What about you?Open thread: Do you feel better, worse or the same after
the Lions’ win over the Buccaneers? If you went to bed early Friday night,
you’re probably pretty surprised to see that the Detroit Lions ended up
defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 33-30. That’s because by the time the
starters left the game after a single drive on both sides of the ball in the
third quarter
Authentic Matt Prater Jersey , Detroit was down 27-6. For a team that struggled through the first two preseason games, the late-game comeback was not
really enough to inspire confidence in the Lions. While the first-string offense
moved the ball with regularity, their red zone struggles were all too familiar.
And their defense... woof. It didn’t seem to matter who was behind center, Ryan
Fitzpatrick, Jameis Winston and even Ryan “Don’t call me Brian” Griffin led
touchdown drives against the Lions’ first-team defense.But while this was the
Lions’ dress rehearsal game, it still was the preseason and ultimately doesn’t
matter. So with that in mind, today’s Question of the Day is:Do you feel better,
worse or the same after the Lions’ win over the Buccaneers?My answer: A little
worse. Much like last week, I’m not going to let my feelings on this team sway
much in either direction during the preseason. Admittedly this one was a little
more important because it was the third preseason game, but the team isn’t still
going through their entire pregame preparation that they’ll be doing come
September. As I mentioned on Thursday, I wanted to see exactly two things out of
this preseason game: a first-team defensive sack and a touchdown drive led by
Matthew Stafford. We got the sack thanks to Sylvester Williams cleaning up
a(nother) Jarrad Davis missed tackle. We didn’t get the touchdown drive thanks
to red zone struggles.But it’s hard to ignore just how bad the defense was on
Friday night. It may have been one sloppy night on a soaked field, but watching
Nevin Lawson get destroyed by first, second and third-stringers is extremely
concerning. Watching Davis continue to struggle and make blatant mistakes is
frightening. And outside of Ricky Jean Francois, it’s hard to be really
optimistic about anyone on the defensive line. So I’m feeling a little worse
this Saturday morning, but I’m far from panic mode yet.Your turn.
