2012 Free Agency

[FamineGod]

Oh, I agree. It's a nice issue to have and means we finally have a good GM. Mayhew should make his money this offseason.

[The Cryin Lion]

Story out that we are shopping Alphonso for trade. It doesn't make much sense to me. We are a team that needs CB's, so what could we possibly hope to get for a CB we are willing to trade away?

If he can get anything for Smith I guess I'd be impressed. Aparantly it would save us $500k on the cap.

[FamineGod]

Well, I don't think the Lions are big on Alphonso Smith. He's had opportunities, and the coaches may think that he freelances way too much so as to not be dependable or trustworthy.

So, couple that with the Lions not having a 6th round pick... Perhaps he can fetch you a late pick to give you more maneuverability within the draft.

[Nastradamus]

YAh I'd take anything for Alphonso at this point. He has a few INTs on his resume so maybe someone will bite. The reason we need CBs is because Smith sucks, keeping him does nothing to help the cause. If he does have any success, it will be for a zone team where he can sit back and jump routes. He can't play for us, probably not at all.

[Nastradamus]

Well, I wasn't accusing Avril of any wrong doing. I think he's well within his rights to try and make a huge cash fall and he's in no way obligated to give a hometown discount.

The question is, who do they cut to franchise him (or even extend him). When the new season starts we'll be right at the cap limit.

Burleson, Cory Williams?

We no longer have the good old days when we could just cut our prior Top 10 pick because they sucked anyway and save 10 million on next years cap ;)

Mayhew said we can afford TUlloch,Avril,Johnson and Wright without so much as restructuring Williams/Burleson

[The Cryin Lion]

Mayhew said we can afford TUlloch,Avril,Johnson and Wright without so much as restructuring Williams/Burleson

When and where did he say that?

He said keeping our own people was priority over bringing in new players, but I've never read that he has stated it can be done.

[FamineGod]

Mayhew said we can afford TUlloch,Avril,Johnson and Wright without so much as restructuring Williams/Burleson

I'm not sure Mayhew said exactly this. Mayhew did say that Williams and Burleson are important to the Lions success. I think Mayhew said the Lions didn't need to cut either of them to afford to sign their FA's.

But I'm not sure that Mayhew got that detailed as to say that they didn't need to restructure either of their contracts.

And, of course, this doesn't speak to what Avril, Johnson, and Tulloch think they deserve to be or should be paid.

[Nastradamus]

I don't know, it was on the front page of the Freep sports section the other day. MAybe they twisted around multiple quotes or something.

Point is though, the salary cap in the NFL might as well be a soft one. With all the bonuses, restructures, cutting guys a couple years into their deals etc., you can always make space. The Steelers, a team with more talent than us easily, has managed to pay Polamalu,Harrison,Timmons,Woodley and Taylor within the last year, with HUGE deals. They already had a handful of guys including their QB signed to big deals and they will surely hand Mike Wallace a monster deal this offseason as well. If they can do that, we can easily sign our franchise player and Cliff Avril. Both are worth it easily. We should be able to afford TUlloch as well of course, but I don't really want to pay him. He's highly mediocre IMO and not an improvement on Levy. I'd rather go get a speedy WLB in the draft, OLB is its deepest position this year arguably.

[kenroher]

I heard a rumour that after the Avril tagging, we are close to 10 million over the cap. It looks like we can expect some real cap hits with little activity in the FA market.

[FamineGod]

I heard a rumour that after the Avril tagging, we are close to 10 million over the cap. It looks like we can expect some real cap hits with little activity in the FA market.

Teams still don't know what the cap is going to be, so how do you know that we're close to 10M over it?

The Lions are close to the cap or even a little over the cap, everyone knows that. Exactly how much, though? Nobody knows at this point.

[The Cryin Lion]

'Experts' have projected that the cap will remain unchanged for 2012. Based on that projection the Lions were right at the cap limit prior to franchising Avril (and without re-signing Backus, Toulloch, or Wright), so the rumor that we are currently $10M over the cap right now really isn't baseless.

It may not be accurate, and it may not account for potential 'Salary Cap Voodoo' that teams like Washington seem to leverage every year, but it's the best guess of where we are right now.

[Nastradamus]

They really need to get Calvin signed. It is the franchise's biggest priority going forward and also helps our cap situation a ton. Get AVril off the tag too and we should be ok.

[lionfan]

Replying to above, having just got back to town.

If the Lions can get anything more than about a 6 for him they should thank their lucky stars.

Getting rid of Alphonso Smith is the best news I've heard in quite some time. And the way my week has gone -- that's REALLY saying something.

[Nastradamus]

A few interesting things on Avril that were posted on ESPN Insider. Someone broke down all his sacks on tape to see if he was getting them in heavy blitz packages and getting garbage sacks that way. Not so, All but 1 of his 11 sacks came with 4 man rushes. He was only doubled on one of his sacks, but as the blurb stated, he consistently beat one on one coverage without blitz help and that is what we need from him. Most of his sacks came with Hill or Suh being doubled, but I assume that is a pretty normal stat, as one interior guy is typically doubled given the numbers game of 3 interior OL vs 2 interior DL.

[FamineGod]

Here is that article that Football Outsiders did on Avril: http://www.footballoutsiders.com/wal...ough-bon-avril

What does all this mean for Avril, the franchise player? First, the sack total will probably drop, just because it’s hard to imagine another half-dozen one-handed, drive-by strip sacks. Once you take the total down to seven or eight, however, it’s clear that his abilities are portable. He can beat quality right tackles to the edge, and he doesn’t need notorious teammates to draw attention away from him.

So, if you surmise that he won't have as many strip-sacks, and maybe add in a couple additional sacks based on continuing to improve technique, you still end up close to double digit sacks.

If you lose Avril, how do you make up that production? Is LoJack or Young or a rookie going to give you that production?