There’s an awful lot of smoke around the Lions’ 8th overall pick being up for sale."Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn hasn’t exactly
been the wheeling-and-dealing type in the NFL Draft over his three years on the
job. In his first ever draft
http://www.lionslockerroom.com/authentic-kenny-golladay-jersey , he didn’t make a single trade despite having ten picks in 2016. The next year,
Quinn only made a single trade, moving down in the third round to pick up a
fourth rounder. Last season, Quinn was at his busiest. He not only traded up in
the second round, but he traded back into the fourth round using 2019 draft
assets.Despite a relative sparse history of trading in the draft, expectations
are high that the Lions will be active during draft weekend this year. With
Quinn openly saying his team is open for business to move down in the first
round, and rumors about dealing with the Atlanta Falcons still burning hot, USA
Today lists the Lions as one of the top five teams most likely to trade their
pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. And author Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz has an idea
of how they may do it.“Finding a team antsy enough to leap ahead of the Broncos
at No. 10 to grab a passer could be the key to Quinn’s vision
materializing
Womens Calvin Johnson Jersey ,” he wrote.With so much smokescreening going on at this time of year, it’s hard to imagine all of these rumors are true.
However, there has been an awfully large amount of smoke around Detroit and
their desire to trade down this year. Could all these rumors actually
materialize on draft day? Tori Petry of DetroitLions.com has a nice recap of
what Lions players were up to this offseason prior to reporting for offseason
training on Monday. Speaking of offseason training, the Lions shared a photo
album of players arriving for work on Monday. Some notable players in the photos
were newly-added Justin Coleman, Trey Flowers, and Rashaan Melvin. There were no
pictures of Matthew Stafford, and the team declined to comment on whether he
attended (remember: his wife has a brain tumor and could be getting surgery this
week.)In case you were wondering, the 2019 Snacks’ Snacks Madness tournament has
crowned its champion. Congratulations to the rightful winner
Zach Zenner Jersey White , Oatmeal Creme Pies: Read it if you dare: Nate Atkins breaks down the film and specs of Iowa tight end T.J. Hockenson, a potential
first-round pick for the Detroit Lions. Now that the players are together again,
it’s time for some serious trash talking. Quandre Diggs was the first to land a
haymaker: If you read one thing today, it should be this: Chris Burke of The
Athletic traveled alongside Lions head coach Matt Patricia to Alabama, where
Patricia was asked to speak about killing bad football. It’s rare we get an
in-depth piece on Patricia like this and Burke does a fantastic job. While many
take the Detroit Lions’ trade of Golden Tate as a sign that the team no longer
believes in its chances at a 2018 title and is, instead, prioritizing for the
future, head coach Matt Patricia is expressing the exact opposite to the team.
Addressing the media for the first time since Tuesday’s trade deadline
move
Womens Matt Prater Jersey , Patricia said that he told his team on Wednesday that this move should be interpreted as a belief in the players that remain the
locker room. “The biggest point for me to make sure everyone understands is that
this also shows a lot of confidence in the people that are in that room,”
Patricia said “There’s great players in that room, and there’s a lot of them.
And there’s a lot of guys that have the opportunity to make plays and go out
there and play at a high level, and we’re all good with that.”That may be a hard
point to sell on the team. Tate has contributed so much to this roster—90
catches in every season since acquiring him, 1000 yards in three of four full
seasons—and the Lions receiving depth doesn’t have a player that has shown
they’re capable of replacing that kind of production. However, Patricia
emphasized that they aren’t looking at the situation as “replacing Golden Tate”
but rather moving forward as team. “You never try to walk in and say, ‘Hey,
we’re going to replace this guy with this
Womens Kerry Hyder Jersey ,’” Patricia said. “It’s a team effort. It’s totally just however we think scheme-wise will help us win this week and it might be
different the week after that.” Whether that means more two-receiver sets or a
more focused rushing attack, or the increased use of TJ Jones or Brandon Powell,
Patricia won’t say. However, we’ve already seen a significant increase in
two-receiver sets from last year. According to Sharp Football, the Lions were in
11 personnel (1 tight end, 1 running back, 3 wide receivers) 72 percent of the
time in 2017 (second highest in the NFL). This year, that number is all the way
down to 62 percent (19th). But one thing is clear
Womens Ricky Jean Francois Jersey , Patricia still has a lot of confidence in this team, and although the trade certainly prioritizes their long-term
issues over the short, Patricia isn’t giving up on the year. “We have a lot of
guys that are really good on this team that can produce and, honestly, we have
confidence in everybody that’s on this team right now, that everyone can go out
and do their job. And I think we’ve seen through the course of multiple
different examples of years in the NFL where these things happen and people move
on and they keep going and they keep winning. Is it difficult to win in this
league? 100 percent it is, every single week is hard. So we’re just going to
have to work harder.”
