Quote Originally Posted by sirrealone View Post
Coming out of the draft, TJ was advertised as a TE who could catch and block. Finding guys that can do both is a hard find. He has been a threat in the passing game, but his run blocking has not been what they envisioned. Also, looking ahead to next year, he'd be the fourth option behind St. Brown, Williams, and Swift. Simply put, TJ has been average, maybe even above average, but never elite.

His salary next year would be $9.5m. If they signed him after that, it'd probably be $15-18m. If we paid him that, we'd be paying him based on his draft pick, which he hasn't lived up to. He was drafted too high. Now people are upset because the Lions are choosing not to double down on that?

Here's another angle. Next year, do you see enough holes on the roster that $9.5m might be used to fill? Of course. What happens in free agency when another team signs a starting level CB for $10m that we couldn't afford? Are we going to be happy that we kept the fourth best offensive weapon on our roster instead?

Well, knowing the fans in this forum, they wouldn't be happy either way.

Now, they'll likely have 5 of the top 70 picks in the draft next year. That's 10% of the roster that you should be able to pencil in as being upgraded. Plus, that $9.5m should come in handy to provide another 1-2 upgrades elsewhere.

Rip on Holmes all you want, but TJ wasn't his pick. You could rain down a lot more of your vitrol on him had he made the pick and made this trade. The fact is that the team has added talent through the draft and the team is actually developing the young talent.

I don't love the trade, but to hate it? That's absurd.
Unless there's a miracle in the second half of the season, Campbell and his coaching staff are gone too. They weren't hired by Holmes. He will look to put his stamp on the team, completely. Plus Campbell and crew aren't very good at their jobs anyway. The ball is in Holmes' court now and it looks like he intends to play aggressively. Will see how it turns out.