Detroit Lions Rumors: Fourth-round tender for Kris Durham?
Detroit Lions wide receiver Kris Durham (18) during the fourth quarter against the Green Bay Packers during a NFL football game on Thanksgiving at Ford Field. Detroit won 40-10. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports
Detroit Lions wide receiver Kris Durham will be a restricted free agent this offseason after catching a career-high 38 passes for 490 yards and two touchdowns in his first season of significant action. The 25-year-old barely made the roster out of training camp, but he became a notable contributor due to an injury to Nate Burleson. Durham did most of his work out of the slot, but he wasn’t as reliable as he should have been. Hopefully the drops were a fluke, but Durham was also inconsistent at making plays as well and finished with stats that flatter him a bit.
The Lions need to go after a better No. 2 wide receiver to help both Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson out, and it will be interesting to see if they address one of their biggest positions of need in the draft or in free agency. Corner should be the Lions primary focus, but they would be wise to add another legitimate outside threat at receiver.
ESPN NFL Nation’s Michael Rothstein expects the Lions to give Durham an original-round tender, meaning that another team would have to give the Lions their fourth-round pick in order to poach him away in restricted free agency. This means that a team would have to pay roughly $1.323 million (if last year’s fourth-round tender total is used) in order to sign away Durham, and it’s highly unlikely that a player who averaged just 5.8 yards per target and was very inefficient gets poached in RFA. I’m sure the Lions would like to keep Durham due to the depth he provides, but they shouldn’t exactly do much to try and prevent him from being signed away.
The move isn’t the problem, but the timing is more than just alarming.