Detroit Lions: 5 Offseason moves to make for 2019
By Zac Snyder
Find somebody, anybody, who can lock down the side opposite Darius Slay
The Lions have Darius Slay and… a bunch of guys they list on their roster as cornerbacks. Teez Tabor isn’t ready to play despite two years on an NFL roster, Mike Ford was thrown into the fire late in the season and too often got burned and Nevin Lawson is set to enter the second year of his second NFL contract and still doesn’t have his first NFL interception.
Trading for Damon Harrison did wonders for the Lions run defense but the unit overall was still vulnerable against the pass. In a passing league, that is a huge problem.
It’s not that Bob Quinn has ignored the position; it’s just that his decisions have turned out brutally poorly. Drafting Tabor in the second round looks like a huge mistake, re-signing Lawson has not led to stability and DeShawn Shead, signed in free agency last offseason, didn’t even initially make the team.
The most drastic change in strategy would be to swing big in a trade for Patrick Peterson. It might feel like he has been around forever but he is just about to turn 29-years old and remains one of the league’s best corners. He is under contract for two more seasons and would would have cap hits a little over $11 million in 2019 and $12 million in 2020. Those aren’t small numbers but the 2019 cap number just so happens to be equal to the amount the Lions could save against their cap by moving on from Lawson, Tabor and Glover Quin.
Would the Cardinals be interested in moving Peterson? They have not shown interest in doing so yet but Peterson reportedly wanted to push them in that direction last fall. Since then the team has fired their defensive-minded head coach after just one year and brought in the offensive-minded Kliff Kingsbury.