I'm on the fence on this one. On one hand hand that's a lot of money on the other hand there are a lot of people in this world that don't want to move far or if at all from where they grew up. If I'm not mistaken there have even been professional athletes that have left their teams to return home. I know for a fact there have been more than a few college athletes that have walked away from free rides at elite programs because they miss being close to home.

If it were a mulit-year deal, I would get it, but it's one year, which is about 20 weeks in the NFL. The guy could rent a furnished, luxury apartment for about 1/20th of what we're talking about here, and never actually "move"... This is a one year "prove yourself" deal, not a career move, but a career stepping stone.

IMO it's a no-brainer.

I go the other way, it's such a short deal I wouldn't leave where I'm familiar when I want to focus on football to earn a big contract the next year. Your probably leave all distractions kinda person Wjb, I'm a stay where you have the most support type of person. I have just dealt with so many college age and 20 something California kids it's really hard for me to see one leave the area unless it were for long term security.

How do you know the lions didn't contact him?

The guy has made over $12M so far in the last 5 years. What's another $500K to move to a place he probably doesn't want to be in the run down ghetto?

Remaining roster holes: (areas where a STARTER is needed. Obviously we need depth players at several positions as well)

WR - We have some decent players here but with Nate and Ryan coming off injuries we need at least another solid option. I see a mid level FA signing (Massaquoi, DHB or Hixon) or a mid round draft pick. Could be a KR/WR combo player

LT - could potentially be filled by Reiff or #5 pick, unlikely a FA addition with the amount of $$ we have left

RG- We have a few players on the roster who could fill this spot, should also add a young guy in the draft

RT- Possibly a battle between Fox, Hilliard and Reiff

LDE - second biggest hole behind LT. We need either a top draft pick or a vet FA on a short term contract. Probably will re-sign Lo Jack to at least add depth.

RDE - Probably some rotation of the players we already have on the roster in Jones, Young and Lewis

SSLB - Durant could be brought back, we could sign a different low level FA, we could draft a guy in the third round or let Lewis and Whitehead battle for this spot

CB - We resigned Houston but still have nobody to start across from him. Hopefully we will draft someone and not just rely on our young, untested and injured picks from last year. They provide good depth but need to be groomed more before they start.

K - Probably will resign Hanson

P- Signed a young untested guy but will likely add competition, possibly a 6th or 7th round pick

KR - Could be someone on our roster, but likely to draft a WR or CB with return abilities

At least 3 of these holes will be filled by guys already on the roster and a few more could be filled by a smart FA signing or a draft pick. LT and LDE are the major areas of concern, but I think the draft should bring us starters there. If we can get 3 starters from the draft I'll be ecstatic.

We should draft Quinn Sharp in the later rounds to be our punter of the future. Punters who can boom the ball don't come around often. He also is an above average kicker and GREAT on kickoffs so he fills almost 3 needs. Obviously Hanson will probably be our kicking man, but if he ever gets hurt Sharp can step in and kick just as good as he can punt.

Would not be a wasted pick on a punter, because we haven't had one worth anything in awhile. The fielding position game was most to blame on a lot of our losses last year IMO. We were constantly starting inside our own 20 and the other team constantly at the 40 better. All they had to do most times was go 30 yards and in FG position.

I kno... Birmingham, where most of the Lions players live, is such a ghetto...

We just signed a guy with a booming leg to be our P and probably our kickoff guy too...

Isn't it the guy with the trickshot youtube videos?

Some guy I've never heard of. If he is so good why wasn't he punting in the NFL last year?

We'll see how he does. I'd rather bring in Quinn though who can ALSO boot 60 yard FG's as he did in his pro day. He's not as good of a kicker as punter but he would really strengthen our special teams.

We brought that guy (who's mainly a kicker) in for a tryout. We signed another guy (who's mainly a punter).

Ok, I was confused there for a second.

And, Long just signed with the Rams for 4 years, 34 mill (36 with incentives). I hope this means Saffold is on the block.

I don't see what people think is so great about Saffold... Apparently the Rams didn't trust him at LT, and brought a guy in that's been struggling with play and injuries to replace him for $8+ million per year. Saffold is certainly cheap enough, but he's already on record stating that he doesn't want to play OG or RT... Just seems like an issue waiting to happen.

Yeah Saffold was looked at like a steal as the top pick in round two and from what I recall his rookie season was a big success, but since then he's struggled and played/started only 19 of 32 games. Maybe a change of scenery would do him good, but a) his deal expires next year and b) he'd cost probably at least a second round pick.

I'd rather take my chances on pick #5 being a LT.

Who has actually watched him? He's a good player, watching the tape. They got a huge boost in the run game when he was in there. The only downfall is his injury history.