List the Future Contract Concerns

[jdwills126]

OK....

Time to get away from Suh leaving and Mayhew/Lewand bashing....at least for a minute!

The Lions have salary cap room the next few years. With dead money leaving and 2 years of CJ's contract left Detroit is in pretty good shape to resign some of their players to long term deals 3 or more years for sake of discussion. Out of the following who is the priority?

In no particular order....

Ansah, Reiff, Levy, Slay, or Warford

I get the Lions can potentially sign them all but rate priority.

 

[LPinSLC]

If CJ isn't willing to take a pay cut, I'd cut or trade him, sign all of those players and still be in good cap position.

 

[LPinSLC]

Even if he plays at a level that has him the rated as the best at his position, I think it's too much for that position.

 

[Microwahevo]

Ansah, Reiff, Levy, Slay, or Warford

That is tough to have to rate. I'll give it a go.....


1:Ansah--Beast. And he's only getting better. He needs to continue to be on that line for years and years.
2: Levy--his contract is up next year and it's imperative that we get him re-signed. He IS the leader of that LB crew imo. He has become a great asset to this defense.
3:Slay--many teams try and draft that next shutdown corner. He's the closest this franchise has seen to one in a long time. Obviously, he isn't there, but with Austin coaching him, I can see him becoming one of the league's top corners.
4:Warford--monster on the O-line. Yes, he's a guard, but he's a guard that has it all(size, speed, athleticism).
5:Reiff--He isn't your prototypical LT, but his versatility is what's most important. If the Lions are looking to go a different route at LT, he still needs to be here b/c of his talents.

It seems that imo defense is most important. Finally having coach that seems to know what the fuck he's doing has been awesome to witness. I'm not discrediting how important the offense or O-line is, but the phrase "defense wins championships" didn't just appear from thin air.

 

[Gulf of Brazil]

I'm going chronologically

1st. Levy. Micro already stated his contract is up after this year. get it done between now and before end of season. I'd rather it be before training camp starts. there have been other current and former players who've completed contract extensions while in-season. Extend in 2015

2nd. Reiff. I hope/expect Mayhew picks up his 5th yr. option and between the end of this season and 2016 training camp they'll come to agreement on an extension. Extend in 2016

3rd. Ansah. He still has two more seasons to go before he hits that 5th yr. option pickup deadline. I'd tend to think waiting until March 2017 is the right move. I want to make sure he continues to progress these next two years and also no major injury issues come up before it's his time to extend. Extend in 2017

4th. Slay. He be eligible for FA March 2017. Mayhew may have to look at an extension for Slay after the end of this season should he progress equally or better from this upcoming season as he did from year 1 to year 2. Extend in 2016

 

[RobBase]

Sounds like this regime is moving on from Reiff. Not sure why, maybe Schwartz wanted him?

I'd try to lock up Ansah on a nice 10 year contract since he's all that's left of our Dline.

Levy meh I think he's jag without Suh in front of him. Wouldn't commit long term to him yet.

Same w Slay. Don't throw money at them until/unless they actually improve this year without Suh.

Warford needs a big year after falling off after his rookie year.

 

[gandydancer]

I would not say they gave up or are moving on just yet on Reiff. Maybe moving on to another future LT. He can easily slide in or over. Why let him walk? That would just be another blunder to let him walk just because there is a better option at LT.

 

[LPinSLC]

Sounds like this regime is moving on from Reiff. Not sure why, maybe Schwartz wanted him?

I'd try to lock up Ansah on a nice 10 year contract since he's all that's left of our Dline.

Levy meh I think he's jag without Suh in front of him. Wouldn't commit long term to him yet.

Same w Slay. Don't throw money at them until/unless they actually improve this year without Suh.

Warford needs a big year after falling off after his rookie year.

If Slay produced the same type of year(without improvement) without Suh, would you extend him?

 

[gandydancer]

I do agree to a extent with you Rob on Levy. The downside or risk with him is extend him and it was Suh that made him better, you lost money. Levy has a helluva year without Suh, you lost money again as his price goes up most likely on the market. Either way it has money risk involved. Some here will gamble, some would not.

On Slay I totally disagree. He vastly improved his cover skills last season. Sure he had to possibly cover less time with Suh. Suh may have made him look better in your eyes. Suh had nothing to do with improving cover skills on a island. None at all. I feel he will have no problem covering that extra second this DLine may lose in pressure with no problem. Granted he is no Dennard, but I like Slays future without Suh.

 

[RobBase]

If Slay produced the same type of year(without improvement) without Suh, would you extend him?

Yes, but I also would have taken Dennard last year if it was up to me. So in this case, I'd res-sign Slay but I wouldn't be done looking for a top flight CB.

 

[RobBase]

I would not say they gave up or are moving on just yet on Reiff. Maybe moving on to another future LT. He can easily slide in or over. Why let him walk? That would just be another blunder to let him walk just because there is a better option at LT.

Idk. But from what I'm reading, they're in no hurry to extend his 5th year, aren't "locked in" at LT and have talked about moving him to RT.

LT is a huge hole if true.

 

[LPinSLC]

Yes, but I also would have taken Dennard last year if it was up to me. So in this case, I'd res-sign Slay but I wouldn't be done looking for a top flight CB.

Fair enough. I agree with looking for another CB this off-season.

 

[Rollingthndr]

OK....

Time to get away from Suh leaving and Mayhew/Lewand bashing....at least for a minute!

The Lions have salary cap room the next few years. With dead money leaving and 2 years of CJ's contract left Detroit is in pretty good shape to resign some of their players to long term deals 3 or more years for sake of discussion. Out of the following who is the priority?

In no particular order....

Ansah, Reiff, Levy, Slay, or Warford

I get the Lions can potentially sign them all but rate priority.

Ansah, Reiff, Slay.... In that order. Slay can jump Reiff he has has another season like last.

 

[Old Lion]

Levy, Slay, Reiff, Ansah, Warford.

Levy is and always has been our best defensive player. He has played at a high level for a few years now even when our D-line was sucking balls before last year.

I agree I need to see another year from Slay, but we could sign him for much less by not waiting.

Reiff we could extend so he could drop 1 spot. I would move him to RT and then redo his contract and he would not be able to command as much as a RT.

Ansah is also our best player on D-line now so I am OK moving him up a spot, but at the same time we hae 2 years on him versus only 1 on all the others.

Warford we also have an additonal year I believe.

 

[gandydancer]

OL not sure if you paid attention to the stupid money being thrown around to OL other than LT.
Pretty if Reiff knows you are moving him to just save money as opposed to the betterment of the team. He very possibly can get silly money elsewhere. Does not mean we need to overpay, just means Mayhew loses another first rounder because of bad skills.

I will just leave the Levy comment alone. To each his own...

 

[TwoCents22]

Levy is the #1 priority, IMO. Of course, it depends on what he's looking for monetarily. I'd have no problem with a 5 year contact in the range of $40 million. Anything more, I think we should wait and see, with the worst case scenario considering the tag(not sure what it would be for him).

 

[TwoCents22]

BTW its Levy's birthday today. He turns 28.

 

[jdwills126]

Honestly think Levy is a borderline All-star. The Lions play the 4-3 so he will never have the gaudy sack totals needed to be an all-pro.

My choices are Levy, Ansah, Slay, Reiff, and Warford.

I get their contracts are coming due at different times but that cash still comes out of the same pot. If the Lions overpay for 1 then they rim not having it later.

Lets flip the question around....maybe Levy helped Suh.

 

[RobBase]

Levy looked like another nobody until Ansah came along to play in front of him.

 

[jdwills126]

Levy looked like another nobody until Ansah came along to play in front of him.

I thought it was Suh?

My memory is Levy's rookie year was outstanding and he dropped off when the Lions changed his position.

And couldn't the opposite be said.....Ansah has only been good playing with Levy?