Kyle Arrington Could Be Veteran Stabilizer Detroit Lions Need for Secondary
By Max DeMara
The Detroit Lions restructured Glover Quin’s contract Wednesday, leaving them nearly $2.2 million under the salary cap.
There are plenty of reasons for the team to make such a move, including squeezing their rookie draft picks under the cap and perhaps even making room to satisfy James Ihedigbo’s lavish contract demands.
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But there might be a new reason to remember the amount of money the Lions are saving on Quin, and it has plenty to do with the cornerback position.
Recently, the New England Patriots cut their 28 year-old veteran corner Kyle Arrington who has grabbed nine interceptions in his career and collected 62 combined tackles last season. He has decent size at 5-10 and 196 pounds and is a very physical player fitting the Lions’ mold under Martin Mayhew.
Detroit making a move to sign Arrington was a possibility that was first raised by Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, who noted the Lions’ brush with him in a free agency period past.
"The Lions pursued Arrington in free agency in 2012, but the cornerback opted to re-sign with the Patriots."
Arrington is also durable, having played in 78 of a possible 80 games since 2010. Though the Lions added Josh Wilson to the backfield already and Arrington is reportedly a top target of the Baltimore Ravens, Detroit would be foolish not to give him a call and gage his interest.
The one thing Detroit has lacked in recent years is quality depth on the back end. The Lions were hamstrung last season with early losses of Nevin Lawson and Bill Bentley, and were lucky to survive the season without the physical Darius Slay and Rashean Mathis taking a bigger beating.
This year, they’ve added Alex Carter and Quandre Diggs in the draft, but those players are unknown quantities much like Lawson, Bentley and Wilson are. When thinking about things on the whole, it becomes clear the Lions might quietly be in the same spot as they were last year.
In other words, even though upgrades have been made, things might still boil down to Slay, Mathis and then the uncertain production of everyone else.
In other words, even though upgrades have been made, things might still boil down to Slay, Mathis and the uncertain production of everyone else.
Going beyond that, it’s tough to say how many good years Mathis has left even though he’ll be back in 2016, meaning Detroit could need a player in the middle of their career like Arrington to help bridge the gap going forward into the future.
Signing Arrington would turn the Lions’ secondary from a position of usual concern to a rock solid spot bursting at the seams with plenty of excellent depth.
Given the usual question marks early in the year, Detroit shouldn’t waste time pouncing on Arrington if they think they can make the financials work.
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