Detroit Lions: Is a heapin’ helpin’ of Hankins still possible?

It started with the Colts preparing to announce Patriots offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels, as their new head coach just two days after the Super Bowl. Then less than 24-hours before McDaniels was to meet the press in Indianapolis, he called Colts general manager Chris Ballard to back out.

This of course led to the Colts having to re-start the process and eventually deciding on former Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich. That led to a late evaluation of the Colts roster and the decision to release Hankins to save money and help restructure the team.

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Thus the very talented Hankins was a free agent. free to go anywhere he wanted.

The Lions were rumored to be right near the front of the line to meet with him and discuss the possibility of him anchoring their thin defensive line.

However, the numbers that Hankins was asking for priced him out of Detroit. The Lions announced that they were no longer in discussions with Hankins, who happens to be an absolutely perfect fit for Matt Patricia’s defense, and is still very young and productive.

While Lions fans understood the economics of the decision, it didn’t stop them from wanting to see Hankins in Honolulu Blue and Silver.

So as we all prepared to watch him don another uniform, a funny thing happened; his visits to other teams were few and far between. The problem? Because of his delayed release from the Colts, most teams had already spent their big money on other players that were available right at the start of free agency.

Now the window is closing on teams that are a good fit for Hankins and pretty much completely shut on teams being able to afford his asking price.

This means that Hankins has a decision to make. One way or another he will have to give some team a discount if he plans on playing this season. The question becomes; do the Lions have enough to offer overall as a franchise to earn that discount?