The one trade the Detroit Lions should make this summer
By Zach Harrow
The concerns that come with Odell Beckham
With every great idea comes concerns, and there are some with Beckham. The biggest is that he is coming off of a freshly torn ACL and we have no idea if his speed and explosion will be the same.
There’s also concern with the age and price tag. Beckham is 28 years old, turning 29, during the 2021 season and he will be making a cap hit of $15 million a year over the next three years according to spotrac.com.
The Lions only have a little over $16 million in estimated cap space for the 2021 season. So while this number would be doable, it may make the cap hit a bit too rich for Holmes’s blood. However, the salary cap for every team is expected to be raised after the 2021 season potentially making this contract easier to stomach.
Another possible issue with this trade is if you’re willing to make a move for and acquire a 28-year-old wide receiver with a large cap hit coming off an injury, why wouldn’t you have just paid former wideout Kenny Golladay? While that’s a fair argument to make I will say this, Beckham Jr. not only fits what this team wants to do with its offense better but fits with Goff better.
Golladay made a career here in Detroit with his contested-catch ability. And while he did that extremely well, he only averaged 1.09 yards of separation per playerfocus.com.
Goff has never played with a receiver with that kind of inability to get open. And with the two-time Pro Bowler not possessing the same arm strength as Stafford to sling passes into those tight windows Golladay forces you to throw into, it wouldn’t be the best idea to see how Goff would do in those situations.
Beckham, on the other hand, has the same contested-catch ability as Golladay while also possessing a better ability to separate from defenders averaging 1.82 yards of separation. That’s more than any receiver Goff played with last year.