The Detroit Lions shouldn’t have kept the quarterback band together
By Robert Jones
The Detroit Lions’ conservative approach to free agency has been good. But they still need to upgrade the quarterback position.
The Detroit Lions refuse to be distracted from the course general manager Brad Holmes is leading them on. This is a team that’ll be built through the draft, not big spending in free agency.
Holmes did well to keep key internal free agents, retaining the likes of Tracy Walker, Charles Harris, Josh Reynolds and Alex Anzalone. They have also been selective in signing free agents from other teams. Only wide receiver DJ Chark and blocking tight end Garrett Griffin have been added to the fold at this point.
All contracts have been reasonable length and cap friendly, giving Detroit financial flexibility.
Most Lions fans appreciate the course Holmes is taking to build primarily through the draft. However, those same fans are scratching their heads because Holmes has kept last year’s quarterback group together instead of breaking up the band.
The Detroit Lions are running it back at quarterback
Jared Goff will enter next season as the Lions starting quarterback, and he is most likely only going be supplanted by an injury. With how well he played in his final handful of starts last season and his contract, as well as improvement lined up for the structure around him, the Lions weren’t going to (or be able to) to make a major move to add a veteran quarterback this offseason.
Plans to dump Goff and find a new quarterback are out there among fans. It isn’t happening. At least not yet.
The difficult thing to understsand is why Holmes decided to bring back Tim Boyle and David Blough. Neither of them made a positive contribution last season, or proved they are capable of winning games should Goff get injured. Boyle went 0-3 as the starter in Goff’s absence last season, and even marginally better quarterback might have won two of those games. As Goff struggled early last season and Boyle recovered from a preseason injury, there was no thought given to playing Blough.
Boyle and Blough are both back on one-year contracts. A year from now, they will both be gone. But that’s of little solace to anyone who expected at least one, if not both, of them to not be re-signed this offseason.
This year’s draft class of quarterbacks is regarded as subpar. But there are plenty of mock drafts out there that keep predicting the Lions will take one within their first three picks, as they have three of the first 34 selections overall.
The Lions quarterback room could still change, with a possible draft pick and as other teams make cuts. In particular, Blough is hardly guaranteed to make it through the offseason on the roster.
Sooner or later, Holmes will have to seriously address the quarterback position. It will be far easier in 2023, with a clearer path to move on from Goff and an extra first-round pick again. But it felt easy to upgrade the depth chart behind Goff this offseason, and instead (barring the addition of a notable rookie, or a move for a more interesting veteran), it’ll be the same old situation in 2022.
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