The Lions will have a major impact on how the quarterback dominoes fall in this year’s draft. Although they are unlikely to select a rookie signal-caller themselves with the No. 3 overall pick, they have long been rumored as a team that could trade down with another club that has a bigger QB need. And if standout Ohio State pass rusher Chase Young is off the board by the time Detroit is on the clock, Albert Breer of SI.com says the Lions will indeed be open for business, as they could move down to the No. 5 or No. 6 pick and still pick up an elite defender like Jeff Okudah, Isaiah Simmons, or Derrick Brown.
However, both Breer and Justin Rogers of the Detroit News believe the Lions’ preference among the non-Young defenders is Okudah, who may be gone if Detroit trades back, and Rogers does not see an immediate fit for Simmons in the club’s defense. So unless the Lions are blown away by an offer, they could stand pat and select one of Young or Okudah.
Now for more from the NFC North:
- New Bears quarterback Nick Foles restructured his contract after being traded to Chicago from Jacksonville, and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com passes along a few more details on the restructure (Twitter link). Foles will earn $8MM in base salary over each of the three remaining years on his contract for a total of $24MM in salary, $21MM of which is guaranteed. Each of those three seasons also comes with an additional $6MM in available incentives, and for every dollar of incentives that Foles earns, his base salary for the following year increases (so if he earns $3MM of incentives in 2020, his salary in 2021 will increase from $8MM to $11MM).
- As we heard previously, Foles will have the opportunity to void the 2021 or 2022 seasons if he meets certain performance thresholds, so as Rapoport notes in a separate tweet, the former Super Bowl MVP has landed jelly-side up despite a disappointing 2019 season with the Jags. He was paid $30MM for his one year in Jacksonville, keeps the guaranteed money from his Jaguars contract, and has the opportunity to hit free agency as soon as next year if he performs well with the Bears.
- The Vikings have managed to carve out some salary cap space for themselves this offseason, and after setting aside the funds necessary to sign their 2020 draft class, they have about $8.4MM of space still available, per Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (via Twitter). Tomasson says that the team is continuing to look at veteran cornerbacks, which makes sense given the mass CB exodus that Minnesota witnessed last month. Dre Kirkpatrick and Logan Ryan are among the top corners still available.
- Tomasson adds that the Vikings are still looking into a Dalvin Cook extension, which echoes his report from several weeks ago.
Jelly side up lol
Lol that’s what my comment was going to be. Never in my life have I heard that before. It’s amusing though.
Mitch – see the writing on the hall (like in Halas)
Good Bye
If Young is still on the board and Quinn doesn’t take him, there should be in an investigation. If Young is off the board, and Quinn does not trade down, I don’t know what to tell you with this team. How many more decades are they going to be the worst franchise in pro sports? Quinn & Patricia have already shown to be dismal failures.
The least sensible, responsible, and competitive things for the Lions to do would to be OTC at 3 overall, with the top 2 QB’s off the board and to pass up Young, and select Okudah at 3. This is the one outcome that would likely anger and enrage the largest amount of Lions fans, so this is absolutely and of course what the Lions will do. Quinn is by far the smartest person in every room he ever stands in, he knows he is. Why he’s as amazing and great at his job as our great president cheeto.
Sweet deal for the Bears as well, that’s a win/win
That’s debatable. We should root for Foles to have a great year obviously and then he’ll opt for free agency and we’ll have to give him a Tannehill contract to keep him. If he has a bad year then we’re still the Bears with an awful QB. The Bears haven’t exactly landed “jelly side up” with QBs. What can go wrong will go wrong.
Dray , good luck with 3rd place this year.
8 mil base for a starting level QB, SB MVP, that’s familiar w/ Nagy’s system……. That’s fantastic value. Jax unfortunately took it on the chin. 30 mil for one year.
I can’t tell you what a relief it is to learn that the Bears 29th ranked offense has “performance thresholds”.