Bye Bye Young, Peterman, & KVB

[Icness]

http://www.detroitlionsdraft.com/2013/0 ... ndenbosch/

Very strongly believe that Raiola will be gone by the end of the week too. Backus might voluntarily follow.

Frees up $$ for Avril, Cherilus, Houston, & Levy in that order.

[Piston Pete]

I would think we hang onto Backus for at least one more season unless we take a stud OT in the draft's first round.

What FA C's are out there we could replace Dom with? Or really good rookie C's?

[ADflight1]

Re-signing Avril and Cherilus would be a huge mistake.

Avril is not even close to being worth the money he wants. He's not a great run defender and he was pretty average rushing the passer last season.

Cherilus, okay, he's alright in pass protection but if we want to become balanced, we have to find a more well rounded RT.

[ajaX82]

I would definitely prioritize Houston for money first. But moving from the crazy, elderly and awful are three smart choices. I'm quite pleased with these developments and hope Dom in shown the door next, and Backus going wouldn't choke me up. Reiff at LT, Gosder back at RT, Nagy or Austin at RG and maybe a pick at center gives us a younger, cheaper, better line.

Still torn on giving Avril a ton of money, but may be necessary

[Icness]

Either Billy Nagy or Rodney Austin will be the starting RG entering camp. If/when Raiola leaves look for Austin to be the starting center entering preseason, but they'll bring in a low-budget competition either a free agent or a late round pick. I'm not a big Nagy fan and the injury he suffered was nasty.

An informed birdie told me that Jason Fox will be spending the offseason working on being a guard. He could factor in the RG mix too but he's a better RT. The team likes him a lot.

I have no problem with Cherilus returning if he signs a deal like Eric Winston--a better player--got from KC last year. he got 4 yr/$22M but the cap hit the first year was just $3M. Jumps to $7M in year two, then the last two years are $2.1M signing bonuses that could be eaten or re-worked, plus $4M salaries each year. Very flexible deal.

I strongly suspect the Lions will use a late pick on an interior OL. Here are a few I like in that realm:
Patrick Lewis -TAMU
TJ Johnson -South Carolina
Edmund Kugbila -Valdosta St.
Ivory Wade -Baylor
Lane Taylor -OK St

Lewis did a better job than Barrett Jones against Sheldon Richardson, who is a top 10 pick.

[Lionlifer]

The only one I'll miss is KVB, and that's more due to his leadership and red contacts, not so much his play on the field.

[Piston Pete]

I have a hard time putting faith into Nagy. I like him being our veteran backup. Would much rather draft an interior lineman or two and let them compete for the starting spot.