Thread: Cliff Avril Doesn't Want Franchise Tag Either............

I'm doing my best Robert Mathis dance right now. Doobeedoobeedoooooo

My opinion on Avril is I would love for us to sign him as it would help us as well as hurt Detroit. He is a very good player who is just entering his prime. Having said that I don't think it will happen even if the Lions let him enter FA as he will probably command something close to what we gave Peppers & I just don't see us putting that much cash into the DE position. Same with Mario Williams. That's why I see us drafting a DE no later than the 3rd rd.

No one seems to believe me when I tell them that getting rid of Lance Briggs would be beneficial to the team in more ways than saving the McCaskey's pocket book. We can potentially trade him and maybe a player our of the third round or the second round talent to get an additional pick in the first half of the first round. That's just me. I do, however, want to see how we're going to address some of our needs in free agency before we go onto the Draft. We will have to address the OT position in the draft since there are no good ones in free agency, but I am hoping that Emery isn't wanting to do a project job in the first round and draft a WR then instead of signing on in free agency. I'm still hopeful we can trade into the top ten somehow, in anyway, to get either Reiff, Martin, or Coples.

Originally Posted by Dagan81

No one seems to believe me when I tell them that getting rid of Lance Briggs would be beneficial to the team in more ways than saving the McCaskey's pocket book. We can potentially trade him and maybe a player our of the third round or the second round talent to get an additional pick in the first half of the first round. That's just me. I do, however, want to see how we're going to address some of our needs in free agency before we go onto the Draft. We will have to address the OT position in the draft since there are no good ones in free agency, but I am hoping that Emery isn't wanting to do a project job in the first round and draft a WR then instead of signing on in free agency. I'm still hopeful we can trade into the top ten somehow, in anyway, to get either Reiff, Martin, or Coples.

In this scenario Dags you're giving up a 7 time Pro -Bowler and 2nd or 3rd round pick who you would also expect to become a starter and that's going over board for just one player, even a Coples or a Reiff. The only way that works is if you can replace Briggs with that second number one pick instead of using it for the position you don't get with the first pick.

The second round pick alone gets you to #10 or #11 so how much more are you gonna move up, 5 spots? That's what your getting for Briggs. Same thing if you trade the third. You get to #15 or #16 and how much farther up will Briggs get you? Would you trade Briggs alone just to move from #19 to #15?

Let's say we do your deal needing both a LT and a DE. We take Reiff at #10 and Ingram at #19 or we get Coples and #10 and Adams or Martin at #19. What it comes down to then is that you've swapped Briggs for either Ingram, Adams or Martin provided one of those guys is still on the board at #19. So that's what you need to ask yourself. Is Briggs worth anyone of those guys and if he is can you pull off a trade with whoever has pick #10?

Originally Posted by soulman

In this scenario Dags you're giving up a 7 time Pro -Bowler and 2nd or 3rd round pick who you would also expect to become a starter and that's going over board for just one player, even a Coples or a Reiff. The only way that works is if you can replace Briggs with that second number one pick instead of using it for the position you don't get with the first pick.

The second round pick alone gets you to #10 or #11 so how much more are you gonna move up, 5 spots? That's what your getting for Briggs. Same thing if you trade the third. You get to #15 or #16 and how much farther up will Briggs get you? Would you trade Briggs alone just to move from #19 to #15?

Let's say we do your deal needing both a LT and a DE. We take Reiff at #10 and Ingram at #19 or we get Coples and #10 and Adams or Martin at #19. What it comes down to then is that you've swapped Briggs for either Ingram, Adams or Martin provided one of those guys is still on the board at #19. So that's what you need to ask yourself. Is Briggs worth anyone of those guys and if he is can you pull off a trade with whoever has pick #10?

It's a tough question to answer, my friend. I think that I would risk it if I knew exactly what was going on. We'll let Emery work his magic. So far, he's on a roll. Let's hope that he doesn't fail us now.

Honestly, if Avril or Super Mario become available, we'd be fools not to get them. Lovie's D puts a premium on a pass rush from the front four, which means Tebow > Idonije. Avril and SM are the kind of DE's we're needing, and the run stopping is VASTLY OVERRATED in our DE's. I don't care if they're halfass on the run, as long as the garbage we saw last year doesn't repeat when the opposing quarterback drops back..

Can we even afford Mario?

Originally Posted by Dagan81

It's a tough question to answer, my friend. I think that I would risk it if I knew exactly what was going on. We'll let Emery work his magic. So far, he's on a roll. Let's hope that he doesn't fail us now.

Briggs is worth at least a high 2nd round pick. If you do anything then take that pick and trade it to move up. That way you still have your 2nd and two 3rds. I see what you're saying about getting the extra pick in the first half of round one but then you have to look at potentially spending one of those picks to replace Briggs and you've traded you 2nd away so you can't do it there. I don't think I'd make that trade but I'd drop our 2nd on someone if it meant we could get Coples.

Originally Posted by Henry Burris

Honestly, if Avril or Super Mario become available, we'd be fools not to get them. Lovie's D puts a premium on a pass rush from the front four, which means Tebow > Idonije. Avril and SM are the kind of DE's we're needing, and the run stopping is VASTLY OVERRATED in our DE's. I don't care if they're halfass on the run, as long as the garbage we saw last year doesn't repeat when the opposing quarterback drops back..

Originally Posted by Zelezo Vlk

Can we even afford Mario?

Love to get either of them but Zelezo makes a real good point. Here's Mario's rookie deal and even though he's coming off IR I doubt he'd sign for less than this. Considering what we have tied up in Peppers this may be out of reach.


Houston Texans Mario Williams

Defensive End
Players: Drafted:Round 1 (#1 overall), 2006
College: NC State

Current Salary Information

Contract: 6 yr(s) / $54,000,000 Signing Bonus - Average Salary $9,000,000 End Year: 2011 Free Agent: 2012 / Unrestricted

Base Salary S. Bonus Misc. Bonus Cap Hit 2006 275,000 - 1,350,000 1,625,000 2007 975,000 - 1,350,000 2,325,000 2008 2,350,000 - 1,350,000 3,700,000 2009 2,875,000 - 1,350,000 4,225,000 2010 3,025,000 - 1,350,000 4,375,000 2011 13,800,000 - 1,350,000 15,150,000 2012

He was damn cheap until last year so if you could structure his deal over 5 years with the big money at the end (yrs 4 and 5) when we can probably assume Pep will have retired then we could probably get it done but with a higher guarantee. Not impossible if they do let him hit FA.