For a general manager coming off a 6-10 showing, with a 24-24 overall record in that post, Bob Quinn has had a surprising swagger level these past couple months. At his season-ending news conference, he emphasized that he knew — not thought, not was formulating some idea of — knew what the Lions needed to get better. At the combine, both he and head coach Matt Patricia were relaxed, at ease, even bordering on friendly when they addressed the media.
Advertisem*nt
Maybe the confidence wasn’t misplaced. Free agency hasn’t even begun officially yet, and already Detroit has positioned itself to be among the event’s big winners. History has shown time and again that doesn’t necessarily mean anything will come of the actual season itself, but the Lions needed to make some noise this March.
They did, early and emphatically. Within a stretch of about seven hours Monday, the Lions signed receiver Danny Amendola to a one-year contract, then reportedly added slot corner Justin Coleman, tight end Jesse James and edge rusher Trey Flowers, one of the biggest prizes of the entire free-agent class and the most obvious of Detroit targets.
Moves when grouped together send a pretty clear message: Enough screwing around. Time to go win.
That’s the stated goal of every offseason, but it runs in stark contrast to Quinn’s approach last offseason, after he hired Patricia in early February. By Quinn’s own admission, the Lions did take a run at a handful of high-profile options, particularly at tight end. When push came to shove, though, Quinn opted to pocket most of his cash and focus on the second wave: Devon Kennard, Christian Jones, LeGarrette Blount and so on.
The approach left Detroit lacking in both depth and talent in 2018, as its final record showed. It also set up Quinn to be a major player moving forward, a transition that began when he traded for Damon Harrison midway through the schedule. This time around, when the free-agent tampering window opened, Quinn went for broke.
“I think free agency sometimes, you take a swing on guys and you’re not going to get them all the time,” Quinn said at the league meetings last March. “That happened last year, that happened the year before, too. … So, we were in the mix for a lot of guys in the early stages and, you know, really when it comes down to it, you have to set a value for a player and you’ve got to really stay close to that value when you start getting into the negotiation.”
Advertisem*nt
The Lions set the bar extremely high on both Coleman and Flowers — the former reportedly will be the highest-paid nickel corner in football, at $9 million per year for four years; the latter, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, will sign a five-year deal worth between $80 million-$85 million when free agency officially opens on Wednesday.
Those are significant chunks from the bank account, as much as $27 million per year if averaged together. However, Quinn had around $45 million in available 2019 cap space to begin free agency, a cache built with an aggressive approach in mind. Detroit had to cut respected veterans Glover Quin, T.J. Lang and Nevin Lawson to get there. It replaced them with three players 25 years old or younger, plus the 33-year-old Amendola.
Shy of the Lions trading Matthew Stafford or drafting Kyler Murray, any discussion of their offseason will start with the Flowers addition. He was one of the most impactful all-around EDGE players in the league last season, full stop.
On top of his 7.5 sacks and 20 QB hits, Flowers also graded out on Pro Football Focus with 64 total pressures and above-average marks as a run defender.
“He’s not the ‘big-name guy,’ but he’s the big-name guy amongst the coaching world,” Chicago coach Matt Nagy said of Flowers before the Bears played New England in Week 7. “We know who he is and what he can do and we respect him. We know he’s a hell of a player. … He can hold the point. He’s quick, he’s strong, he’s fast, he plays in front of the quarterback. … So, we know that he’s a good football player.”
His familiarity with Patricia’s scheme, having played in it from 2015-17, should prevent Flowers from any delay in shifting from New England to Detroit’s defense. He offers the skill set to align on the edge or inside, flexibility that Ziggy Ansah didn’t really give the Lions last season.With Flowers, Da’Shawn Hand, Romeo Okwara and Kennard flanking defensive tackles Harrison and A’Shawn Robinson, the Lions on paper have a potentially elite front.
Advertisem*nt
Coleman counts as a critical pickup behind that group, too. He also opened his career as a Patriot (2015-16), with Patricia calling the shots, but really hit his stride as a nickel corner for Seattle the past two seasons.
While the $9 million-per-year price tag might look a little steep, consider that Detroit is paying a starter’s salary here — the defense was in sub-package around 70 percent of the time in 2018. And aside from an occasional play from Lawson, the slot corners by and large got chewed up by opposing receivers. Coleman is an upgrade.
What happened with the offense on Monday (thus far) was less sexy but still necessary.
Danny Amendola projects as the Lions’ starting slot receiver. (Douglas DeFelice / USA TODAY Sports)
Amendola is better than Bruce Ellington but he’s not as good as Golden Tate. That’s what statistics and contracts and our own eyes tell us about the Lions’ new receiver, signed Monday to a one-year deal at a reported $4.5 million guaranteed (and $5.75 million total). It’s at least a serviceable move, one which replaces for Stafford a passing-game safety net that went missing when Quinn traded away Tate.
Amendola, 33, is fresh off a 59-catch, 575-yard season with the Dolphins. The math there works out to a 9.7 yards-per-catch average, a low mark on Amendola’s recent record but still 4.0 yards ahead of Ellington’s almost incomprehensible 5.7 YPC mark in his brief Lions stint.
Better yet, spanning his days with Tom Brady to his 2018 run with Ryan Tannehill and Brock Osweiler, Amendola has caught 74 percent of the balls thrown his way over the past four seasons. To put that consistency in some Detroit-related perspective: Aside from Tate’s 76.7 percent catch rate in 2017 and Ellington’s matching number in four games this year, no Lions receiver since at least 1992 has had 10-plus receptions and a 74 percent-or-better clip.
“I’m in the best condition of my life,” Amendola said Monday after signing, extending the streak of NFL players declaring their own exceptional health to 100 consecutive offseasons. “I’m as fast as I’ve ever been. And I’m as hungry as ever. So I’m ready to play at a high level, and do whatever I can to help this team win.”
Advertisem*nt
James, reportedly, will be the second pickup on offense. An outstanding blocking tight end, James also averaged 14.1 yards per catch last season — a hint, perhaps, that there’s more to come from him as a receiver. He is a better three-down blocker and slightly more athletic option than Levine Toilolo was last season. Again, an improvement.
Neither Amendola nor James solves the Lions’ need for a big-play threat inside, but they do put Quinn in position to chase that player via free agency or the draft. If the Lions did nothing else on offense save for add someone to compete at right guard, they’d be in better shape for 2019 than at the tail end of 2018 because they have trustworthy options at slot and inline tight end.
We should temper the expectations, because success in March can be hard to carry over into September or October. Even with that in mind, though, it’s fair to acknowledge that the Lions’ roster looks more formidable now.
Quinn spent offseason No. 1 of the Patricia era mending fences and trying to piece together a decent club. He’s about to open Year 2 by throwing just about everything he’s got into this free-agent class.
No guts, no glory, as it were. This is gonna be interesting.
(Top photo of Trey Flowers: Jay Biggerstaff/USA TODAY Sports)
Chris Burke is an NFL staff editor for The Athletic and can be heard on the "One of These Years" podcast. Previously, he worked as The Athletic's Detroit Lions beat writer. Before coming to The Athletic, he covered the NFL for Sports Illustrated and was an NFL editor at AOL FanHouse. A native of Grand Rapids, Mich., Burke graduated from the University of Michigan. Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisBurkeNFL
