Roughly 5 million/year for 5 years. Big contract! What does everyone expect of him? I dont watch the Rams at all, is he a "shutdown" corner?

I hope he can solidify half of the secondary, maybe in time be in the Pro Bowl(he hasnt gone right?).

When a free agent signs so quickly for so much money, it always leads me to believe the team overpaid.

Wow did the Lions get hosed , this guy is making Patrick Surtain money. Im sure they could have got a guy just as good if not this guy much cheaper. All in all for the money, I believe it was a bad signing. Tyrone Williams or Denard Walker are just as good and could be had at a lower cost.

Yeah, they probably overpaid, but, they would have to overpay in order to get decent players. It's not like they can offer a chance at the Super Bowl in the next couple years, so they have to offer them something other teams cant, and in the Lion's case its unfortunately going to have to be more money.

As for the signing itself, I like the move, now we need to re-sign Claiborne and pick up an outside linebacker in free agency and we will be in a much more solid position heading into the draft.

The Lions seem to have a thing for the #3 man on the Rams depth chart.

I believe the signing is a good move for the Lions. They desperately needed help in the secondary and needed some more speed and got it in Bly.

Bly is a decent CB, but he's not worth anything near that much.

They overpaid to make sure they could get a deal done quickly to prevent him from signing with the Vikings.

I'm happy with the signing. I do believe we may have overpaid him a bit, but right now, the Lions are not going to sign many free agents who get similar offers from other teams. If we would have offered Bly less, another team would have probably offered him the same and he probably wouldn't be a Lion right now.

True, Gold, but overpaying is still overpaying and kills your salary cap in the long run.

I don't know if anyone would have given Bly that contract. I think that's why he signed. His agent must have blow his wad when he saw that contract and couldn't get Bly's name on it fast enough. If Bly turned it down, the Lions would probably have thrown that deal at Tyrone Poole or someone of his ilk. Then who would be left to throw $25 mil at Bly?

But that's free agency in the NFL. The first few players who sign every year are overpaid. The bunch in the middle sign for around market value. Players who wait too long end up signing below market value because teams simply don't have enough money.

The Chiefs have been notorious for pinching their pennies early and then scrambling to find guys. That worked when they bagged Priest Holmes for pocket change, but that's about the only case where it did. Now I read in the paper today that the Chiefs are trying to get Shawn Barber to sign before he leaves town today to see the Rams. He's a great player, but I have no doubt that if he signs, it will be for too much. It will probably also take us out of the Hugh Douglass sweepstakes.

If the lions need to improve themselves why not try to trade Mike Mcmahon for a draft pick since they have Harrington to start anyway. McMahon will definately leave once he is eleigible for free agency and it seems to waste a guy that may get a pick from another team.

Originally posted by dread
If the lions need to improve themselves why not try to trade Mike Mcmahon for a draft pick since they have Harrington to start anyway. McMahon will definately leave once he is eleigible for free agency and it seems to waste a guy that may get a pick from another team.

Because they don't have anybody else who they would trust to go into a game situation (Ty Detmer, ugh) and they want somebody who can step in and spell Harrington if needed. To go out and sign a free agent would take even more cap money they don't need to spend, and they aren't going to use a draft pick on one either.

Originally posted by ice4277
As for the signing itself, I like the move, now we need to re-sign Claiborne and pick up an outside linebacker in free agency and we will be in a much more solid position heading into the draft.

I was hoping that Claiborne would sign elsewhere personally.

It'd be nice to see him playing in purple next year.

I talked about this in another thread. Like everyone else here has sadi the Lions way overpaid for Bly. I am a Rams fan so I have seen every game Bly has played. He is a solid cover man, but he doesn't like contact and he gambles way too much.

He is like a very poor man's Deion Sanders. But he isn't good enough to make up for the risks he takes. I think he will improve the Lions secondary, and he lucked out being the only decent CB in free agency. But he just isn't worth the amount of money they paid.

Actually, while Bly probably got overpaid, his deal really isn't a future cap killer. It's not back loaded so while a ~$5 million cap figure each year is probably a lot for Bly at least they're not setting it up to release him after 3 years with a $10 million 4th year salary.

Originally posted by mckerney
I was hoping that Claiborne would sign elsewhere personally.

It'd be nice to see him playing in purple next year.
Well, from what I've heard, its only about a 50-50 chance, if that, that he will re-sign here, so who knows what will happen.

Originally posted by mckerney
I was hoping that Claiborne would sign elsewhere personally.

It'd be nice to see him playing in purple next year.

Well he was called a coward(was the the word Millen used?) so I would guess he would prefer to go elsewhere.

Originally posted by ice4277
Because they don't have anybody else who they would trust to go into a game situation (Ty Detmer, ugh) and they want somebody who can step in and spell Harrington if needed. To go out and sign a free agent would take even more cap money they don't need to spend, and they aren't going to use a draft pick on one either.


I completely agree with you. You really own a player for his first four years in the league. If they will trade McMahon, it'll be in 2004 when he's either in the last year of his deal (not sure how long his rooke contract was) or in the year where they've tendered him his RFA money. This looks to be his last year with the Lions. Hopefully after this season he'll begin to do Rutgers proud. At least we're one of not too many schools who have 2 QB's in the league.