With Others On The Roster Doing Well At His Position, Is Tavon Wilson Needed In 2018?
Coming to the Detroit Lions in 2016, safety Tavon Wilson didn’t have much playing time. He was on the New England Patriots for four seasons, only starting four games. When arriving in Detroit, his role was going to need to be bigger, he was going to need to turn into a starting safety.
His first two seasons were impressive, and while they weren’t All-Pro or Pro Bowl levels of play, they are still starter numbers and execution. Wilson signed a two year $2.2 million dollar deal back in 2016 and it was a low-risk contract. It has turned out well for the team, but with an injury that raised some questions, Wilson’s future is up in the air with the team right now.
Tavon Wilson Is In Tough Position
Since coming to Detroit, Wilson has done well starting in 25 of the 32 games, getting 142 total tackles, four pass deflections, three interceptions, three sacks, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble.
Wilson suffered a shoulder injury during the season, forcing him to miss the final six games of the season.When Wilson went down, fans alike were wondering who would take over for the safety, many fingers pointing to second year safety Miles Killebrew.
In stepped cornerback Quandre Diggs.
Diggs played more of a slot cornerback position during the 2016 and 2017 season, but when asked to move to safety, Diggs stepped up. Diggs went from averaging 2.3 tackles in the first 10 games, to 3.5 in the final six games. Diggs also was able to get three interceptions in those six games, getting zero in the first 10.
Diggs showing that he can also play safety leaves Detroit in a tough spot. Do they stick with Wilson, promote Diggs to starting strong safety, draft a replacement, find one in free agency, or give the job to somebody else on the roster?
Re-Sign Or Rebuild Tavon Wilson?
Re-sign if they are smart. Keeping Wilson for another year or two won’t be a horrible idea. Wilson won’t be asking for much more money, as he has earned some more cash, teams may not be willing to give him as much as the Lions would. Trusting Diggs to start at that position with a new head coach and defensive coordinator might be too much and Wilson has worked with head coach Matt Patricia before, so he could know the system better than anyone else on the defense.
If Detroit decides to pass on Wilson and keeps Diggs at cornerback, three safeties they could sign in free agency that could start for the Lions are T.J. Ward from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kenny Vaccaro from the New Orleans Saints, and Eric Reid from the San Francisco 49ers.
Now that isn’t the only place they could look for a safety, they could look at the NFL draft and if they want a few players there, Marcus Allen from Penn State, Tre Flowers from Oklahoma State, or Kyzir White from West Virginia are three of the many options for the Lions.
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