Let the Honolulu Blue Kool Aid Flow Ladies And Gentlemen, T.J. Lang Is Now A Detroit Lion
According to the Detroit Free Press, T.J. Lang, Pro-bowler (2016) guard formerly of the Green Bay Packers, is now donning the jersey he always should have worn. As a product of both Birmingham Brother Rice and Eastern Michigan, Lang reportedly picked the Lions over offers from Seattle and Atlanta to play for the team he rooted for as a youngster. As Dave Birkett noted, the feeling of playing at Ford Field instilled a drive to come home, “…it’s a combination of just staying here year round with my family and just trying to be a part of something special here was just too good for me to pass up.”
Lions fans couldn’t be happier. At $28.5M ($19M guaranteed) and roughly $9.5M a year, the Lions are paying about a million more per year than winning back Larry Warford (4 years at $34M, $17M guaranteed with New Orleans at $8.5M per year according to spotrac) and getting a better guard. Combined with the move for Wagner at RT, Bob Quinn has boosted an arguably average and unspectacular right side of the offensive line, signed a good blocking TE, and given credit to his efforts to keep Matthew Stafford clean in the pocket, while leaving some money to deal with Stafford’s impending extension.
Pro Football Focus’s eighth ranked guard of 2016 will be a valued addition to the 2017 roster and it remains to be seen what depth signings are still in the works, but it would seem that the major free agent signing from this portion are over and the Lions may be on the right side of it. Many a Lions fan goes through the off-season with unwarranted optimism but with the moves this front office has executed during its tenure, fans can’t help but get excited that the future we all want is not too far around the corner.
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