Getty Kenny Golladay prior to a game in Philadelphia.
The Detroit Lions are beginning to outline the future of some of their top free agents, and the biggest decision they have to make revolves around wideout Kenny Golladay.
Detroit could tag Golladay, or they could simply let him walk into free agency to sign with someone else. At this point, it seems as if the Lions would be more likely to use the tag, but how will things play out when the free agency period actually starts?
Recently, Bleacher Report made a projection about what happens with all the free agent wideouts. When it came to Detroit, writer Maurice Moton had a major projection about what the team will do. When it comes to Golladay, Moton thinks he will be sticking around.
Predicting Where the Top WRs Land in Free Agency
— Allen Robinson: NYJ
— Chris Godwin: NE
— Kenny Golladay: DET
— Antonio Brown: TB
— T.Y. Hilton: IND
— JuJu: JAX
— Corey Davis: BAL
— Will Fuller V: WFT
— Nelson Agholor: IND
(via @MoeMoton)
Moton wrote:
“Goff will need some weapons in Detroit. The team’s top three wideouts, Golladay, Marvin Jones Jr. and Danny Amendola, all have expiring contracts. The front office should make an attempt to keep at least one of the three.
Still 27 years old, Golladay could have a place in Detroit’s rebuild. Holmes and Campbell may want to see him prove it, though. The Lions should retain the fourth-year wideout on the franchise tag even at the risk of a holdout.”
It’s true that the Lions need someone to catch some passes from Jared Goff, and Golladay could form a nice tandem with the young quarterback moving forward. Technically, the Lions could draft a wideout as well, but it seems as if bringing Golladay back and adding to depth with a selection would be the wisest move for the team.
Whether this plays out remains to be seen, but at this point, the move is being projected.
Lions Franchise Tag Deadline Approaching
The Lions have some time to decide what happens next with Golladay given where the NFL calendar currently is. The period for franchise or transition tags from February 23 until March 9, just ahead of the start of the new league year. It seems almost certain that the Lions will approach this like they have been recommended to by Pro Football Focus, with Brad Holmes slapping the tag on Golladay, then working a deal out over the course of the 2021 season.
It’s impossible to know what Holmes is thinking, but having Golladay around to work with Jared Goff would seem to be the wisest course of action for the team at this point in time as Moton and others have pointed out.
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Lions Front Office Will Make Decision on Kenny Golladay
With 3,068 yards and 21 touchdowns thus far in his career coming into the 2021 season on the field after being a third-round pick in 2017, Golladay looks like an obvious top dog in Detroit for the foreseeable future no matter who is playing quarterback and a clear home grown talent. He proved that to be the case in 2020 itself with 338 yards and 2 scores in spite of missing most of the season with nagging injuries.
Even in spite of all of that, the Lions have plenty of things going on multiple fronts. Dan Campbell, Brad Holmes, Ray Agnew and John Dorsey are now in control of the direction of the team. Obviously, this means that Golladay’s future is firmly up in the air considering it will be hard to say what a new staff will think of handing out a big deal to a wideout, no matter how important Golladay might be. Holmes said the Lions want to retool and not rebuild, so keeping a guy like Golladay around could play into that, especially given the depth the Lions are slated to lose at wideout.
Golladay has maintained he wants to stay and seems to have good thoughts about Dan Campbell. Will that be good news for the Lions? Some think there could be a marriage between the sides on the franchise tag.
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