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JohnnyMusso
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According to TSN this morning, the Riders, Als and yes our BC Lions are interested in Derel Walker and Lions may have inside track because of Walker's history with Hervey.

Do Lions need Walker? Yes he would improve them, but they are already front loaded with highly paid receivers in Durant and Burnham and I feel their money could be spent better, especially on defence. Having said that I would not be surprised if Hervey signs him for seems to be his style to overpay a few players and go cheap elsewhere.

Lions interested in James Franklin too.
Last edited by JohnnyMusso on Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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B.C.FAN
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JohnnyMusso wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:41 am
According to TSN this morning, the Riders, Als and yes our BC Lions are interested in Derel Walker and Lions may have inside track because of Walker's history with Hervey.

Do Lions need Walker? Yes he would improve them, but they are already front loaded with highly paid receivers in Durant and Burnham and I feel their money could be spent better, especially on defence. Having said that I would not be surprised if Hervey signs him for seems to be his style to overpay a few players and go cheap elsewhere.

Lions interested in James Franklin too.
Derel Walker is a luxury that the Lions probably can't afford but I'm afraid that Ed Hervey will overpay to get a shiny new tool on offence while leaving the defence to be rebuilt again from spare parts. The Lions have four vacancies in the secondary and they could use upgrades at middle linebacker and all four DL positions. Last year Hervey jettisoned 18 free agents, mostly on defence. By the time the rebuilt defence started to gel, the Lions were winless and out of the playoffs.
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SammyGreene
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:00 am
JohnnyMusso wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:41 am
According to TSN this morning, the Riders, Als and yes our BC Lions are interested in Derel Walker and Lions may have inside track because of Walker's history with Hervey.

Do Lions need Walker? Yes he would improve them, but they are already front loaded with highly paid receivers in Durant and Burnham and I feel their money could be spent better, especially on defence. Having said that I would not be surprised if Hervey signs him for seems to be his style to overpay a few players and go cheap elsewhere.

Lions interested in James Franklin too.
Derel Walker is a luxury that the Lions probably can't afford but I'm afraid that Ed Hervey will overpay to get a shiny new tool on offence while leaving the defence to be rebuilt again from spare parts. The Lions have four vacancies in the secondary and they could use upgrades at middle linebacker and all four DL positions. Last year Hervey jettisoned 18 free agents, mostly on defence. By the time the rebuilt defence started to gel, the Lions were winless and out of the playoffs.
It sure seems like Hervey is just taking his roster formula from a year ago and carrying into 2020 despite a 5-13 record. Walker would basically replace Carter who was one of his FA prizes last February, except at a higher price. this time

So Lions will got into free agency tomorrow with a payroll that already looks like this at the top:
Reilly $700,000
Chungh $250,000
Burnham $202,000
Durant $193,000

I'm guessing Aaron Grimes or TJ Lee is their highest paid defensive player under contract. Maybe Micah Johnson will be a defensive signing slotted in the $200,000 range but it's also going to take at least that to sign Walker too. Just crazy to potentially have three of your six highest paid players be receivers.
TheLionKing
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Lions need to improve their defence more than the offence.
JohnnyMusso
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If Hervey signs Walker to a $200,000 contract or more, he should be fired. How the owner and President were so blind to not seeing that Hervey, not Claybrooks, was the main reason Lions bombed last year is mind blogging. If he screws up again this year with bad signings and completely rebuilds the defence with not much money left over, Lions will again be dead last in the West and a better coach will not change their fate.

Defence wins championships and Lions defence may end up the worst in the league made up of rookies, NFL castoffs, cheap pickups and a few good players who make a decent salary.
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squishy35
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Sounds like the Lions are not going to keep Lemon as he prepares for FA tomorrow. Hopefully there are some significant names signed tomorrow on the Defensive side of the ball.
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The_Pauser
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I would be thrilled to have Walker here for $200k. He has chemistry with Reilly and makes our offense a dangerous threat.

I would also be fine cutting Sukh Chungh's salary, as our offensive line really improved without him. Cut him and re-allocate those funds towards Walker or the defense.

On offensive line I would go with Figueroa-Steward-Godber-Norman-Knevel
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Hambone
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Just curious. Was Chungh ever actually healthy last year? Right from Day 1 he didn't seem to be his usual nasty self. He played the first 5 games of the season. Then he sat 3 with injury. He would come back for 3 more before being shut down for the rest of the season.
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Dusty
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IIRC, one of the reasons that Walker had chemistry with Reilly was that Duke Williams was also part of the receiving core. It likely caused coverage concerns which may have resulted in Walker being isolated one-on-one as the safety had to slide over to cover Duke. I see the same potential happening with Burnham and Walker, provided that the offensive schemes allow for it.
JohnnyMusso
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I would have no problem with the Walker signing, if the salary cap allowed for it. But if it means we go cheap again on defence I am against it. In my view, unless the Lions cut salary it makes no sense. Also who will be in their Front 4 on Defence? If they lose Lemon and sign Micah Johnson, who will fill the other 3 spots. Will they resign an aging Willis, who looked done last year? Will they start 3 rookies? Also they need a serious upgrade in the linebacking core, but that does not seem to be a priority. I notice Foster signed with the Riders today. I don't understand why he was let go, for he played well for us.

Looks like Lions are not going to resign any of their remaining free agents before tomorrow.
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The_Pauser
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Dusty wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 4:00 pm
IIRC, one of the reasons that Walker had chemistry with Reilly was that Duke Williams was also part of the receiving core. It likely caused coverage concerns which may have resulted in Walker being isolated one-on-one as the safety had to slide over to cover Duke. I see the same potential happening with Burnham and Walker, provided that the offensive schemes allow for it.
That probably helped, but Walker put up 1589 yards receiving back in 2016. A year before Williams arrived in Edmonton.
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The_Pauser
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JohnnyMusso wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:47 pm
I would have no problem with the Walker signing, if the salary cap allowed for it. But if it means we go cheap again on defence I am against it. In my view, unless the Lions cut salary it makes no sense. Also who will be in their Front 4 on Defence? If they lose Lemon and sign Micah Johnson, who will fill the other 3 spots. Will they resign an aging Willis, who looked done last year? Will they start 3 rookies? Also they need a serious upgrade in the linebacking core, but that does not seem to be a priority. I notice Foster signed with the Riders today. I don't understand why he was let go, for he played well for us.

Looks like Lions are not going to resign any of their remaining free agents before tomorrow.
I have to think that Jonathan Newsom is penciled in for a spot on that D-line. I don't know why they released Korey Toomer who looked very good at the end of the season last year. He would have been a good cheap option for the D-line.
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JohnnyMusso
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Forgot about Newsome. So that leaves 3 spots open and I hope Willis is not resigned.
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The_Pauser
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JohnnyMusso wrote:
Mon Feb 10, 2020 7:42 pm
Forgot about Newsome. So that leaves 3 spots open and I hope Willis is not resigned.
Me too. Willis is done.
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Hambone
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I'm guessing Toomer asked for his release, possibly just so he could be free to go to the XFL or maybe get one last shot at the NFL. That may have been a condition he wanted met before he signed with BC. He was great on special teams but didn't really see a lot of defensive reps. I'm thinking he wasn't too keen on coming bacl for more or that at 31 leaving CFL as his 4th option after NFL, XFL and moving on to life after football.
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