Lions Shedding the Pounds...

Well so much for stealth tactics. The Detroit Lions not so secret secret plan to trade Shaun Rogers has become well known and according to ESPN2's First Take, the Lions are willing to release him outright for nothing if they can't find another team. The Lions have since backtracked and said that's not true (note: that was written in a Mike Gundy voice). However, the cat is out of the bag and the damage is done and I'm pretty sure the rest of the league knows that Shaun Rogers only plays with enough consistency to keep him on a roster these days.

Rogers is such a tantalizing mix of talent and laziness. He led the Lions in sacks with 7 this season (a career high). He's been to two Pro-Bowls as well. Yet when you watch him week in and week out over the course of an entire season, he leaves you wanting more. He was a dominant player during the Lions surprising 6-2 start (highlighted by a 66 yard interception return for a touchdown against Denver), yet disappeared during their 6 game losing streak that knocked them out of the playoffs. Rogers came off of a knee injury and showed up overweight and out of shape in training camp. Despite a long leash by coach Rod Marinelli, Rogers never worked his way back into top shape and his conditioning (or lack thereof) came back to bite him during the 2nd half collapse by Detroit. It's become clear seven years after he was picked in the 2nd round, his time as a Lion has come to an end. My question is, are the Lions managing this situation correctly? Come to think of it, this really is a trick question.

Rogers embodies what is wrong with the franchise, a collection of talent that can't coexist and doesn't have the motivation to do anything about it. Last year, they teased fans such as myself with that 6-2 start. However, they just weren't that good of a team. Shaun Rogers was the poster child of the team wide fade that saw them finish 7-9. I will go out and say I agree with the move they're making (or at least hilariously trying to make) shedding the dead weight of Shaun Rogers. My concern is the value they can get out of him.

For a team as bad as the Lions have been since...well, my whole life they've been a joke save for 1991, you have to make sure you get proper value for your few trade able assets. After the past two seasons, the value for Rogers has to have hit rock bottom. If he were to be traded, he would take with him a lot of money for a player whose best days years ago are still being heavily compensated.

Jettisoning a player like Shaun Rogers may be addition by subtraction by the Lions, but what can they realistically expect to get with a team? More importantly, if the Lions are serious about releasing him if they fail to make a trade, what possible motivation is there for the other 31 teams to trade draft picks as opposed to waiting until mid to late August for his release and signing him to a base minimum contract with incentives? I am happy to see the Lions doing what they should, but they may be single-handily diminishing the return on him to possibly nothing. 50 years ago when quarterback Bobby Layne was traded to Pittsburgh (following a 1957 championship) he said the Lions would not win anything for another 50 years. With Matt Millen still making the important decisions, did he end up guessing too low? *sigh* Same old Lions.