Mike Payton talks from the NFL head coach meetings in Florida, discussing the analogy that Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes used today, to explain why the Lions were very quiet during NFL free agency.
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00:00The Detroit Lions need to pay the mortgage before they can go on vacation.
00:06What does that mean?
00:07Well, let's talk about it.
00:08Hi, I'm Mike Payne from A to Z Sports Detroit, and today we're going to talk about the analogy
00:14that Brad Holmes made to us here in Palm Beach, Florida at the NFL Owners Meeting.
00:21He talked about how a lot of Lions fans were really kind of maybe upset or thought that
00:27Brad Holmes was ignoring the edge rusher spot or was perhaps not looking into the splash
00:35of it all in free agency.
00:37Well, that's because he, and this is how we put it, the Lions have to pay the mortgage.
00:43He talked about the financial responsibilities that we all face every day, whether it's your
00:48mortgage, your college fund, your insurance, your utilities, all your streamers that you
00:54pay for, your cable.
00:57And that was sort of a metaphor for guys like Brian Branch and Jameer Gibbs, Sam LaPorta,
01:03all these guys that are on the team right now, Aiden Hutchinson as well.
01:06These are the guys that the Lions want to maintain.
01:09That's the house that they already live in.
01:11That's the mortgage they got to pay to make sure they can live in that house.
01:16And the vacation is going out and getting those splash guys.
01:18And the Lions right now feel like they're not in a position where they can go on vacation.
01:24They do not want to go out and make the splash signings.
01:27They do not want to go out and make a huge trade for a Myles Garrett or Max Crosby.
01:33Well, there were reports that the Lions were certainly interested in maybe trying to trade
01:38those for those guys and they made phone calls on them.
01:42But all the language that you've heard from the combine to here at the league meetings
01:46has been, we want to save money.
01:49We want to utilize all the assets that we have in keeping the guys that we have on the
01:55roster here.
01:56And that is such a big point to get across.
02:00And while Holmes emphasizes with Lions fans and believes that, you know, that could be
02:05kind of boring and the Lions may need a few pieces here or there in order to go win that
02:11Super Bowl.
02:12And maybe that's a splash player.
02:14The point is you want to keep the stars that you already have.
02:18And that's the house that you live in.
02:20And you can go on vacation at some point, maybe after you win a Super Bowl.
02:25And that's kind of the thing is the next year that you go forward, you've got Jameer Gibbs,
02:31Brian Branch, Sam Laporta, Jack Campbell, all those guys are going to have bills due
02:36on them.
02:37So when Holmes was asked if there would be a vacation next year, he said, probably not.
02:42And it probably won't be one after 2027 either.
02:46This is going to be a long-term project of keeping the guys that the Lions have.
02:49They want to draft and retain.
02:51And then as we go into the NFL draft in April, hopefully they can pick some more guys that
02:56they can draft and retain.
02:58So we'll see what happens going forward.
03:00Until then, we will see you guys next time.