This week, the Detroit Lions traded Golden Tate to the Philadelphia Eagles for a third-round draft pick. Personally, I absolutely LOVED the trade from the moment it happened because my belief was that Tate was going to demand too much money to stay in the Motor City. But there were plenty of other writers who were knocking the Lions for “waving the white flag” on the season and saying this move could send a bad message to the locker room. Some even disliked the trade because they actually believed the Lions could make a run towards the Super Bowl with Tate in the lineup. (Laughable)
http://gty.im/1058028400
So, I wrote a piece calling those people out and praising the Lions for making the trade.
Now, a couple of reports have surfaced that are helping my case.
First, on Saturday, a tweet surfaced from Yahoo! NFL reporter Charles Robinson that said Tate’s camp could be looking to get a contract worth north of $15 million per season, which is absolutely insane.
Key word: Ask. Do I think Tate is going to get 15-16 mil a year? At 31 this offseason? Unlikely. But Tate’s camp is looking at his production and using the Jarvis Landry deal with the #Browns as a template for comparison. Which would make sense, except that Landry is far younger. https://t.co/fzSmNCTrlx
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) October 31, 2018
Then, a report from Albert Breer on Sunday claims the Lions actually made Tate a contract offer before trading him. (As I suspected)
From Sports Illustrated:
“As for the Lions, the departure of Golden Tate should open opportunity for Kenny Golladay, though the second-year pro was already getting extra attention from defenses. And T.J. Jones is likely to get a good portion of the playing time that has opened up. Remember, it’s not like the Lions were dying to see Tate go—they’d offered him a new contract and drove a hard bargain with suitors on the trade market.”
Now, nobody believes the Lions think they are a better team at the present moment without Golden Tate, which is why they were attempting to work out a deal with him. That being said, the two sides had been in talks and the Lions clearly got the vibe that Tate was not likely to sign an extension that would be team friendly moving forward.
Once again, trading Tate was a no-brainer for Bob Quinn and these reports back that up.
GO LIONS!
