Lions Sign Dewayne White

by Sean Yuille on Mar 4, 2007 1:42 AM EST in Roster Comment 0 comments

Update [2007-3-4 12:6:38 by Sean Yuille]: The deal is now official.

Just a day after defensive end James Hall was traded to St. Louis, another player of the same position was signed as a replacement.

The Lions have signed free-agent DE Dewayne White to a five-year, $29 million deal.

Dewayne White, formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, knows the Tampa 2 system that Detroit uses and also is familiar with head coach Rod Marinelli and defensive coordinator Joe Barry as he played for both in Tampa. This is a big signing for two reasons. First, White is a great player and will be perfect on the Detroit d-line. Second, the contract is a big one. Although it may seem a little too high to some, the Lions had some money to work with and wanted to make sure the signing went down.

Much more on this specific signing later.

Moving on to a few other notes that I'll have more on later as well, the Lions are starting to turn things up regarding finding a MLB. Despite getting two solid players from Denver in the Dre' Bly trade, Rod Marinelli wanted another player to come to Detroit.

Although the Lions feel they fared well in the deal that sent cornerback Dre' Bly to Denver, landing offensive tackle George Foster and tailback Tatum Bell, the veteran player they had hoped to get in the trade was Wilson, writes ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli.

Detroit head coach Rod Marinelli was really disappointed with the middle linebacker position in 2006 and felt Wilson would have solved the problem in his Cover 2 scheme. The Broncos consistently rebuffed the Lions' efforts to have Wilson included in the trade discussions. But no one should be surprised if Detroit makes another run at Wilson, although the odds of prying him away from the Broncos are slim.

Also, ESPN's John Clayton apparently reported on his radio show that the Jets may be looking to trade up to the #2 spot in the first round. New York would want to take the Lions draft pick to select Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson.

Some of the possible trades being discussed are for the Lions and Jets to exchange first-round draft picks and then the Lions would also get a second-rounder and a player that would fill a big need. That player is Jonathan Vilma, a MLB with a ton of talent. Obviously, this is just a big rumor, but we'll have to see if anything develops as getting a player like Vilma would be great.

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