How Long Will Calvin Johnson Hang Around?

…to fill the team with more talent, but Calvin may still be a once in a lifetime type of talent. If Stafford is going to develop into the player the Lions need him to be I think it would only hurt them to not have a player of Calvin’s caliber helping him out.
That being said, the team is going to have to start showing some signs of improvement (by way of victories) if they are going to convince Calvin to stick around for very long.

This is business

That’s because I have faith that Mayhew and Schwartz can right this ship. Right now we suck because we’re recovering from a complete tear-down of our roster, and we’re heavily dependent on rookies to get the job done, which, more often than not, they won’t.

Next year, we will be a better team. Our 2009 draft class—Stafford, Grew, Delmas, Levy, Hill, Brown, and the others—will have their rookie seasons behind them, and we will see their upside materialize. They will be more consistent performers—guys who can win games. Hopefully, we’ll still have some of our solid veterans like Foote and Peterson, but we’ll still have a relatively young team, with a lot of new rookies on the D-Line, the O-Line, and in the secondary needing to contribute immediately. It will be an up-and-down year, as opposed to the down-and-downer that we’re used to.

Then, in 2011, the talent base of our team will be almost wholly renewed and refreshed from the dark days of the Millen era. We will have a wide and deep base of talent, young and coming into their prime, ready to consistently push for the playoffs.

I don’t believe Calvin Johnson will want to leave when his contract expires. He will have worked so hard and seen the team hit rock bottom and climb so far from 2008 that I just don’t see him wanting to jump ship right when the team is right on the cusp of becoming a consistent contender.

He’ll be expensive to resign—good players always are, but he will be resigned.

Would 2 or 3 draft picks translate into players whose cumulative value is as good as an elite WR like Calvin Johnson? Maybe, maybe not. But what we lose is time. We need guys who are already contributing right now and for the next few years as we rebuild. We have enough holes on our roster that trading away the one guy who most helps our struggling offense, in exchange for a handful of rookies who will also struggle initially—I think that move would push us backward, not forward.

Losing CJ will also hurt Matthew Stafford’s development as a quarterback. One of the best things you can give a young qb is an elite target to throw to—somebody who opens up the field and makes other things on offense possible.

I believe Calvin Johnson is worth more to the Lions, now and in the future, than what we could get for him in draft picks. Don’t trade him. We get seven draft picks every single season. We’ll have plenty of opportunities to rebuild every position on the field. What we need are guys on our team who opponents have to respect on every play—guys who elevate the players around them. Calvin Johnson is one of them. He’s a cornerstone to this team, and I don’t want to see him traded for “future” “potentially good” players. That will just make us worse immediately and stretch out our rebuild over the long term.

If we keep trading good players for draft picks, we’re never going to have a good team though.

We get 7 picks every draft. We’ll build a solid talent base, I believe our FO will make that happen.

We don’t need to trade away talented, young cornerstones of our team for draft picks.

But then again it’s Millen and we would have nothing to show for it now. If that kind of trade came along with Mayhew and Schwartz though we would have to take it. That is just too many players to pass up on. And not to mention those players could come in and make an immediate impact.

They won with a bunch of decent receivers and a great team all around. At this point we need so much on this team that if we get 2 high picks and a future pro-bowl player who is in their 1st or 2nd year then yes it’s worth it because it upgrades multiple positions. We can’t be great at just one position and expect to win. It’s about the talent of the overall team not the talent of one receiver.

I know everybody, including me, loves Calvin but the fact is you don’t build a team around a receiver. You build around the lines and QB. Then you fill the rest in with talent and depth. It’s not like you HAVE to have a top tier receiver to win. It helps but it has been proven throughout history that the lines, QB’s, and defenses are way more important to a championship team.

I’m not saying trade him right now but if a solid offer that improves the TEAM comes along I’m all for it. Football is more of a team game than any other sport and that’s why it’s more important to have a balanced team all over and not just one wide receiver to win in the NFL.

Every great team has had at least a few outstanding players.

When we end up with an outstanding player, I think it’s a lot better to look at “how can we use him?”, “how can we scheme to get the most out of him?”, not “what can we get for him?”

I think the only times we should look to trade a talented young player are if he’s underperforming, if he wants out, if he doesn’t fit the scheme, or as part of a trade for a player who is a better fit. Otherwise, why trade somebody who is going to be great now and in the future for a handful of guys we hope might be good in the future?

………..we’ll be average.

I don’t want to be average. I want to win a Super Bowl.

I also can’t believe that we are having this discussion. Trade away one of the best young receivers in the league? Have you seen what we have for receivers behind Johnson? Wouldn’t we then have to use one of those compensatory draft picks on…. wait for it…. a receiver???

Makes absolutely no sense whatsover and no offense to anyone here that wants to trade Calvin, but I personally think it’s beyond ridiculous. You do not become a good team by trading your best players away. We have so few to begin with. I know the thought process… what if we can get three great players for Calvin. That is a massive IF. Calvin is the model player. He is smart, reserved, hard-working… what more do we Lion’s fans want? If he becomes lazy or a distraction or a malcontent… then you have to make a choice. Shaun Rogers is a perfect example of that. But I think that is extremely unlikely. I hope Calvin is a Lion for life. This discussion is akin to trading Barry Sanders. Both just as talented, it’s just that Calvin doesn’t get the ball as much. Would you trade Barry? If anyone answers yes… a virtual headslap is coming your way.

Calvin Johnson is one of the foundational players on this team along with our most talented overall player. The thought of the Lions actually trading him might be enough for me to walk away from this team for good, because then I would know that the front office is truly clueless.

times infinity