FanPost

Call me Crazy but....

If we really want to keep Avril, it seems to me that we might have to make a sacrifice somewhere else along the Defensive line. In my mind, that means one of two players we love will probably not be coming back next season. Those two players, IMHO, are KVB and CWill. Before I go any farther, I want to make it clear. I love both of these two guys and everything they bring to the team. That said, lets have a look at their salaries and numbers.

KVB will be a 5 million dollar cap hit for the next two years, then UFA.

Stats for his Detroit Lion career....

  1. 2010 49 tackles, 4 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 0 fumble recovery 0 int.
  2. 2011 35 tackles, 8 sacks, 4 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery 0 int.

CWill will be slightly over a 6 million dollar for this next season, then UFA.

Stats for his Detroit Lion career....

  1. 2010 37 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble, 0 fumble recovery, 1 int.
  2. 2011 31 tackles, 2 sacks, 0 forced fumble, 0 fumble recovery, 0 int.

Wow, how does a person choose? This is not an easy breakdown. Neither guy appears to be falling off in stats and their performance on the field seems to back that up. We had one game this season without C Will and it SUUUUUUUUCKED. KVB played the entire season and his motor never seemed to drop off. Both guys have been leaders on the team, KVB is far more media hyped in this area but CWill's leadership has been felt (wish I could remember the situations, but he has called people out correctly, more than once).

I guess what I am getting here is how do you decide?

You could take into consideration how well the team played last season when KVB was out of the lineup. The production from his position when he was sidelined did not seem to drop off. We have a lot of young talent behind him waiting for a chance to show what they have. Moving his would allow those young guys a chance. All that said, he is a beast. He never lets up. He pushes himself harder than any player I have ever seen and that passion and work ethic bleed off to the rest of the team.

We do not have any extended stretches of games where CWill missed time so we can't make that comparison. That is a good thing. In fact, he has only missed one game in his last 6 seasons. That is no small feat among DTs. I believe (I am sure some will disagree) he has been our most consistent DT this season. He is a strong middle man. He eats up double teams more often that people realize and can cause nightmares in the backfield. He is one of few players on our D line that, IMHO, is underrated.

I know there are always other options to make room under the salary cap but this is just one scenario that came to my mind today. I know players can renegotiate their deals to make room and all that. I would like to hear some other scenarios. Being right on top of the Salary cap, having a draft class coming in and needing to resign several players makes cap hit renegotiation less likely to be the answer for Avril to me. What do you think?

P.S. We are currently at 50-50 split right now. I do not envy Mayhew's job this off season.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.