According to John Niyo of the Detroit Free Press, John Thornton has turned down an offer to play for Detroit next year:
" I would probably have to gain weight. That was the situation with Detroit [and] Coach [Jim] Schwartz, who coached me in Tennessee.
"I went up there and we kind of agreed to a deal and a few days later I sort of backed out of it for various reasons," Thornton added. "I would have had to gain about 20 pounds actually. He wanted me to be pretty big in the middle, so I would just have to start eating a lot. I'm in pretty good shape."
"I wouldn't be able to come back right now and play 60 plays, but I don't think anybody can right now."
It's nice to see that Schwartz is sticking to his "Get Bigger, Get Better" mantra and not bending on it just to get a solid free agent. It's also nice to see a player turn us down for a reason other than "it's the Lions".
Essentially this leaves Kevin Carter or even possibly Simeon Rice to help out our defensive line, unless some players get released during training camp or leading to training camp to make it to 80-players, but obviously these cuts aren't exactly the cream of the crop. Perhaps we could organize another trade before training camp for a solid DT. Only time will tell.
Heres a link to the original article:
