Did the Lions win or lose the Greg Robinson trade? Twitter reacts

Whenever a somewhat significant trade happens in the NFL when other news is scarce, everyone jumps into the conversation of who they thought won or lost the trade. Thursday was no exception, when the Detroit Lions sent a 2018 sixth-round pick to the Los Angeles Rams for offensive tackle Greg Robinson.

For the most part, Robinson was getting hammered by critics left and right. There’s no doubt that his time with the Rams was a failure, but is there any reason for optimism? Let’s take a look at all of the reactions throughout Twitter, starting with the positive.

Here’s the good news

Former Lions offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz thinks that Robinson could actually be a fairly good fit with Detroit, especially when it comes to improving their run game.

Schwartz brings up a good point in that the Lions offense is much more fast-paced than the Rams and that could mitigate the damage of Robinson’s struggles.

Zac Snyder of Detroit Jock City made an important point in his “best case scenario” for Robinson’s time in Detroit:

Robinson will be an unrestricted free agent in 2018, so if he plays well enough this year and signs a significant contract with another team next offseason, the Lions could theoretically earn back the sixth-round pick they sent to Los Angeles in the form of a compensatory pick in the 2019 draft.

Here’s an optimistic take on the trade from Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat writer Trevor Sikkema:

NFL Draft analyst Jon Ledyard seems to agree:

The bad

There aren’t a lot of positives from Robinson’s three years in the NFL, and Twitter made sure everyone knew about it.

Much has been made about Robinson’s penalty-prone game. Bill Shea shared an article that says Robinson has been “the most penalized player in the NFL for the last three seasons.”

Can we get a reaction out of you, Turf Show Times?

Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole also shared this troubling, but unsubstantiated, piece of information:

For what it’s worth, both Turf Show Times and Rams Wire doubt the validity of this claim.

If Pro Football Focus is your thing, Ryan Mathews has some bad news for you:

Money talks

By trading for Robinson, the Lions acquired the final year of his contract, worth $3.32 million, all of which is guaranteed. That is a pretty hefty contract to take on, but Scott Warheit put that number in its proper context:

Scott is right, but there’s also the scenario in which Greg Robinson doesn’t beat out out Cornelius Lucas and/or Corey Robinson. In that case, the Lions would still have to eat Robinson’s $3.3 million while continuing to pay Lucas’ $1.8 million.

That all being said, the Rams seem to be pretty happy about getting that $3.3 million off of their books.

One person saw this coming

Eric Edholm of Yahoo! Sports apparently saw this move coming from miles away. Edholm knew that Robinson was well out of favor in Los Angeles and had seen this kind of move before. From exactly two weeks ago:

Obviously, Edholm couldn’t have known at the time that Taylor Decker was injured and he missed the draft pick year by one, but that’s still pretty impressive.

Your turn

Time for you to grade the trade: