Thursday open thread: Do you want the Lions to sign OT Cyrus Kouandjio?

The Detroit Lions will resume organized team activities on Thursday, but the major question surrounding the team is will they have a new offensive tackle at practice?

Taylor Decker suffered an injury last week and had surgery on his shoulder on Monday. Since then, the teams has split first-team reps at left tackle between Joe Dahl and Cornelius Lucas.

It appears the Lions aren’t completely satisfied with that look, as free agent tackle Cyrus Kouandjio was on his way to Detroit on Tuesday night to meet with the Lions. So today’s Question of the Day is:

Do you want the Lions to sign Cyrus Kouandjio?

My answer: If this were completely based on talent alone, it would be an easy yes from me. Kouandjio was pretty impressive as a backup left tackle in 2016, starting five games and earning a very respectable grade from Pro Football Focus:

However, Kouandjio suffered a serious hip injury in his home in January, resulting in surgery. After the surgery, the Bills announced that he should be ready for training camp, but that likely means Kouandjio’s injury would keep him out of the remaining few OTA practices and next week’s mandatory minicamp. That is valuable time for a new player, especially one that would be competing for one of the most important positions on the Lions offense.

That being said, I think it would still be worth it to add Kouandjio, as long as he meets two conditions. First, he must pass a medical examination confirming that he’ll be ready by training camp, at the latest. Second, Detroit can sign him to a relatively cheap deal—I’m talking $3 million or less.

Detroit doesn’t want to invest too much in Kouandjio, as he’s likely only a stop-gap replacement, and his injury history is too much of a risk. That being said, if Kouandjio can recover quickly, he could be the adequate left tackle replacement that is rare to find at this point in the offseason and would be just what the Lions need right now.

Your turn.