The Detroit Lions will be hosting a Thanksgiving day game tomorrow like they have for many, many years and at 3-7-1 it’s a not make or break type of game. There has however been some interest in the Lions quarterback situation for tomorrow’s game against the 5-6 Chicago Bears.
If healthy Matthew Stafford would no doubt be the Lions starting quarterback, but he’s been out the last 3 weeks with what’s being reported as broken bones in his back. The Lions haven’t placed Stafford on injured reserve and seem to be taking his injury week by week.
Jeff Driskell has started the last 3 games for the Lions at quarterback. Detroit is 0-3 with Driskell as their starting quarterback and he’s coming off of a 3 interception game last Sunday. It’s being reported that Driskell is suffering from a hamstring injury and his availability for tomorrow’s game is unclear.
Now if Driskell has to miss tomorrow’s game the Lions will turn to 3rd string quarterback David Blough. Blough is an undrafted rookie out of Purdue University who has yet to take a snap in an NFL regular season game.
Now as soon as this news broke and I’m sure you can guess this there where quite a few media members who wanted to know why the Lions didn’t go out and sign Colin Kaepernick.
Detroit was actually one of the six teams that stayed with the Kaepernick tryout and drove to that high school to watch him; so they at least wanted to see what he looked like in his workout.
Of course this opens the door to a ton of reasons why the Lions didn’t try to sign Kaepernick. It’s possible they didn’t like what they saw at his tryout even though reports are he looked good. Maybe there was something they saw that they didn’t think fit with what they do. Also remember that Blough has been with the Lions all season and even though he hasn’t played he’s been at the meetings and practices; so he should have a grasp of their offense. Kaepernick would be coming into a brand new system that he would know nothing about and have two or three days at most to be ready to play his first game in almost three full seasons.
It seems like every time a team passes on signing Kaepernick they’re indicted for passing up on him, but if you look at what could be the reasons the Lions didn’t bring him in it makes some sense. I’m also under the impression that Driskell is going to end up starting at quarterback tomorrow; so there would be no need to sign anyone.
The only real question about that might be out there about why the Lions didn’t take a look at Kaepernick is the fact that they wanted to sign Josh Johnson. Now Johnson did play in four games for the Washington Redskins last season and he started three of those games; so he’s not coming off of long term inactivity like Kaepernick is. It would be interesting to know why the Lions would look at Johnson first instead of Kaepernick, but of course there’s no way to find that out.
Now even though the Lions where very interested in signing Johnson he had already signed a deal with the XFL and they where unwilling to release him so he could sign with Detroit.
I am a little surprised that the XFL wouldn’t release Johnson from his contract. The XFL and the NFL aren’t going head to head and it seems as though they could’ve released Johnson and then just resigned him after the NFL season ended.
The XFL season starts in February; so if a player signed with a team that made a deep playoff run it could hurt his preparation for the upcoming XFL season, but the Lions aren’t even going to make the playoffs; so Johnson would be free to return to the XFL at the end of the NFL’s regular season.
I haven’t seen any quotes from Johnson on the situation, but by not being allowed to sign with Detroit he’s missing out on a chance to make more money than he will in the XFL. You have to wonder if this might affect players signing with the XFL in the future.
It appears as though the Atlanta Braves had a plan going into this off season and they’re making the moves they want happen early.
Yesterday they added another free agent when they signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a two year $16 million dollar deal.
d’Arnaud was a big time prospect when the New York Mets brought him up in 2013, but things never really clicked for him. He suffered a multitude of injuries when he was with the Mets and after playing in just 10 games for them last season he was released. He signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but played just 1 game in the majors for them before he was purchased by the Tampa Bay Rays.
I’m not sure what goes on in Tampa Bay, but d’Arnaud like so many players seem to have found himself in a Rays uniform and had his best season. He played in 92 games and tied his career high in home runs with 16. He also posted his second best season in RBI’s with 67 and batting average at .263. Of course the big question will be; can he put up similar numbers with the Braves?
d’Arnaud will share catching duties in Atlanta with Tyler Flowers, but I’m under the impression that d’Arnaud was signed to be the #1 catcher and Flowers will just spell him when needed. d’Arnaud has never caught more than 103 games in a season; so it makes a lot of sense for the Braves to have Flowers on the roster just in case.
There where three other catcher signed yesterday as well. The Arizona Diamondbacks signed Stephen Vogt while the Houston Astros signed Dustin Garneau. Mike Zunino also signed a one year deal to stay with Tampa Bay. Counting Flowers who’s contract was re-worked by the Braves there have been six catchers signed already this off season.
With d’Arnaud signing yesterday and Yasmani Grandal singing last week with the Chicago White Sox there aren’t really any top tier catchers left on the free agent market. There are quite a few veteran catchers available on the free agent market, but none of them are truly #1 type of catchers.
If your favorite team was looking for a catcher this off season they’re going to have to explore the trade market to get something done.
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