Detroit Lions: One Stephen Tulloch Scenario That Makes Some Sense
By Zac Snyder
Why the Detroit Lions haven’t officially released Stephen Tulloch is still a mystery but there is an explanation that would make sense.
By all accounts, Tulloch has hasn’t been in the Detroit Lions‘ plans at all this offseason. So why keep him around instead of setting him free back in February?
That’s been a popular question for months now and there hasn’t been anything in the way of official answers from the team. Bob Quinn has routinely referred to it as a contractual issue but has failed to offer any kind of explanation of what that means.
Perhaps the “contractual issue” is just that Tulloch was under contract, providing the Lions with a free insurance policy.
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The Lions re-signed Tahir Whitehead to play middle linebacker but every year there are injuries during OTAs and minicamps that throw a team’s plan off the rails. Tulloch may not figure into the team’s 2016 plans but the thing about plans is that teams aren’t fully in control.
If Whithead popped an ACL and Josh Bynes ruptured an Achilles, then the Lions are working under a very different set of circumstances than earlier in the offseason. In that case, turning to Tulloch is a viable option and a more attractive option than whomever they could scrounge up on the thin open market.
Most expect the Tulloch situation to finally reach a resolution and when that happens, the most common reaction will be something like “finally, what were they waiting for??!!?” Well, they were probably waiting until the end of minicamp.
With OTAs and minicamp complete, the Lions’ won’t be back on the field in an official capacity until training camp starts at the end of July. That means the risk of offseason injury is over and having gotten through it with a healthy group of linebackers, the Lions no longer need to hold on to Tulloch as insurance.
If there was a chance, however small, that Tulloch remained with the Lions because of injuries to other players, why not have him practice through OTAs and minicamp? Allowing Tulloch to practice subjects him to injury risk, which would complicate their ability to release him later if everyone else got through the offseason healthy.
We probably won’t ever get a real explanation for what the Lions’ intentions were in not releasing Tulloch despite quite obvious indications that he no longer figured in to what they wanted to do. The thought of finding a trade partner seemed to make some sense but the reasons why the Lions would want to move on are no different than why even a linebacker-needy team wouldn’t want to give something up to acquire him.
That being said, Tulloch can still play a role for an NFL team. If he couldn’t, the Lions wouldn’t have had any reason to hold on to him. If the Tulloch as insurance theory holds, a role with the Lions depended on a situation in which the team’s plans changed for reasons out of their control, namely injury. With the window of time in which that might have happened closed, the Lions can release Tulloch to allow him to find a new home well in advance of training camp.
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In the end, it costs the Lions nothing (remember, Quinn did reveal that the bonus paid to Tulloch was guaranteed) and while Tulloch wasn’t able to find a new opportunity sooner, he’s a veteran who shouldn’t be too adversely impacted as long as he signs before training camp begins.