Detroit Lions find their veteran running back, sign LeGarrette Blount

The Detroit Lions have finally made a move for a veteran running back, opting to sign LeGarrette Blount after having a series of visitors come to town.

After bringing in a handful of veteran running backs for visits, the Detroit Lions have made their choice, signing LeGarrette Blount to a one-year deal.

The news broke Friday evening in a tweet from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Per Rapoport, the one-year deal is worth a surprising $4.5 million. That’s quite a pricetag for a guy coming off a pair of $1 million deals with the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. Especially since the Lions apparently showed no interest in Blount when he was a free agent a year ago.

Fans who thought that lack of interest was a mistake apparently get their wish now.

What’s the difference? Probably the presence of Matt Patricia as the new head coach. Perhaps Bob Quinn and Jim Caldwell weren’t on the same page as far as Blount was concerned a year ago but there was more common ground to be found between general manager and head coach this time around.

But there is still the matter of the price tag. It’s surprisingly rich but we’ll have to wait for the full details. It’s very possible the number represents the contract’s full potential via a number of incentives. Those kind of deals have been common since Bob Quinn took over as general manager, particularly in the form of per week roster bonuses for being a gameday active.

[UPDATE: Per Justin Rogers of the Detroit News, its a $2 million deal with another $2.5 million available in incentives.]

Blount could boast a gaudy touchdown total during free agency last year after finding the end zone 18 times in 2016 but he had just a 3.9 yards per carry average. He wasn’t a heavily utilized in 2017 as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles but he did see his average bounce back to his career average of 4.4 yards per carry.

With Blount in the fold the Lions have a big back capable of converting short yardage situations that they’ve struggled in so mightily in the recent past. Add in a new offensive line coach and the expected change to more of a power-based running game and the signing makes sense, even if it still ends up being a little richer than some would like.

Next: Lions bring back Zach Zenner

This signing also does little, or nothing, to change the Lions’ running back outlook in the 2018 NFL Draft. While Blount helps fill a need in the short-term, the Lions still have a cloudy running back picture in the long-term. The expectation all along has been that the Lions will look for a running back somewhere in the top half of the draft and that remains the case.