Why the Detroit Lions trading up to get Da’Shawn Hand was a good move
By Ash Thompson
The comparison between The Detroit Lions trade up to acquire Gabe Wright and the trade up to acquire Da’Shawn Hand is interesting. It is the context of the two moves that differentiates them.
The Detroit Lions traded into the fourth round of the 2018 draft and paid the price of a third-round pick next year. The last time the Lions traded up to the teens of the fourth round using a third-round pick in the future, it was for defensive tackle Gabe Wright. It is understandable if your reaction to the move wasn’t overwhelmingly positive given that context. In general, paying a better pick next year for a player this year is not a great idea. The devil is in the details, however. There are subtle differences between these moves that drastically alter the frame of reference with which they should be viewed.
First, the Lions were operating out of desperation in 2015. They had just lost both Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley in free agency. Their only substantial addition to the position was Haloti Ngata. That could not possibly be enough. The Lions starting defensive tackles before the draft would have been Ngata and a traffic cone. Former Lions general manager Martin Mayhew saw one player who might be able to make an impact left, and he mortgaged the future pick to get that immediate gratification. Relying on Wright for immediate impact is among the many poor decisions that got Martin Mayhew fired after a 1-6 start to the 2015 season.
The Lions are not desperate in 2018, at least not for immediate impact from Da’Shawn Hand. He is listed as a defensive end, which he was in Alabama’s three-man line. While the Lions will likely utilize Hand on the outside in short-yardage situations, he projects as a defensive tackle in their base defense. The Lions new scheme required intelligent linemen who can play both one gap and two gap techniques effectively on the inside. Hand has shown the ability to do both.
The Lions already have A’Shawn Robinson and Sylvester Williams as their starters at the defensive tackle spots. Hand is, at most, a rotational interior pass rusher as a rookie, unless he proves himself able to do more. To claim even that role he has to jump over Jeremiah Ledbetter who performed reasonably well in it during the 2017 season for a sixth-round rookie. Hand is walking into a situation where there is little pressure to perform immediately. The Lions defensive line coach worked with Hand at Alabama. Bo Davis prepared Hand for a starting role at the school. The Lions staff know exactly what Hand is capable of.
Of course, none of that negates the fact that Quinn just paid for a pick this year with a higher pick next year. As I said, that is almost always a bad long-term play. The reason he was willing to do that, is simple. The Lions have a lot of free agents pending in 2019. They do not have a lot of cap space with which to fill those positions.
The Lions have only about $47 million in available salary cap space for the 2019 season. With that space, they need to re-sign or replace Ziggy Ansah, Golden Tate, Williams, LeGarrette Blount, DeShawn Shead, Cornelius Washington, and others. At market value re-signing Ansah and Tate alone would likely use $25-30 million of that space. Some would point to that as a reason to draft a pass rusher or wide receiver. Those were two out of three of the weakest position groups in this draft. Hand is a much better value than the pass rushers available.
The Lions need to replace some of those free agents with younger, cheaper players. A 2018 fourth-round pick is more likely to be ready to contribute than a 2019 third round pick. Nearly every rookie taken outside the first round is an ineffective player in that first season. They simply can not be relied upon to carry the load for a team. The Lions made this trade in the hopes that Hand will be more able to carry the team through that cap pinch better than a rookie would have. Chances are that he will.