Things are not good in Detroit. The Lions are winless on the season and frustration is running high. With the in-season trade deadline just around the corner, talks of big deals are beginning to surface. Head coach Jim Caldwell is facing questions about his job status as the Lions are suddenly looking likely for the No.1 pick in the NFL Draft. According to Golden Tate, everyone is much more positive than the media is reporting.
The Lions suffered yet another tough loss in Week 6 as the team continues to come up short with answers. A lot of the blame is being placed on Caldwell who could be out of a job sooner rather than later. According to Tate, the locker room is still in support of Caldwell and believes they can begin to string together wins.
"I don't think coach Caldwell has lost the locker room at all," Tate said, via ESPN.com. "People are looking for a lot of things to blame our record on right now and that's not it at all. We just need to be a little bit better and I'll continue to say we have a really, really good team with a bunch of really good players, great organization, great fan base, great coaches. We just need to get rid of those simple mistakes and make a few more plays and I think we're going to do that this week. This is the week that we need to get it done and we're going to find a way to get it done."
Most believe that selling the farm is the only way the Lions are going to get back on track. That includes dumping heavy contracts to Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. The Lions had their franchise banked on three players including Ndomukong Suh who was not retained during free agency. Johnson and Stafford are the biggest weights to the salary cap. In-season trades are certainly an option, but finding a market is unlikely at this time.
According to Jason Fitzgerald of SportingNews.com, dealing away the receiver and quarterback is not the worst idea, but finding a trade partner could be tough considering salary restraints. The Lions would have high asking prices from both players. Unless the Lions are truly throwing in the towel on the 2015 season, Stafford and Johnson are staying put. Their chances of winning are better with the players than without them. In the short-term, the Lions need Ameer Abdullah to get better while Joique Bell and Eric Ebron need to get healthy. Stafford is not getting benched entering Week 6 and the offensive line should do a better of protecting the quarterback. If the Lions can fix the little issues, they could begin to gain some momentum.
