The outlook of the Detroit Lions\u2019 offseason has significantly changed this week with the trading of David Montgomery. While the move was not entirely unexpected, it does leave the Lions with another significant need moving forward. Thankfully, the free agency pool has some options for Detroit, and they could come relatively cheap\u2014even if the Lions aren\u2019t likely to get a player at Montgomery\u2019s level.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s our breakdown of the NFL free agency pool at running back, and the best fits for the Lions.<\/p>\n
While the Lions have no free agents, the trading of David Montgomery obviously leaves a significant hole at the RB2 spot. There\u2019s always a chance the Lions believe Vaki could take over that role, but there have been no actual indications the team would trust him with such a significant promotion. Over the last two years, Montgomery averaged over 11 carries per game. Vaki only has seven career rushes over two seasons.<\/p>\n
In short, I believe the Lions will very much be in the market for at least a short-term solution to their RB2 vacancy.<\/p>\n
Top free agent RBs available: <\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think it makes much sense for the Lions to get involved in the high-market players in free agency. While the Lions proved they believe the RB2 role is worth an investment by giving Montgomery the two-year, $18.25 million extension in 2024, with Jahmyr Gibbs\u2019 extension coming up, it seems highly unlikely Detroit would be willing to spend anywhere close to $10 million a year on a backup. Gibbs\u2019 role has only been expanding, which means Detroit should only be spending modest money on the secondary role.<\/p>\n
I actually think this is a relatively good free agency group to need a bruising back on a short-term deal.<\/p>\n
If the Lions want to invest significantly, Allgeier may be their best option. It would be a bit ironic for Allgeier to move from Bijan Robinson\u2019s backup\u2014Gibbs\u2019 draft-mate\u2014to Gibbs\u2019 backup, and it\u2019s entirely possible he wouldn\u2019t come to Detroit because he\u2019s seeking a bigger role. But his fit with the Lions would be tough to deny considering Allgeier\u2019s strong production as a physical back. He\u2019ll also just be 26 next season, so he could be more of a long-term option.<\/p>\n
If Detroit is just looking for a short-term solution while keeping their options open in the draft, there are still plenty of veteran options that could work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outlook of the Detroit Lions\u2019 offseason has significantly changed this week with the trading of David Montgomery.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,449,11309,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-791642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroit-lions-analysis","11":"tag-detroit-lions-free-agency","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-lions","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116171527124447241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}