Trade for Lions: Wow. The Lions must have been really desperate for defensive back help to trade for Kevin Barnes. I know they didn’t give up much, but Barnes might have been a final cut next week. If they wanted him, all they really had to do was wait and put in a waiver claim on him or someone of similar caliber. Barnes was awful last season as the Redskins’ nickel cornerback, grading out as ProFootballFocus’ 86th ranked cornerback out of 98. He lost his job this offseason to Cedric Griffin and had been moving around from cornerback to safety to cornerback.
I guess he can provide depth at both of those positions for the Lions, but if he has to see serious action, he’ll get burned again. Considering the state of the Lions’ secondary, he may have to. #1 cornerback Chris Houston is a good player, who allowed 46 completions on 87 attempts (52.9%) for 593 yards (6.8 YPA), 4 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, while deflecting 5 passes and committing 2 penalties. However, they don’t have a solidified starter opposite him. 3rd round rookie Dwight Bentley is competing with mediocre veteran Jacob Lacey, who allowed 50 completions on 68 attempts for 509 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception, while deflecting 3 passes and committing 5 penalties last season with the Colts.
At safety, Louis Delmas is solid in coverage, but can’t seem to stay healthy. After missing 5 games and most of a 6th last season, Delmas recently had knee surgery and is no sure thing for week 1. He also struggles against the run, missing 11 tackles last year on run snaps last year, to only 26 solo tackles, 0 assists, and 11 stops. Out of 88 safeties, only 2 had a worse tackling efficiency rate on run snaps and only 5 had a worse rate overall. Meanwhile, opposite safety Amari Spievey was even worse overall, as only 3 safeties had a worse rating overall on ProFootballFocus than him last season.
Grade: C
Trade for Redskins: The Redskins are the obvious winners here since they were probably going to cut Barnes anyway next week. They didn’t get much, but it’s better than nothing. Barnes was serving no purpose for them.
Grade: A
If you’re interested in doing a fantasy football league with me, here’s the link (no draft date set yet, currently standard, with the option to become PPR with group vote). http://msn.foxsports.com/fantasy/football/commissioner/Registration/Private.aspx?league=55086&password=FanSpot2
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