Ok, let me start this thing off by saying that I don’t think this will happen for the Detroit Lions. It’s not totally out of the realm of possibility. Players have left teams and then been traded back to them before. That actually happened this week when the Jets traded Mecole Hardman back to the Chiefs. Hardman only spent six games in New York.
The reason I’m breaking down and writing this is because I’ve had Lions fans on Twitter and Facebook ask me about it. I’ve even had family and friends ask me about it this week. The other reason is that things are not going well for Williams in New Orleans. The game he’s playing against the Jaguars is only his third game of the season and he’s rushed for about 90 something yards all year.
When Alvin Kamara came back, Williams kind of went to the wayside. Even in the game against the Jaguars, the Saints opted to go with Taysom Hill on a short yard touchdown on 4th down instead of him.
Ok, so what would this whole thing take? Williams contract is backloaded with a potential out after the 2024 season. It’s pretty affordable. If the Saints were to trade him, they’d have to be ok with eating $1.2 million. That’s his base salary for the season. They[d also have to pay just about $4 million in dead cap.
That’s a a totally tradeable contract for the Saints. The Lions would take on a $3.1 million cap hit in 2024 and 2025 if they decide to hold on to him.
As far as what the Lions would have to give up asset wise, a 2023 or 2024 6th round pick would get the job done since the ball is totally in the Lions court on this one. The Saints might want to go ahead and see what they have in 3rd round pick Kendre Miller. So it’s on them to sell Williams for whatever they could get.
How does he fit in Detroit? He could backup Jahmyr Gibbs while Montgomery is out and then he could give the Lions a solid third running back that has proven to be pretty good in short yard and goal line situations.
Again, I don’t think this happens, but here I am simply showing you what it would cost. Also, you can’t really ever say never when it comes to the NFL.