Detroit Lions Look to Buffalo To End Safety Battle

Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz must have seen something he liked Thursday night.

One day after playing against him in a Bills uniform, the Lions engineered a trade to bring safety Ko Simpson to Detroit for an undisclosed 2010 draft pick.

When not watching the quarterback battle, the Lions have been trying to figure out all preseason who they could start at safety. Louis Delmas was one starter, but who was the other?

Gerald Alexander? Traded.

Daniel Bullocks? Injured.

Kalvin Pearson? A decent player, but had a miserable preseason.

Stuart Schweigert? Showing well, but inconsistent and coming off an offseason calf injury.

Marquand Manuel? Had an okay preseason, but nobody cares (apparently).

Simpson just leap-frogged the field by showing up in Detroit. He is entering his fourth season, and has been a solid contributor in Buffalo since his rookie season in 2006.

Better yet, if Simpson performs well, he could, at age 25, be a long-term answer for the Lions at the safety position.

The darker side of this trade is that it means the Lions’ coaching staff didn’t see enough from any of the prospective safeties on the squad to start them comfortably. So any strong preseason performances you thought you saw are irrelevant.

As it stands, the Lions just added a player the day before final cuts, which means an extra safety will be packing his bags. Manuel and Schweigert are the obvious choices (though probably not both), but even former projected starter Kalvin Pearson should be looking over his shoulder.

In fact, everyone should. Even the guys who survive Saturday’s cuts.

For days now, the Lions have been saying they were going to scour the waiver wire for every last shred of talent, using that No. 1 waiver priority to full advantage. Apparently that applies to trades, as well.

It is increasingly obvious that the coaching staff is not really happy with the roster they have in place, even after turning over half of it. They still want to—and quite frankly, need to—improve.

It’s safe to assume we’ll see a lot of front office activity in the week leading up to the regular season. That may or may not be smart, since at some point they should be able to tell their players to stop worrying about getting sent away and go play football.

The way things look now, that point might be the trade deadline.