The Lions made an absolute splash signing, inking DB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson to a 1 year deal worth $8 million. It’s become glaringly apparent that General Manager Brad Holmes is trying to push Detroit to the top of a wide-open NFC North, making huge acquisitions since the beginning of the negotiation period.
Gardner-Johnson is no exception, as he helps shore up the secondary, moving the unit from an absolute liability to a major strength on the defensive side of the ball. Listed as a top ten available free agent on many websites at the beginning of the offseason, Gardner-Johnson has the ability to be the swiss army knife in the defensive backfield with his ability to play slot corner and both safety spots.
He has as many career interceptions (11) as the entire projected starting defensive entering free agency (Okudah, Jacobs, Harris, Walker and Joseph), and has experience in many primetime/playoff games, including the most recent Super Bowl. It’s a little unfortunate that it’s only a one year deal, but there’s no denying the quality of player they got to help retool this defense.
This signing is a no brainer. Holmes and the Lions get an A+.
