Daily DLP: Jackson Smith Njigba’s Record Deal, Lions’ WR Math, and Safety - Detroit Lions Podcast

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Hey, everyone, Jeff Risen here with the Daily DLP.

It is Monday, March 23rd.

Happy Oberon Day to those who celebrate.

We deal here in West Michigan.

I will not be making it down to bells today, but I know a lot of people who do, and it's

always a good time.

Good sign of spring.

We had some fun stuff go on in the NFL this morning, and we're going to lead with that.

I actually was in the process of recording the Daily earlier, and the news broke, and

I wanted to interject it in.

So this morning, Adam Schefter and all the newsbreakers got the reports that the Seahawks

are paying Jackson Smith and Jigba a new contract, a new record contract, and I want to read

it here.

This is from Schefter's post at ESPN.

Jackson Smith and Jigba, the reigning NFL offensive player of the year, has reached an

agreement with the Seattle Seahawks on a four year, $168.6 million contract extension

that makes him the highest paid wide receiver in NFL history.

The deal averages 42.15 million per year, and includes over 120 million guaranteed

set both setting records for any wide receiver.

How does this relate to the Lions, you say?

We are less than two years away, or two years out, from Amunra St. Brown, signing a then record

setting contract, happened the day before the 2024 NFL draft in Detroit.

Amunra, let's go back to this deal, signed a four year, $120.1 billion contract extension

with the Lions, $77 million guaranteed.

Jackson Smith and Jigba, less than two years after St. Set the Bar with a $120.01 million

contract total, is getting that much guaranteed, is getting over $40 million, $43 million

more guaranteed, less than two years later.

Wow, the deal with Smith and Jigba now makes St. Brown the ninth highest paid receiver

in football.

We talk about this a lot, the timing of when you enter the market matters, and this is

pertains to the Lions with guys like Jack Campbell and Jameer Gibbs.

The price tag only goes up.

One of the best things that I think that this Lions regime has done with Brad Holmes and

Mike Dissner, John Dorsey Chris Spillman at all, is that they have smartly locked up their

core players to pre-market deals.

I think we're going to see that again.

Now it hasn't always worked out like Kirby Joseph, the injuries are a problem there, and

that clouds it, but the Saints are a great deal now.

Penae Sule was a fantastic deal at the time that he signed it.

They got in before the price tag kept going up, because y'all, they ain't going back.

The salary cap keeps going up, the revenues keep going up in the NFL.

It means the contracts are going to keep going up, so the earlier you get them done, the

better.

It's crazy money for Smith and Jigba.

But for him, that sets the bar.

It also makes it nice that the Lions have also locked up Jameson Williams to what seems

like a more budget-friendly deal in retrospect.

There were a lot of people that grumbled at the time that they were paying him too much,

but there's been a market correction on the wide receivers.

They were under market value for a long time.

Remember when the Lions signed Calvin Johnson to his deal and made him the highest paid

receiver in NFL history by a ridiculous amount?

They overshot the market at that time by about $25 million, which at that point was a lot

of money, capitalized.

Now, it's not even a year of St. Brown, it's just crazy.

But for years, it took a long time before Calvin Johnson was not the highest paid receiver

in football.

And we've been bending to the end of his contract when he retired early.

The markets catch it up.

The NFL teams are figuring out that wide receivers do need to get paid more premium ones, especially.

And just the interesting timing on that one, so wow.

How long before Alan Rossi and Brown wants a new contract?

I don't know.

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Pay for it by Farma.

He's a great player.

Get at least a couple of years yet on that, but well, life in the NFL, man, that's one

of the reasons why I encourage the lines to get Jameer Gibbs done as soon as possible.

You want him signed before the Falcon sign, Jean Robinson, because it's a game of chicken.

Obviously, whoever signs first, we'll sign for less, because the other one's going to

sign for, as Saint did, that 0.01 million that was on there at the end of the 120, it's

going to happen with Gibbs and Robinson.

One of them's going to sign first, and the other one will sign like three days later for

$500,000 more.

That's how they do these things.

The nature of the beast.

You wait too long, press tag only keeps going up, or alternatively, you risk alienating

the player.

Why won't you pay me?

Give me what I'm worth.

Am I not that important to you?

You don't need that kind of drama.

That's Las Vegas Raiders, that's New York Jets style drama.

We don't need any of that crap in Detroit.

We'll get on with what was really going to be the focus of the daily, which was I published

this morning at the Detroit Lions podcast, a list of a safety for every round of the 2026

NFL draft.

Lathes in the series have done interior offensive line, off all linebacker and edge so far.

Move to the safeties, which is a position where I do think that the Lions will have some

interest at various realms that I'm not sold that they're going to be in on the first

round.

The first round selection there was Dylan Teeneman, so I think Caleb Downs will be long

gone.

If Caleb Downs is there, he is one of those, I don't care who else is on the board, I'm

taking him because he's the best player available.

I have a hard time seeing the Lions not seeing him as the best player available, no matter

who else is there at 17.

He's a fantastic talent and checks a ton of boxes, but I don't think he's going to be

there.

Teeneman, we've covered before, we've talked about him earlier, makes some sense as the

first round pick.

Good player, very good, very Lions appropriate style of safety.

But I wanted to focus on the guys who were the next two in the list and the first one

is the guy that we don't talk about, hardly at all, and does get a lot of run in draft

circles, but probably should, that's Jaylon Kilgore.

And some of it is the fact that in a lot of the mocked draft stimulators who's listed

as a cornerback, y'all he ain't a cornerback, he's a safety.

He is a hybrid, you could label him a defensive back in the way that we talk about Brian

Branch as a defensive back, but his NFL future is very much at safety.

Three-year starter played the spur role.

The spur is, it's a hybrid linebacker safety role that is primarily focused on coverage

and playing in space.

It's not the role that Nick M. and Worry played, although he does it very well for the Seahawks

now.

If you're a Michigan fan, this is the role that Jibral Pepper has played as a, you know,

edge safety back at Michigan.

He's done fairly well at that in the NFL, and by the way, he's still out there, wouldn't

hate him and for agency, although it'll think that the lines are going to have a lot of

market for that.

We'll see Kilgore outstanding athlete was a state champion long jumper in high school.

It showed at the combine, he put on a show there, game altering speed, and I can't emphasize

this enough, and it shows on his film for the Cox, clocked it over 23 miles per hour

on GPS.

I talked to somebody at South Carolina.

He has topped 22.5, at least seven different times.

This isn't a fluke, y'all.

Dude can fly, and it shows on tape.

Loads of experience in the Brian Branch-esque slot safety role, talk a little bit about

that.

You can play with Branch, play for Branch early, while Branch gets healthy at the beginning

of the season, and then you figure out amongst them, mix and match.

You can do different things if a team goes into two tight ends on the other side, you're

good there.

Has ball skills, eight interceptions, 21 PDs.

He looks like he played wide receiver in high school.

Great at playing the ball in the air.

He can high point it.

He can anticipate where the receiver is going to get it.

He can step in front.

He's dangerous.

Very good playmaker.

Again, it's weird that he is not more talked about, and I think some of it with fans specifically,

and I think a lot of that is because their list was a cornerback and everyone was like,

well, he's not one of the best cornerbacks, we didn't really see his cornerback film.

And some of that is, then we'll go down to the console here, and we'll actually go to

the bottom one, penalty prone grabber in man coverage when he can't match the lateral

quickness.

Unfortunately, that's all over his tape, and it is something where if he were matched

up against Ammanra or...

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And struggles in man coverage with receivers that can run routes well.

That's Ammanra, that Smith and Jigba, that CD-LAM, excuse me, when he goes inside.

You craft your wide receivers who can operate inside or outside have given him a lot of

trouble.

Thankfully, there's not a plethora of those, but as a safety role, that will be mitigated.

A lot of that was from when he played corner, and he did play corner for the Game Gucks

a little bit.

But primarily the spur roll, but this is where you would want him almost to be as a box

linebacker, as your nickel-backer in that package.

He is a little bit too easy to block at times, he is not shy about attacking the run.

That's one of the positives there.

Enthusiastic run supporters of box safety, does have good pre-stamp awareness, does have

some lower body tightness.

It's not necessarily playing on train tracks in the way that Tieneman does at times, but

it would be nice if he had a little bit more flexibility and could sharpen his angles

and his brakes out of his drops and stums, matching the stem better.

But good player, I do expect that the Lions will have some interest in J-Line Kilgore.

Now we'll go to the third rounder, and this is a player that gets talked about a lot

in the Detroit Lions podcast Patreon Slack, a very fun player to watch, very fun player

to watch.

AJ Halsey from LSU, and I will just read what I wrote here.

The well-traveled Halsey stepped up in the senior season at LSU, playing more of a high

safety role after more frequently being a box or slot safety during his time at both New

Mexico and Houston, only played one year at LSU.

He's a throwback to the Joey Browner Eric Turner style of the 80s and early 90s safeties,

and I really do see a lot of Eric Turner in him with one important and very, very important

deviation from Turner.

He's just advanced.

I'm going to read off the positives here, and you can watch him if you're watching along

on YouTube.

Thank you for liking and subscribing, or if you're on Spotify streaming along and watching

this while you're working.

Thank you.

I'm a Spotify junkie, so get most of my podcasts there.

Play as much bigger than a 6'215 size, excellent pre-snap recognition.

The guy exudes football IQ, just whipsmart dude.

It's not going to hurt that he played at LSU with Calvin Shepard with his strong LSU ties

as the Lions Defensive Coordinator, just going to throw that in there a little bit.

Great nose for the ball and where it's going, proven ability to align in a variety of safety

positions and roles.

He does have quick reactions in coverage.

He can bounce off from a stop, sees it, reacts quickly as quickly as he can.

He's a competitor and agitator, tone-setting leader on the field.

I think the best way to describe that.

He is the guy who will let you know that he's tackled you.

He is the guy who, when he picks the ball off in front of you, will spin the ball in front

of you and will get in your face and let you know it.

It's not CJ Gardner Johnson style, but it's trending in that direction.

This last game at Houston, he actually got suspended for starting a fight, got ejected.

Above average block avoidance in space, this is an area where he is better than Kilgore.

Dude just senses where blocker again, football IQs off the charts.

Now we'll go to the cons.

I put this in the piece that I wrote for the Detroit Lions podcast, a safety for every

round.

I left it off here because I do think it was too harsh, but I'm going to bring it up

here.

Remember T's table, like I see you all, I see you all like, oh my god, no, no, no, no.

T is not that slow, but the 4.5 that he ran at the combine doesn't show on film at all.

It's not there.

Poor acceleration from a stop.

Top end speed is below average and he lacks a chase gear.

That is straight from the T's table or scouting report back in was that 2016.

Little shuddering over that one.

He's not fast.

He does not have makeup speed.

He will get beat over the top.

He's not going to help you over the top.

That's just not where he's at.

Even as smart and as quick to react as he is, the foot speed just isn't there.

He is much more of a very undersized nickel linebacker.

And he is a split safety.

Does like body control and balance at top speed.

He will overshoot the point of attack.

It doesn't happen often, but it is there.

The other one, hit or more than a tackler.

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Talked about this with VJ Payne the other day, who was the fifth round pick.

The fifth round example in a safety forever round the guy out of Kansas State.

And it's a pet peeve of mine.

He hits with his shoulder and doesn't wrap up consistently.

Halsies better at it than Payne, but there is a lot of it where he is just going for the

knockout below and some of the shirt tackled.

And that's exacerbated because he did have a shoulder injury throughout the 20-25 season.

He played through it.

But you can tell a little bit and it inhibited his tackling some.

So that's AJ Halsey.

You want to make him the prospect of the day.

Be my guest.

Good player.

Fun player, but there's a very real detriment with him.

We'll bring up the other guys.

Fourth rounder was Blood Clark from TCU.

Best in class ball skills I will give him that twitchy quick reactions.

He's light.

Has very inconsistent eye discipline.

He will suck up on play action fakes.

He will chase the wrong guy on a misdirection, that sort of thing.

And we'll also go for the interception instead of the shirt tackle and stop.

We only have ever talked about the positives about Blood Clark on this channel and this

program.

I wanted to bring up a little bit of the negatives because I do feel like he's getting

a little too fluffed up.

There's a reason why he is the fourth round pick here and why he is, I still think he's

going to be a fourth round pick when the NFL draft comes about.

Really do.

Sixth rounder is Colwiz Newske.

How mine snub from Texas Tech after five seasons at North Dakota State.

Lot of injuries there.

You know the refrain.

We're as excited the fact that he missed one full season with an injury, missed half

of another season and also has at least two documented concussions which are unrelated

to the injuries that he missed time with.

Six with three to fifteen dude can fly.

Box overhang safety.

I wanted to bring up one thing about him that really stands out with Colwiz Newske and

I love it.

He has an innate ability to duck under a block or wait for the blocker to clear and then

attack right behind it and get like he does that so freaking well.

I love prospects that have one like definable trait characteristic that sets them apart.

I'll go back to when Montess Sweat was at Auburn and he had the strong arm rush and then

he could use his offhand and get off of it and go in any direction.

Like I love those unique characteristics like that.

Brian Branch actually had it as a blitzer from the slot on the delayed blitz like he would

open up to the a little bit to the outside and then dart in and get pressure that freaking

love that about Brian Branch.

One of the reasons why he was my number eighteen player in that draft class.

I like guys with unique characteristics like that but there are a lot of injury concerns

with Wiz Newske that need to get brought up a very good player and the seventh round

here is Jacob Thomas from James Madison player that I was turned on to by a fellow

draft Nick early in the draft process like February.

Guy good player six one two twelve former quarterback and you can tell that he is still fairly

new to playing defense but there's a lot to like there high football IQ good ball skills.

Some developmental style player who could be look last year and seventh round that took

Dan Jackson he's more much more of a box safety style player you know closer to the line

of scrimmage the better he is Thomas is the opposite of that he he's a guy that can

play over the top and if you're playing single high he needs some some polish back there

but he can do that also just brought it up with Branch do it can blitz from the slot watch

their game watch James Madison's game against Louisville he gets a sack on their quarterback

where he starts out over the slot and the slot like misses him because he was supposed to

chip him on the out missed and he gets to the quarterback like that great acceleration

that's your daily for today enjoy Oberon if you were so inclined I do like it I do like

it with an orange like the the eclipse version better that's just me treat responsibly hope

your brackets are still alive we're the six sweet sixteen in March Madness I still have

thirteen of my sixteen teams and my national championship game is still Michigan versus

Houston still going strong there fingers crossed I will crush me though I have Florida

going on ways hope your brackets are doing well too I'm in like the fifty fifth percent

tile at ESPN it is what it is Jeffers and signing out be good to one another