Lions release Jermarcus Hardrick

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B.C.FAN
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Here's a shocker from Mike Beamish:
Mike Beamish ‏@sixbeamers ·
#BCLions announce release of import OL Jermarcus "Yoshi" Hardrick. Curious. He was one of team's best O-linemen in '14.
Perhaps Hardrick saw the writing on the wall ratio-wise. I hope the Lions don't get caught short of linemen in training camp as they have in recent years when injuries hit. For now, Cody Husband is listed as backup to Hunter Steward at LT.
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DanoT
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Seems strange that they are not going to at least bring Hardrick to TC. I guess 4 starting Nats at Oline is cast in stone.

I would think that Hardrick will land in some other teams TC so he should benefit from the timing of his release.
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WestCoastJoe
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Surprise.

Behind both Steward and Fabien to start the mini camp.

He played well last year. Earth mover. Power blocker.

IMO not a huge concern. With the Internationals, OL are "relatively" easy to replace.

The key for us is to develop our National OL. And it seems we fully intend to do that. "We got some makins."
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Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

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A shocker. I thought he was one of our better Offensive lineman last year.
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Hambone
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TheLionKing wrote:A shocker. I thought he was one of our better Offensive lineman last year.
Generally teams fill tackle positions with INTs as a necessity. Having to play one at guard is a luxury. Steward looked so solid at LT it's difficult to see how they can justify starting an INT at guard. I'd like to think Fabien will now mentally be past his knee injury and ready to assume a starting role. Unless they are sour on T-Dre Player they will want to open a spot on the 46 for him. It looks like there will be some quality OL available in the draft should the Lions want one with their first pick or even in the second round. Add it all up and realistically there is likely to only be a PR spot for a second INT after Olafioye.

Still left:
NATs
Steward
Norman
Valli
Fabien
Player
Thorn
Husband

INTs
Olafioye
Ramsey
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B.C.FAN
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Hambone wrote:Generally teams fill tackle positions with INTs as a necessity. Having to play one at guard is a luxury. Steward looked so solid at LT it's difficult to see how they can justify starting an INT at guard. I'd like to think Fabien will now mentally be past his knee injury and ready to assume a starting role. Unless they are sour on T-Dre Player they will want to open a spot on the 46 for him. It looks like there will be some quality OL available in the draft should the Lions want one with their first pick or even in the second round. Add it all up and realistically there is likely to only be a PR spot for a second INT after Olafioye.

Still left:
NATs
Steward
Norman
Valli
Fabien
Player
Thorn
Husband

INTs
Olafioye
Ramsey
It will probably take more than a PR spot to keep Ramsey around. He was a starter before being injured last year and opening the door for Steward, Hardrick and others. The Lions will need to put him on the reserve list at full salary to keep him on the team. That's the going rate for an experienced backup international lineman.
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David wrote:Very difficult to evaluate today without the benefit of defenders present, but happy to report Travis looked fantastic - hitting his receivers in stride, lots of 'zip' on the ball, confident, in charge etc. Lots of uptempo offense today, receivers running corner routes etc. Surprisingly Timmy Brown was a catching machine out there at the Lions' facility, gobbling up every ball in sight (Harris and even Lumbala ran the same routes as receivers). Iannuzzi looked good as well.

Jennings will probably be in tough to get through the main camp (there's some speculation that they're only taking 4 QBs to Kamloops + O'Connor, but I've also heard that everyone is going). He just seems a little small/slight to me for the demanding QB position so will have to show some impressive intangibles which obviously weren't on display in an offensive scrimmage environment today.

Morrah and Collie dropped a few balls but in the case of the latter (at the very least) it's probably just rust. You can see he's a precise route runner with excellent speed (on one drill in which he dropped a pass, he said "let's try that one again Jordan (Rodgers)." They did and he caught it). Kito Poblah also had his struggles today. Andrew Harris did not display and ill-effects from his surgery and looked crisp out there.

Lots of size up front from the hogs - Steward looks massive and even T-Dre Player looks to have bulked up in the off-season. Neither Morrah nor Leonard look to be over 250lbs to me (they're big guys don't get me wrong, but I have a hard time believing they're both over 250lbs as per the listing).


DH :cool:
Nice report, David. Thank you.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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BC 1988
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Wally on 1040 in the 1:00-1:15pm time frame. Worth looking for the audio. He said that Hardrick's release was entirely Tedford's call based on what he saw in the first 2 days of the mini-camp.
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BC 1988 wrote:Wally on 1040 in the 1:00-1:15pm time frame. Worth looking for the audio. He said that Hardrick's release was entirely Tedford's call based on what he saw in the first 2 days of the mini-camp.
I find this a bit of a surprise IF it is not linked to either $$$ or going with Nationals.

I know every coach has his own idea of what a good is from their size to their attitudes and things they do in practice and how they present themselves but this seems awfully early given that this team didn't challenge for a cup last year.
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David
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To my mind this has to be one of 3 things:

* Came to the Spring camp out of shape/ill-prepared (see HARPER, Justin)
* Had a disagreement with the coaches (unlikely)
* Off season incident that came to light

Just really hard to believe this was based on Tedford's evaluation at camp, per Wally. They were just doing drills! There were no defensive linemen! Even if they are convinced that 4 Nationals is the way to go, why would he not be given a shot behind Olafioye at tackle, given how well he performed last season?


DH :cool:
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B.C.FAN
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I wouldn't read too much into the decision. The coaches have decided to go with four nationals on the O-line this year. The first few days of camp reinforced their belief that they have enough nationals to make it happen. Hardrick has a gung-ho attitude and loves being on the field. He may have seen the writing on the wall and asked for clarification. Unless he is seen as a better backup tackle than Andre Ramsey (he's not), he wasn't going to make the roster this year so there's no point in wasting his time here.
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Toppy Vann
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B.C.FAN wrote:I wouldn't read too much into the decision. The coaches have decided to go with four nationals on the O-line this year. The first few days of camp reinforced their belief that they have enough nationals to make it happen. Hardrick has a gung-ho attitude and loves being on the field. He may have seen the writing on the wall and asked for clarification. Unless he is seen as a better backup tackle than Andre Ramsey (he's not), he wasn't going to make the roster this year so there's no point in wasting his time here.
I get the 4 Nationals on the OL - MTL has been there for years with that. But cutting guys who showed promise based on their playing against phantom DLs is a mystery to me. Ratio is one thing - but should we let a decent player like that go this easy.

I guess one test will be if he shows up on an opposing team and plays great there.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
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