Bart Scott: Lions need to 'blow this thing up,' trade Calvin JohnsonBy Will Brinson CBS SportsOctober 29, 2015 
The Lions are making major moves in the middle of a disastrous season. At 1-6 with Matthew Stafford being repeatedly beaten up in the backfield and Detroit unable to run the ball, Jim Caldwell fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and brought on Jim Bob Cooter.CBS Sports NFL analyst Bart Scott thinks Detroit needs to get even more aggressive, telling CBS Sports Radio's Damon Amendolara the Lions need to "part ways with" Megatron and "maybe get rid of Stafford.""I think it's time for the Lions to part ways with [Calvin Johnson]," Scott said. "You're not going to win a championship with him. He's just going to get older and retire and you're not going to get anything with him. He's eating up a huge chunk of the salary cap. It's time to blow this thing up. You see Suh left first, I think you have to really consider trading Calvin Johnson if someone will take on that salary and then you can free yourself up and start off young with a young nucleus again. Maybe get rid of Stafford."Right now you can trade Megatron and get a first-round draft pick and you get cap space. I think that's the smart move right there."So Bart is right here in that the Lions should absolutely explore trading Calvin Johnson. If there's someone out there willing to take on Megatron's contract AND give you a first-round pick, it's worth a discussion. He's the face of the franchise and a dominant player but he's over 30 now and he does soak up a ton of the salary cap.But the problems involved in trading Megatron are numerous. First, good luck finding a team who will actually give up a first-round pick and take on his contract in return. Bart listed the Panthers as a perfect team to target Johnson and if this was baseball it makes sense. You can move high-salary guys to different teams easily.Moving Johnson would result in a lot of dead money for Detroit, with Over the Cap calculating $20.9 million this year, $12.9 million next year and $4.8 million in 2017. But if you're rebooting the whole franchise, you're going to have room to soak it up.But it's a plausible move. Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap, writing at The Sporting News, noted on Oct. 12 a hypothetical trade partner "would be responsible for picking up between $7.5 and $8 million for the season and then decide if they want to keep him in 2016 at a $16.5 million salary."The real problem at this stage is the trade deadline looms large with teams being required to make all deals before 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3.The Lions are heading to London for a Sunday morning matchup against the Chiefs and it's hard to imagine Martin Mayhew slapping together a wave-the-white-flag deal to move the face of the franchise within 48 hours of playing an international game.But Bart might ultimately be right here: if the Lions can ship Calvin out and reboot, they'd probably be better off over the long haul.
