What is the procedure when he becomes eligible to sign? Is there a waver wire process that he goes through? Or can any team just throw whatever offer at him? Just wondering being in Michigan does that give the Lions any leverage in signing him or is he free to choose as he pleases when the appropriate time comes?
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If his contract allows him to leave he is a free agent eligible to sign anywhere
While the team plays games at Ford field, they all practice In another state so other than Sunday, Bates doesn't have a connection to Michigan so dont get your hopes up
Yeah, there are sooooo many factors involved here. I think the biggest hurdle is if Bates is even a "Lion" type guy. If he a guy who lives and breathes football? How important is that trait to the Lions in a kicker? It's 100% clear that Holmes and Campbell value attitude as much as talent... maybe even more so. There's no guarantee that Bates is someone that Holmes and Campbell would be all in on. (That's not to say that they wouldn't be interested, I'm sure they are! Just not necessarily back up the Brinks truck interested.)
The next biggest hurdle is where does Bates want to go? As someone else said he's a Texas guy so maybe he wants to be close to home? Now the Lions do have, imho, three advantages: 1. They're a good team and an attractive place to go right now. 2. They play at Ford Field... where Bates has had a LOT of success and so may be drawn to come back to the field where he made a name for himself. 3. The Lions do NOT have a kicker they seem to be in love with, so Bates has a very legit shot at winning the job, even if he's not perfect in training camp.
But those three things are by NO MEANS overwhelming things. Even if all three of those things were very important to Bates, I'm sure throwing a few dozen more thousand dollar bills his way would over come them.