Tate Details Surprising Free Agency: 'I Didn't Get Very Many Looks'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - Wide receiver Golden Tate expected the phone calls to be rolling in when he hit free agency following last season. To his surprise, not many calls came.
"Seattle and Detroit, really," Tate said. "A little bit from the Jets, a little bit from the Jags.
"I'm not going to lie - I thought I would be a hot commodity," Tate added later. "It got closer, and I thought I was going to have seven, eight teams wanting me. Wasn't the case at all, which is okay. I guess all you need is one team to really love you ... My presentation here, Coach Lombardi was super excited, and I can definitely see that, and I talked to Coach Caldwell, and he seemed super excited. We both had the same goals in mind - to come here and make an impact on this organization and develop a sense of winning consistently, and I think right now that's where we are."
On a Super Bowl-winning Seattle Seahawks team, Tate had recorded 898 yards on 64 catches, and he had believed that would translate into significant interest in the offseason.
"I was kind of bummed," Tate said. "I thought I had a decent season. I thought I handled business. I felt like I wasn't the typical 6-2, running-a-4.2 guy, which kind of hurt me, I guess, but I'm here for a reason. I think God has a plan for each of us, and his plan was for me to be here, and right now I think he had a pretty darn good plan."
Tate said another contributing factor to the lack of interest could have been the draft.
"I think because they thought they had such a strong draft class," Tate said. "I think we had five or six, seven, top receivers in this class, so there's no need to go pay a lot of money when you can get a rookies for pennies, I guess, relatively speaking, so maybe that's why, but I'm here, I'm wanted here, we're 7-2 and I'm playing decent football."
Lions head coach Jim Caldwell and offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi sold Tate completely with the excitement they expressed about him coming to Detroit and the way they planned to use him in the offense.
"If I was going to leave Seattle, I definitely wasn't going to dive back into another run-heavy offense," Tate said. "The opportunity I saw here, playing next to Calvin [Johnson], I knew Calvin was going to get all the number one cornerbacks, he was going to get all the attention, all the double coverage was going to leave me backside, or wherever I was, [in] single coverage. As a receiver who has a lot of confidence and how I envision myself affecting a team, it's working out perfectly for me."
Through nine games, Tate has a career-high 909 yards on a career-high 66 catches.
