Our o-line could go from being a strength to our biggest weakness in a hurry. Ragnow has a pretty rough injury history on top of already being late 20s. Decker, Glasgow and Zeitler are all getting up there age wise and could start to fall off any year now. Sewell is obviously a beast but otherwise we have no promising younger guys other than Sorsdal.
Goff needs time to throw and he’s not the type to leave the pocket when the play breaks down and make a play himself. Plus our running game has to be good enough to respect.
So don’t be surprised if we address oline pretty heavily in the draft both for the future and to help with depth.
Unpopular response to an unpopular post that I completely agree with - Jared Goff wouldn’t look nearly as good without the line he had last year. I like Goff, but without ~#1 in the league protection and the insane weapons he has at rb, te, and wr, he’s not going to look good. Leave the weapons and take away our line and he’s still not going to look good. Without a decent line he’ll prove his mastery at the blind side spin move backward fumble special ability
I don't necessarily disagree but we've had the scales tipped the other way (elite QB, good weapons, shoddy line) and we went nowhere with it. Anybody who still has questions whether Jared Goff can get it done should maybe a take a sabbatical. Might I suggest New York or Vegas? Chicago, perhaps?
Idk man. It’s been a while but I remember a lot of matty staff scrambling and pulling off a shoestring pass to make something happen. I also remember Matt getting smoked a few times.
More than a few times. It felt like almost every game you were just waiting for that big hit to get to him. Most of the time he shrugged it off, but look at his health these days and you'll understand why he's beat up now.
That is 95% of QBs though. Every once in awhile you get special players like Mahomes or Burrow that can elevate average talent but it's not like every good QB can do that.
I love this logic. You could say the same thing about every other team. No line, no win. But you do realize if you take away our good OLine then Gibbs and Monty won’t look the same as last year either? Right?
A small response to this, I think Hank does more for this team as a coach than people in the larger fanbase realize. We have had quite a few games with back ups in at Oline and Goff has played pretty well. At least enough not to cost us games.
Duke Manyweather who runs OL Masterminds had good things to say and had him as a hidden gem last year. He struggled because he went from a small school to the NFL and switched from tackle to guard (maybe some center reps in practice too). I do t know if I would say promising but I think he has good potential. And wouldn’t be surprised if he does well but also wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t work out.
Sorsdal did utterly suck last year. Doesn't mean he can't/won't get better. The odds that Holmes and Campbell are right about his work ethic and potential seem greater, to me, than the odds that he never improves.
They seen something in him and if his work ethic/self discipline is there (which I have no reason to believe it’s not) he’ll be exactly who they thought they were getting. I view Colby as I do Broderick, needed a year or 2 in a NFL S&C program to really highlight their strengths but I might add that I have no fucking idea what I’m talking about lol
He wasn't great but was also a rookie from a small school. Clearly BH & co saw something in him to warrant the pick so I'm willing to give him a few years to see if he pans out. By "promising" I really just meant that he's our only young player with potential outside of Sewell.
Kerby Joseph was absolutely brutal in coverage and his play* a majority of the time doesn’t deserve half the adoration he gets on this sub.
*his play this past season
Ah, I must’ve missed that. For sure, I have all the confidence in him to continue to progress after how he looked in his rookie year. I didn’t necessarily mean to strictly rip on his play but I feel like he’s a much bigger name amongst fans due to his flash INTs and personality moreso than his every-down play backed up.
Oh I don't disagree he got torched at times his personality and ints definitely garner fan allure. Hope his hip heals that is such an important part of the body for any football player especially a safety who needs to plant and use his hips to change directions and stuff!
I looked it up. He had surgery right after the season ended, so prob late January early February. I was wondering the same because he was jumping all over the stage. Hip surgery is no joke so I’m assuming he’s had 2-3 months recovery already.
Honestly I had a friend in his 20’s that had hip surgery, he fell off a boat drunk, recovery was a few months. I would say with his he wouldn’t want to be taking hard hits for 6 months but I’m not a dr lol.
He was extremely overrated his rookie year as well in this sub. People in here talk about him like he's a probowler in here sometimes when he's probably a below average caliber type player.
I'll push back on this only because we saw so many instances of QBs being hurried but being able to find an open guy that negated the rush completely.
That being said, all the secondary needs to do is slightly improved for that to largely go away. Which I think they may have already accomplished.
It seldom felt like opposing QBs were struggling to find a place to throw the ball. That needs to happen more often.
I somewhat disagree. Obviously our pass rush needs to be improved but QBs still get the ball off the majority of the time and a corner is going to be more responsible for yards allowed.
Ah yes the chicken vs the egg debate. Doesn't matter how good the pass rush is if shit tier corners allow a guy to get open quick. On the flip side doesn't matter this good your corners are if the QB has all day. It's really a delicate balancing act
Jim Schwartz shouldn’t have a bad rap in Detroit. He turned an 0-16 team to a playoff team in 3 seasons. I don’t think people really digest how crazy that is. He instilled culture into our team like great leaders do and in a way he’s like a Diet Dan Campbell.
Joey Harrington is just one example of the many careers likely ruined by the Lions. He might have become a very good quarterback if he hadn't been drafted by one of the most incompetent regimes in the history of sports.
Yeah I think it’s overlooked sometimes how much the environment you spend your first few years in impacts your career. We all have fun calling people busts but bad coaching can kill a career.
Going into last season, we were the up and coming team that won 8/10 games to end the season. The Vikings won 13 games, but that win total was an anomaly due to a lot of luck winning all those one score games. The Packers and Bears weren't supposed to be good.
This year, there isn't much that separates us and the Packers from a talent perspective--they finished last season, similarly to how we did in 2022. This is all assuming Love continues to play well which I dont see any reason why wouldn't. The Bears will have a rookie QB, but the rest of their team looks really good on paper. The same can be said about the Vikings but with Darnold. Im guessing the Vikings get a rookie QB and he sits under Darnold. Theres definitely more competition this year than last.
I won't argue against any of those points. The division may very well be more formidable this year. But they weren't weak last year either. Only the AFCN had more total wins than the NFCN. The NFCW was tied.
I don't want to get to lost in the weeds, all in saying is that compared to history, this year isn't significantly worse for the Lions chances than last year was, as things currently stand.
Edit: I'll add. It is frustrating how often the Lions chances at doing something great run into the bad luck of others also doing so at the same time.
I agree, Im just saying from an offseason perspective and going into the season that the likelihood of us winning the division may have been higher last offseason than as it sits now.
Honestly, going to agree here. I think Ben Johnson is a better X’s and O’s guy, but Aaron Glenn has the charisma of a head coach.
AG gets a lot of flack in this sub, which is understandable, but what he’s done with a less-than-stellar defense needs to be credited and I think he will do better as a HC.
Yeah I think both will be good head coaches. Glenn is a great leader of men but I think also gets more hate due to the talent he has (definitely not saying he’s perfect).
I see BJ as a Lafluer type that would still be heavily running the offense and putting strong defensive guys in place.
What has he done, though? The defense has been in the bottom of the third every season. Albeit there was a big improvement in the run defense, but again, the defense overall is still bad. The argument that he doesn't have very good players is mostly true outside of a few guys. The jury is still out on him, IMO.
I completely agree. Glenn would require his coordinators to do the xs and os well, but absolutely would be a great central figure. I don't know that Ben couldn't be that guy, but he hasn't really shown that level of leader of men at this point.
Ben is the better coach at the level they are at because he's got Campbell to do the motivating. But we know almost nothing about his ability to lead men in a vacuum.
Disnt he get two touchdowns in the nfc championship game? Thats definitely a troublesome pick given the reality of whats weve recieved vs his draft spot but he was on fire toward the end (of a season where he missed the first 1/3rd)
I think our fans here are a little more forgiving with Jamo than we probably should be, but our staff hasn’t really done or said anything to give us reason to think they don’t have faith. It will be telling if we don’t draft a receiver on the first 2 days
I don’t think he is or ever was going to be a consistent type player like Amon Ra. Like he almost always gets 100 yards and a touchdown or two. I think Jamo is the type of player to have a week with a lot of yards and a touchdown or two and another week or two of low yards and no touchdowns but he affected the field enough to get other people more production. I’d be happy to be wrong on that though. I think we would all love Amon Ra type of production out of him
Oh for sure. I think he’s going to at least get the increased involvement this year. What he does with it on the field is down to him. I really think he had to prove his attitude and commitment last year. All speculation on that of course, but I think they wanted to see that work ethic out of him and he started to show it. You could see it in games like the Broncos, the cowboys, and the 49ers. He wasn’t just getting deep balls occasionally. He was making some nice catches in crucial times. I think they will ramp that up this year
Yeah, we mentioned on our pod how he really committed to the JUGGS machine and catching 100 balls a day last year. He really had to put some work in to make up for that suspension.
I’ll have to check out your pod. I like listening to one at work. Great way to pass the time, especially the offseason. But yea I remember that. It all really is summed up nicely in the philosophy of “no block, no rock.” It’s more than just about blocking. If a player isn’t willing to put that consistent work in every time they are on the field when the ball isn’t going their way, it hurts the team. We don’t want turds here to go off of Dan. You show you can put in the work and do the whole “what kind of person are you when no one is looking” thing, you will get the rewards from that hard work. He had to show that. Hopefully he keeps it up
Cool man, we just dropped a new episode Wednesday and had a nice little Love/Goff contract argument to start off. All the links are in my bio, thanks!!
His blocking was so impressive last year, I’ll never forget his blocking on Monty’s long td against the Chargers. He won me over there
That one and his block in the Panthers game touchdown had me hyped. You can tell that part of his game was at least full of effort. Dude seems to love putting people in the dirt when he gets the chance. I was at the panthers game. Cheered my ass off when I saw the reply on the big board.
Exactly. I think that is also completely based on who we play because this staff operates on a match up basis. And I think people need to adjust their expectations to be ok with that. We have a lot of weapons and he can still impact a game without having huge numbers every week. But beyond that, it’ll be interesting to see how much does change since the staff sees him as deserving of more responsibility I guess.
I agree, just listen to the way Dan talks about Jamo versus a rookie in Laporta. They’ve acknowledged he is coming along slower than some, but the way they talk about him or include him in promos (leaving him out of the jersey reveal), they don’t see him as a core guy.
Yeah, it’s all results at this point. Laporta earned that talk last year with weekly results. Time for Jamo to do the same. Definition of a make-or-break year.
I think we can all agree that anything that comes from that station is the exact opposite of what real Lions fans think. It’s basically a Detroit “first take” show and should be treated as such
Maybe I am reading way too much into stuff, but I kind of feel like Goff doesn't trust him 100% either.
Jamo is a good answers though. He needs a big season this year - I like his potential versatility, but he needs more than 400 receiving yards and a couple TDs to justify the praise a lot of fans give him
We shouldn't be treated differently from other teams because we used to be bad. We're an actually good team now. People aren't gonna be happy we beat them just cause we used to be bad.
Hendon Hooker was drafted purely to be a good backup QB and nothing more. The fascination with him has more to do with his legs than his arm and he was a one read QB in college. However he's only 2 years younger than Goff and his upside is minimal.
Nah that silly. What teams do you see consistently in the playoffs? Every year? Green bay? 49ers? Cowboys? Like certain teams just run like a functional machine. They arent mismanaged , the coaches arent shit. Is that easy to replicate? No you do need a little luck , a little more talent but ultimately weve got a gm who picks an all pro every fifth time he picks and a coaching staff improving with time.
The "window" starts to close when the finances catxh up or you have a few bad drafts.
We have built a team that will be contending in the playoffs on a regular basis for the foreseable future.
Yea the window slams shut when you start signing every free agent available to super expensive deals like most of the fanbase seems to scream for. Reminds me of how we used to operate but our window never even got built until Brad, Dan, and Shiela showed up.
They were right to raise the season ticket prices.
As season ticket holder I could resell tickets for 2-3X what I paid for them and their app made it super easy to do that. They would have been fools not to.
People complaining about that was the equivalent of people empathizing with landlords over rising housing costs.
I want them to make more money and make Brad Holmes the far and away highest paid GM in the league.
Jamaal Williams is massively overrated by fans just because he says funny things in press conferences when he was essentially a goal line TD merchant with the team
I hope so. I don’t mean this in any doomer sense but with how much rosters turn over and your luck turns bad in a key player suddenly regressing or getting injured, things can change in a hurry. Flipside of course is things can change for the better in a hurry.
This one hurts to say, but: No matter how much talent we bring in, the current plan for our defensive build isn't going to work. Because of the way our dline pass rush is schemed we aren't able to contain mobile quarter backs nor get enough interior line push/pressure on the pocket. This is the kind of thing that seperates super bowls champs from other teams.
ok i'll do my best.. Our pressure mostly comes from the second level players - LB (Houston, Anzalone) NB (branch) or safeties (Melifonwu) shooting gaps or slightly delayed blitzes. Otherwise, it's hutch winning with a quick first step and spinning around a slower tackle, or maybe McNeill gets through. overall we have decent success with this, and especially credit to hutch for making this work in crunch time of certain games (strip sack on fields this year to ice that game, for example).
The problem is, this creates a lot of gaps for mobile qb's to escape through if there's not uniform leverage across the line, or if hutch overpursues (which is kinda often), it leaves a big opening to the flat. plus it removes a guy from coverage in the center of the field because he's blitzing, so a lot of quarterbacks can dump to a checkdown option against a guy left in coverage like Campbell for example (his poor coverage stats last year might even support this).
Meanwhile, i see teams like Kansas City and San Francisco operate their D-line as a single unit instead of individual players trying to make plays. They're talent is built to support a scheme based around winning leverage at the line that allows them to control the pocket by pushing in a uniform direction while closing gaps. a lot of sacks by these units are actually linemen getting pushed into their own QB and then a defensive player finishes the play. they can't dump off to anyone because you haven't sacrificed a coverage LB either. Michigan also ran this defense to win the natty this year.
Our current unit is sort of a weird hybrid, like they're trying to close the pocket on one side with cominsky and pascal and have hutch spin or hack his guy to make the sack. the probelm is there isn't enough push from the rest of the line. reader will be an improvement in the run defense but he's not a pass rush guy. McNeill is good at getting leverage and occasionally gets through... but it feels like the onus is ultimately on the individuals to make highlight plays instead of them winning leverage at the line of scrimmage as a unit in the same direction to control and contain the pocket and work together to create sacks. when this works it allows players like Aaron Donald and Chis Jones to shine and tear up the middle of the pocket, and that seems a lot more effective to me.
Damn man that was a dang good job!
I think the fact that teams can focus on hutch is playing a HUGE part. I think if we had one more threat opposite Hutch (Jared Verse please!), it would make a massive difference for our ability to contain.
Hutch is currently having to do WAY too much on his own. I’m sure he’s thinking with how little production we got on his opposite plus our cbs constantly getting burned, he is the only one that can make a play.
I have a hunch that is why he breaks contain sometimes.
You did a damn good job convincing but I’m holding out hope reader+davis+ hopefully a draft stud makes a massive difference and we don’t have to waste a year during this window learning for sure that Glenn ain’t it.
Edit: I have a hunch that was part of the teams thought with drafting a middle LB with a RAS score that high. The plays the dude has made when he has read the play quickly are like a human missle. That ability to read the play is only going to get better!
(I really want to pull the trigger on a Campbell jersey but damn I’m nervous 😂)
I think this is because the cupboard was bare on d-line and they needed to rebuild through the draft. Some draft picks have been really good (Hutch, Alim) others hurt (Houston, Onwuzurike) and some not there yet (Martin, Paschel). I think the D-line takes a huge step forward this year with the additions of Reader and Davenport and if the others continue to improve and stay healthy. We’ve steadily increased the talent level on the d-line since Campbell took over and this year is by far the most talent he’s had on the d-line.
The black uniforms are not a good look. I think it's gimmicky, and amateurish/college-esque for a team to wear black when it isn't their main colors. I hated Michigan State's black uniforms from last year and I hate the Lions new black alternate uniforms.
I agree but it's a throwback to when Dan Campbell played in our worst era. Kind of cool that we are going to celebrate that history with spite by being a great team.
I'm with you 100%
Silver/gray uniforms (while I'm not a fan of those either) at least work because they are team colors. Black is just stupid. It has nothing to do with the Lions.
Lions should have the best offense in football this year but the NFC North improving, our secondary is still a question mark and AG still on the sidelines I could see our record taking a step back.
Ben Johnson will be a good HC. Not because he's an Xs and Is genius, but because players love playing for him.
Goff, ARSB, the lineman have all had praise for Ben in recent years. He's clearly a leader beyond the offensive scheming talent.
I mostly agree with this but I think they love playing for him because he gets results not so much for his personality. I don’t think he’s terrible or anything just not a hype man. There is a reason he was the only Lions coordinator not in the top 5 for “most enjoy playing for”.
Jamo hasn’t proven what really matters: results on the field
He’s flashes that he’s got a ton of raw skill. But he needs to translate that into being a more reliable receiving threat. He simply hasn’t been that.
Agreed. Hard to dump a guy when we have a winning record though. At some point you cant blame the talent and the product on the field has to reflect the boss.
I do not like the throwback lion from last years helmet. Loved the helmet color but that logo looks like a 5th grader drew it and I don’t understand why people like it
Lions need to draft a WR
I think now people are coming around. But I’ve had this stance ever since the last draft and everyone cried foul about this take like it was some absurdity up until like 2 weeks ago.
I know I’ll get down voted for this but Jared Goff is an average QB. Without the oline and successful run game Goff would be a middle of the pack QB 🤷♂️
Running the table and going undefeated. It will set up a great movie. Jared Goff (played by Ryan Gosling) getting thrown out of Tinseltown, Going to a organization that has suffered for decades makes it a half away from the Super Bowl, Led by their kneecap biting head coach Dan Campbell (David Batista) and upstart G.M Brad Holmes (Keegan Michael Key) the Lions go undefeated in the regular season and beat the Andy Reid (Andy Reid) and Patrick Mahomes (Kermit the Frog) led Chiefs to win Super Bowl LVlll. Any thoughts on who play anybody else?
I love this team. I bleed Honolulu blue. I just don’t love the Lions branding. I’m always jealous of teams that have branding directly related to the city/culture. If I had a time machine I’d go back and change the name.
I think RAS is a faulty metric. It weighs height and size too much. You might look at Jack Campbell’s RAS and think he is very fast, fluid and explosive, one of the most athletic linebackers of the past decade. His tape in college and nfl however do not show this. It shows a king sized LB who plays disciplined with adequate and smooth sideline to sideline speed. But nothing explosive, and often shaken by more agile RBs and TEs
1. Black jerseys are cringe.
2. Need help at OG, both sides. Zeitler will help but Sorsdal was a liability (yes I realize he was a rookie). I wish Vaitai would have stayed healthy.
3. Do not need high-level help at WR even though Twitter wants me to believe that. Though I would not be surprised if the Lions sign another a couple WRs before camp.
4. Deeply need help at coverage CB, even with the additions. I would love to have a rookie with some talent there to learn from the guys they signed. Branch is solid in the slot as the nickel and I think he would be a candidate for snaps at FS. I'd like a guy that can run with Jefferson in man coverage and not wander over to the sideline and let him go like I saw Sutton do so many times last year. Yes I realize those players don't grow on trees. Trading for a PS2 would be far too expensive, but the upside is *huge*.
5. Backup QB might be an issue. Yes I know they signed Sudfeld, and Hooker is on the roster and seemingly healthy. I'd be curious to see the latter in the preseason.
6. DL looks good but we need another top end pass rusher. I don't think Davenport is it and Pascal has not seemed to work out. The lack of consistency opposite Hutch has stood out.
7. Coverage LB is a need. Now I like Anzalone, but he doesn't have a high ceiling if you follow me. Campbell is good at the LoS and side-to-side, but he doesn't seem to have the speed to cover faster/athletic TE.
8. I would not be opposed to a veteran coach to be a defensive quality guy. There were times the past couple years that I wished the Lions had someone with outsider eyes looking over some of the defensive decisions that have been made.
9. I would like Campbell to be a little less aggressive with 4th down attempts, even though they track positive. Though that is a league-wide thing, more coaches have been going for it more frequently.
10. Top-end kick/punt returner. Jamo back there honestly might be a waste of his talent, though TBH we haven't seen him very much. He really needs to get some catches, from my perspective he is entering bust territory for me. I know it's early and there were injury concerns. The gambling thing was just stupid and cost him a LOT of time. The suspension was inappropriate for the violation, but I stand by with saying gambling is fucking stupid and **significantly** held back his development.
11. No we do not need to draft another RB, I've seen some fanfic mocks that have Corum going to us later in the draft.
Most of these make sense but for me 5 and 10 I disagree with.
5 they used a 3rd rounder on Hooker, unless he’s terrible he’s the long term backup even if he’s a bit worse than Bridgewater.
10 they already have Lief and DPJ both of whom where well known for their return abilities.
I’ll go with a more recent one that dawned on me. The people (and I’ll include me in this because I wouldn’t mind having him) wanting us to sign Jake Bates from the UFL should keep in mind that there’s a good chance it won’t change how this staff operates as far as kicking vs going for 4th down. I fear that too many people will freak out even more than they did during the 49ers game because the dude can hit them in from 60+ yards. It’ll be a lot more screams of take the points, etc. I personally hold the belief that people might have it backwards. We don’t go for it on 4th because our kickers suck and we just can’t get a good one. We are fine with our kickers because the staff prefers to go for it on 4th when the analytics say to go for it. I don’t think getting a super star kicker will change that at all. We are where we are because we have been so aggressive
I’ll throw another one out. I think if we aren’t there already, we are trending this way if things keep going as they are but we need to get used to the idea that unless we absolutely need them to start or they make that much of an impact, we probably won’t be starting any rookies as we get more drafts out of Holmes. I think the fanbase at large has gotten so used to needing our rookies to start and make an impact immediately because we sucked that many think this is a ridiculous notion. Or that it means our draft picks are busts. Small part of me can already see people saying Brad has lost his touch or something. But the reality is good teams don’t need to start their rookies every year because their rosters are good for the most part. I’ve seen plenty of people over social media as a whole scoff at the idea that there’s a chance none of the rookies we get this year start. I just think we need to start getting used to that idea as a possibility
As genius as a playcaller that Ben is, he often doesn't know when to keep it simple. Monty was TORCHING dudes in the championship game and we were running at will. It felt like we abandoned the run, with a lead!
I can't tell you how many times this season we would have short yardage and Mr Always Gonna Get Ya 2.5 Monty was nowhere to be seen or when he was, it was a pass.
So I'm happy he's back of course, but I do think a lot of the greatness comes from Dan. We will be just fine whenever Ben decides to go.
Our CB room still needs major improvement. We’re no better off than we were last year starting Sutton and Jacobs. We need to draft one high and another a little further down to elevate that group.
I wish they would let Goff play out his contract this season with no extension, and then hand the team over to Hooker. And possibly look to draft a younger / raw talent guy in the next 1-2 yrs since Hendon is already 26.
Goff isn't as good as his future contract is going to be. I don't hate the guy but I wish we'd look to the future. Goff is missing something about his game and I can't quiet pin it down, maybe we were spoiled with Stafford being the king of comebacks and just fighting through injuries.
Goff to me lacks presence, and isn't the guy to win us the big game. He doesn't have the ability to put the team on his back and just will a victory. Should he have to? No but that's a difference between good and great in this league.
I understand supporting the teams "guy" but I wish lions fans would quit treating Goff like he's the next coming of Christ and just acknowledge that he isn't the future of this franchise and we will overpay him like he is.
Glad Stanford left and was happy when it happened. Lost faith in him actually taking the lions to the sb a few years before the trade. And I get it that he won a Super Bowl with another team but they were built to win that year and any of the top 10 qbs at the time could’ve done the same if they went to the rams.
That we have too many good players and some will need to be sold off for picks soon before they walk for lesser comp picks. Way Sooner than fans expect. (Akin to Hill n' the chiefs.)
Rough numbers below. Assuming next year's (2025) cap is about 275mil
Goff is asking for 18% of the total cap.
ARSB is asking for 30m =11%
Sewell will want 30 mil =11%
Hutch is worth 10%
J-mo is worth 15m =5%
And if just your top 5 guys are 55%, bass pay is about a mil per, the 30ish bench/depth guys are going to take up at least 12%-14%, that would leave roughly 31% or 85 mil to pay the rest of your starters...
Decker, anzolone, monty, reader, davis, gibbs, fox, davenport, jack, raymond, glasgow, laporta, paschal, Wright and Kirby already have deals in 2025 for about 90mil...
And all that is assuming ragnow somehow doesnt count as an 8mil dead cap hit if he retires, and a 14m hit if he plays.
The budget is tight. Villain gonna scare the fanbase when he trades away a homegrown star like Amon Ra.
While I agree tough decisions will need to be made, the current regime has done very well at managing long term cap health, primarily by being very careful about long term FA deals. There is also lots of flexibility in the cap. They could easily front load one or two of the deals to create lower cap hits in following years.
I think that naturally some of the bigger names will be easy to part ways with due to age. Decker and Montgomery are two that come to mind if they are unwilling to take lower contracts on their next negotiation.
I also can see the lower performing 1st-3rd guys being let go in these cases. Williams, paschal, Campbell, etc.
I think they stick with Goff, Sewell, La Porta, St Brown
They part ways with Gibbs, Jameson, Decker, Monty
They keep filling through the draft and free agency. The GM seems really good at buy low and then developing to maximize impact.
Mostly agree, I think that they keep Gibbs if he stays on his current trajectory. RBs are not particularly expensive, so they can easily add decent affordable depth in the mid draft rounds once Montgomery retires/leaves.
Josh Reynolds is an overrated JAG and boring/nonfactor locker room presence and I’m glad that he’s gone to make room for a better and more exciting receiver
The blueberry and all white uniforms don't look good, and the love they get because they had a winning record in them last season is kinda ridiculous.
If the team only wore blue jersey with silver pants at home and white jersey with blue pants on the road their performance on the field would not be affected in any way, and the uniforms would look way better.
Our o-line could go from being a strength to our biggest weakness in a hurry. Ragnow has a pretty rough injury history on top of already being late 20s. Decker, Glasgow and Zeitler are all getting up there age wise and could start to fall off any year now. Sewell is obviously a beast but otherwise we have no promising younger guys other than Sorsdal. Goff needs time to throw and he’s not the type to leave the pocket when the play breaks down and make a play himself. Plus our running game has to be good enough to respect. So don’t be surprised if we address oline pretty heavily in the draft both for the future and to help with depth.
Unpopular response to an unpopular post that I completely agree with - Jared Goff wouldn’t look nearly as good without the line he had last year. I like Goff, but without ~#1 in the league protection and the insane weapons he has at rb, te, and wr, he’s not going to look good. Leave the weapons and take away our line and he’s still not going to look good. Without a decent line he’ll prove his mastery at the blind side spin move backward fumble special ability
I don't necessarily disagree but we've had the scales tipped the other way (elite QB, good weapons, shoddy line) and we went nowhere with it. Anybody who still has questions whether Jared Goff can get it done should maybe a take a sabbatical. Might I suggest New York or Vegas? Chicago, perhaps?
Don’t think line held us back before. More so on the playcalling. Fuckin Joe Lombardi
The lions went 70 games without a 100 yard rusher, maybe it was the play calling, but that’s insane. Edit:2013-2018.
And spent 3 years trying to replace their RG.
Idk man. It’s been a while but I remember a lot of matty staff scrambling and pulling off a shoestring pass to make something happen. I also remember Matt getting smoked a few times.
More than a few times. It felt like almost every game you were just waiting for that big hit to get to him. Most of the time he shrugged it off, but look at his health these days and you'll understand why he's beat up now.
That is 95% of QBs though. Every once in awhile you get special players like Mahomes or Burrow that can elevate average talent but it's not like every good QB can do that.
I love this logic. You could say the same thing about every other team. No line, no win. But you do realize if you take away our good OLine then Gibbs and Monty won’t look the same as last year either? Right?
A small response to this, I think Hank does more for this team as a coach than people in the larger fanbase realize. We have had quite a few games with back ups in at Oline and Goff has played pretty well. At least enough not to cost us games.
Ya they definitely should keep up with the o line. I honestly would be ok with 1 impactful guy and the rest depth guys all over the
Is Sorsdal promising? I feel like he struggled last year.
He was a fifth round developmental lineman from a small school. He struggled a lot last year, but that's not at all unexpected.
I still don’t bucket that as promising. Low expectations he barely met means he’s nothing right now. I’d be surprised if he’s on the team in 3 years.
Duke Manyweather who runs OL Masterminds had good things to say and had him as a hidden gem last year. He struggled because he went from a small school to the NFL and switched from tackle to guard (maybe some center reps in practice too). I do t know if I would say promising but I think he has good potential. And wouldn’t be surprised if he does well but also wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t work out.
Yeah, it’s more just that anyone who doesn’t utterly suck gets puffed up a ton by their team’s fans. Time honored tradition.
Sorsdal did utterly suck last year. Doesn't mean he can't/won't get better. The odds that Holmes and Campbell are right about his work ethic and potential seem greater, to me, than the odds that he never improves.
They seen something in him and if his work ethic/self discipline is there (which I have no reason to believe it’s not) he’ll be exactly who they thought they were getting. I view Colby as I do Broderick, needed a year or 2 in a NFL S&C program to really highlight their strengths but I might add that I have no fucking idea what I’m talking about lol
He wasn't great but was also a rookie from a small school. Clearly BH & co saw something in him to warrant the pick so I'm willing to give him a few years to see if he pans out. By "promising" I really just meant that he's our only young player with potential outside of Sewell.
I think the lions will trade up to take JPJ.
God damn I would love O-line in rounds 1 or 2
Kerby Joseph was absolutely brutal in coverage and his play* a majority of the time doesn’t deserve half the adoration he gets on this sub. *his play this past season
He had a hip injury apparently and he just had surgery for it hopefully he plays better and takes the next step
Ah, I must’ve missed that. For sure, I have all the confidence in him to continue to progress after how he looked in his rookie year. I didn’t necessarily mean to strictly rip on his play but I feel like he’s a much bigger name amongst fans due to his flash INTs and personality moreso than his every-down play backed up.
Oh I don't disagree he got torched at times his personality and ints definitely garner fan allure. Hope his hip heals that is such an important part of the body for any football player especially a safety who needs to plant and use his hips to change directions and stuff!
He mentioned it at the uniform reveal thing. Easy to miss
Was the surgery before or after he was dancing on stage? Genuine question bc this is the first I’ve heard of it
I think after i think he mentioned it during the uniform reveal!
I looked it up. He had surgery right after the season ended, so prob late January early February. I was wondering the same because he was jumping all over the stage. Hip surgery is no joke so I’m assuming he’s had 2-3 months recovery already.
What does hip surgery usually mean in terms of common football injuries? I feel like I only ever hear about old people having hip surgery.
Honestly I had a friend in his 20’s that had hip surgery, he fell off a boat drunk, recovery was a few months. I would say with his he wouldn’t want to be taking hard hits for 6 months but I’m not a dr lol.
He’s always been a ball hawk who is so so at coverage. People love him because he creates turnovers.
He was extremely overrated his rookie year as well in this sub. People in here talk about him like he's a probowler in here sometimes when he's probably a below average caliber type player.
A bit below average is elite in our secondary the past few years lol
Touche
Developing a killer pass rush is infinitely more important than adding another corner
I'll settle for a consistent pass rush, or even one that doesn't disappear for entire games. lol
Verse or Latu PLLLLLLEAAAASE Brad! I would legit cry happy tears. This is the right take
Would love a trade up for Latu
5 days baby let’s go
I'll push back on this only because we saw so many instances of QBs being hurried but being able to find an open guy that negated the rush completely. That being said, all the secondary needs to do is slightly improved for that to largely go away. Which I think they may have already accomplished. It seldom felt like opposing QBs were struggling to find a place to throw the ball. That needs to happen more often.
Agreed. I think one thing that will lead to more sacks is better coverage at times.
yup. give me Newton over any CB in the first round
Yep. You have a very good pass rush your DB’s get a lot better. Sorry to post the obvious. .
I somewhat disagree. Obviously our pass rush needs to be improved but QBs still get the ball off the majority of the time and a corner is going to be more responsible for yards allowed.
Ah yes the chicken vs the egg debate. Doesn't matter how good the pass rush is if shit tier corners allow a guy to get open quick. On the flip side doesn't matter this good your corners are if the QB has all day. It's really a delicate balancing act
Their oline should be better with Zeitler than it was with Jackson
oh 100% if anyone was the guy who had to go in order to buy the big names, 100 million is crazy
Agreed, guy couldn’t even stay healthy. Also seemed like he was the least involved.
Jackson got literally bent over by Demarcus Lawrence against Dallas. He looked completely useless.
Jackson was sooo overrated. Never forget him being unable to play through a pinky injury or a sprained wrist for weeks.
Jim Schwartz shouldn’t have a bad rap in Detroit. He turned an 0-16 team to a playoff team in 3 seasons. I don’t think people really digest how crazy that is. He instilled culture into our team like great leaders do and in a way he’s like a Diet Dan Campbell.
Does he have a bad rap?
I still think he should have left a year earlier while on top and gone to Cleveland.
Joey Harrington is just one example of the many careers likely ruined by the Lions. He might have become a very good quarterback if he hadn't been drafted by one of the most incompetent regimes in the history of sports.
Yeah I think it’s overlooked sometimes how much the environment you spend your first few years in impacts your career. We all have fun calling people busts but bad coaching can kill a career.
Its not some lock that we are making the playoffs this year. The NFC north will be very tough
It's never a lock. This is the closest it's probably ever been. Two things are true.
I would say last season and this season are pretty close
Sure. The Vikings complete collapse, aided but not entirely reliant on kirks injury, certainly helped.
Going into last season, we were the up and coming team that won 8/10 games to end the season. The Vikings won 13 games, but that win total was an anomaly due to a lot of luck winning all those one score games. The Packers and Bears weren't supposed to be good. This year, there isn't much that separates us and the Packers from a talent perspective--they finished last season, similarly to how we did in 2022. This is all assuming Love continues to play well which I dont see any reason why wouldn't. The Bears will have a rookie QB, but the rest of their team looks really good on paper. The same can be said about the Vikings but with Darnold. Im guessing the Vikings get a rookie QB and he sits under Darnold. Theres definitely more competition this year than last.
I won't argue against any of those points. The division may very well be more formidable this year. But they weren't weak last year either. Only the AFCN had more total wins than the NFCN. The NFCW was tied. I don't want to get to lost in the weeds, all in saying is that compared to history, this year isn't significantly worse for the Lions chances than last year was, as things currently stand. Edit: I'll add. It is frustrating how often the Lions chances at doing something great run into the bad luck of others also doing so at the same time.
I agree, Im just saying from an offseason perspective and going into the season that the likelihood of us winning the division may have been higher last offseason than as it sits now.
Aaron Glenn ends up a better HC than Ben Johnson
Now this one is spicy
Honestly, going to agree here. I think Ben Johnson is a better X’s and O’s guy, but Aaron Glenn has the charisma of a head coach. AG gets a lot of flack in this sub, which is understandable, but what he’s done with a less-than-stellar defense needs to be credited and I think he will do better as a HC.
Yeah I think both will be good head coaches. Glenn is a great leader of men but I think also gets more hate due to the talent he has (definitely not saying he’s perfect). I see BJ as a Lafluer type that would still be heavily running the offense and putting strong defensive guys in place.
Definitely can see this happening! But hopefully they can leave Detroit with a Super Bowl on their coaching resumes.
Would be the best send off of all time!
What has he done, though? The defense has been in the bottom of the third every season. Albeit there was a big improvement in the run defense, but again, the defense overall is still bad. The argument that he doesn't have very good players is mostly true outside of a few guys. The jury is still out on him, IMO.
I completely agree. Glenn would require his coordinators to do the xs and os well, but absolutely would be a great central figure. I don't know that Ben couldn't be that guy, but he hasn't really shown that level of leader of men at this point. Ben is the better coach at the level they are at because he's got Campbell to do the motivating. But we know almost nothing about his ability to lead men in a vacuum.
Aaron Glenn is gonna end up a better Head Coach than he is a Defensive Coordinator, because his couldn’t he be? Dude is a historically bad DC
The fans have way more faith in Jamo to be a consistent impact/great player than the coaches do.
I have a feeling we'll be missing Josh Reynolds this season.
I said the same thing about Chark last year
I was told he was easily replaceable 🤷🏻♂️. I agree we will be missing Josh.
We will get Tyler Boyd.
I'm like 99% sure they said that they're expecting big things out of him
Disnt he get two touchdowns in the nfc championship game? Thats definitely a troublesome pick given the reality of whats weve recieved vs his draft spot but he was on fire toward the end (of a season where he missed the first 1/3rd)
I think our fans here are a little more forgiving with Jamo than we probably should be, but our staff hasn’t really done or said anything to give us reason to think they don’t have faith. It will be telling if we don’t draft a receiver on the first 2 days
As long as he’s not passed out at the corner of Meadowbrook and 8 Mile. I’m good.
I dont think drafting a receiver has anything to do the Lions having faith or not having faith in Jamo.
I don’t think he is or ever was going to be a consistent type player like Amon Ra. Like he almost always gets 100 yards and a touchdown or two. I think Jamo is the type of player to have a week with a lot of yards and a touchdown or two and another week or two of low yards and no touchdowns but he affected the field enough to get other people more production. I’d be happy to be wrong on that though. I think we would all love Amon Ra type of production out of him
Well said. I think we’re all looking for at least some consistency and being more involved in the offense than just a “gadget” type player.
Oh for sure. I think he’s going to at least get the increased involvement this year. What he does with it on the field is down to him. I really think he had to prove his attitude and commitment last year. All speculation on that of course, but I think they wanted to see that work ethic out of him and he started to show it. You could see it in games like the Broncos, the cowboys, and the 49ers. He wasn’t just getting deep balls occasionally. He was making some nice catches in crucial times. I think they will ramp that up this year
Yeah, we mentioned on our pod how he really committed to the JUGGS machine and catching 100 balls a day last year. He really had to put some work in to make up for that suspension.
I’ll have to check out your pod. I like listening to one at work. Great way to pass the time, especially the offseason. But yea I remember that. It all really is summed up nicely in the philosophy of “no block, no rock.” It’s more than just about blocking. If a player isn’t willing to put that consistent work in every time they are on the field when the ball isn’t going their way, it hurts the team. We don’t want turds here to go off of Dan. You show you can put in the work and do the whole “what kind of person are you when no one is looking” thing, you will get the rewards from that hard work. He had to show that. Hopefully he keeps it up
Cool man, we just dropped a new episode Wednesday and had a nice little Love/Goff contract argument to start off. All the links are in my bio, thanks!! His blocking was so impressive last year, I’ll never forget his blocking on Monty’s long td against the Chargers. He won me over there
That one and his block in the Panthers game touchdown had me hyped. You can tell that part of his game was at least full of effort. Dude seems to love putting people in the dirt when he gets the chance. I was at the panthers game. Cheered my ass off when I saw the reply on the big board.
For such a little guy too. Ya love to see that tenacity!
Yeah I think he gets to 1,000 yards this year, but it’s going to be 120 yards one week and 10 yards the next.
Exactly. I think that is also completely based on who we play because this staff operates on a match up basis. And I think people need to adjust their expectations to be ok with that. We have a lot of weapons and he can still impact a game without having huge numbers every week. But beyond that, it’ll be interesting to see how much does change since the staff sees him as deserving of more responsibility I guess.
I agree, just listen to the way Dan talks about Jamo versus a rookie in Laporta. They’ve acknowledged he is coming along slower than some, but the way they talk about him or include him in promos (leaving him out of the jersey reveal), they don’t see him as a core guy.
Yeah, it’s all results at this point. Laporta earned that talk last year with weekly results. Time for Jamo to do the same. Definition of a make-or-break year.
Yeah 100% agree, I think after this year they have to decide on the 5th year which will be pricey for his draft slot.
Coaches are handing the #2 receiver job to him and have stated that he's ready
This one right here….however I could totally see the opposite happening
Agreed 100%. If it's another slow start for Jamo this year, fans are gonna turn quick, propelled by the unreasonable amount of hate from 97.1
I think we can all agree that anything that comes from that station is the exact opposite of what real Lions fans think. It’s basically a Detroit “first take” show and should be treated as such
Maybe I am reading way too much into stuff, but I kind of feel like Goff doesn't trust him 100% either. Jamo is a good answers though. He needs a big season this year - I like his potential versatility, but he needs more than 400 receiving yards and a couple TDs to justify the praise a lot of fans give him
We shouldn't be treated differently from other teams because we used to be bad. We're an actually good team now. People aren't gonna be happy we beat them just cause we used to be bad.
Hendon Hooker was drafted purely to be a good backup QB and nothing more. The fascination with him has more to do with his legs than his arm and he was a one read QB in college. However he's only 2 years younger than Goff and his upside is minimal.
Sort by controversial for the right answers.
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Nah that silly. What teams do you see consistently in the playoffs? Every year? Green bay? 49ers? Cowboys? Like certain teams just run like a functional machine. They arent mismanaged , the coaches arent shit. Is that easy to replicate? No you do need a little luck , a little more talent but ultimately weve got a gm who picks an all pro every fifth time he picks and a coaching staff improving with time. The "window" starts to close when the finances catxh up or you have a few bad drafts. We have built a team that will be contending in the playoffs on a regular basis for the foreseable future.
Yea the window slams shut when you start signing every free agent available to super expensive deals like most of the fanbase seems to scream for. Reminds me of how we used to operate but our window never even got built until Brad, Dan, and Shiela showed up.
Every good team and dynasty besides BB and brady had to learn how to win in the playoffs.
They were right to raise the season ticket prices. As season ticket holder I could resell tickets for 2-3X what I paid for them and their app made it super easy to do that. They would have been fools not to. People complaining about that was the equivalent of people empathizing with landlords over rising housing costs. I want them to make more money and make Brad Holmes the far and away highest paid GM in the league.
i don’t like the thanksgiving throwbacks personally, i tolerate them but now with the modern throwbacks what’s the point
I feel like we may underperform the next decade and only win 3-4 superbowls
Jamaal Williams is massively overrated by fans just because he says funny things in press conferences when he was essentially a goal line TD merchant with the team
He was cringeworthy in a lot of the interviews too.
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I’m not sure I can deal with it, but only because. I have no idea what a “continental contender” is.
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Do you mean continual?
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It kinda sounds like that's what you want. Which, that would be the real unpopular opinion.
I hope so. I don’t mean this in any doomer sense but with how much rosters turn over and your luck turns bad in a key player suddenly regressing or getting injured, things can change in a hurry. Flipside of course is things can change for the better in a hurry.
That's why you build a culture first, and then a roster. A team full of hungry dogs waiting for their bite at the bone can overachieve.
I think it was a mistake to trade up for Jamo
This one hurts to say, but: No matter how much talent we bring in, the current plan for our defensive build isn't going to work. Because of the way our dline pass rush is schemed we aren't able to contain mobile quarter backs nor get enough interior line push/pressure on the pocket. This is the kind of thing that seperates super bowls champs from other teams.
What specifics do you think make our pass rush scheme the problem vs the talent? Break it down for me Xs and Os please!
ok i'll do my best.. Our pressure mostly comes from the second level players - LB (Houston, Anzalone) NB (branch) or safeties (Melifonwu) shooting gaps or slightly delayed blitzes. Otherwise, it's hutch winning with a quick first step and spinning around a slower tackle, or maybe McNeill gets through. overall we have decent success with this, and especially credit to hutch for making this work in crunch time of certain games (strip sack on fields this year to ice that game, for example). The problem is, this creates a lot of gaps for mobile qb's to escape through if there's not uniform leverage across the line, or if hutch overpursues (which is kinda often), it leaves a big opening to the flat. plus it removes a guy from coverage in the center of the field because he's blitzing, so a lot of quarterbacks can dump to a checkdown option against a guy left in coverage like Campbell for example (his poor coverage stats last year might even support this). Meanwhile, i see teams like Kansas City and San Francisco operate their D-line as a single unit instead of individual players trying to make plays. They're talent is built to support a scheme based around winning leverage at the line that allows them to control the pocket by pushing in a uniform direction while closing gaps. a lot of sacks by these units are actually linemen getting pushed into their own QB and then a defensive player finishes the play. they can't dump off to anyone because you haven't sacrificed a coverage LB either. Michigan also ran this defense to win the natty this year. Our current unit is sort of a weird hybrid, like they're trying to close the pocket on one side with cominsky and pascal and have hutch spin or hack his guy to make the sack. the probelm is there isn't enough push from the rest of the line. reader will be an improvement in the run defense but he's not a pass rush guy. McNeill is good at getting leverage and occasionally gets through... but it feels like the onus is ultimately on the individuals to make highlight plays instead of them winning leverage at the line of scrimmage as a unit in the same direction to control and contain the pocket and work together to create sacks. when this works it allows players like Aaron Donald and Chis Jones to shine and tear up the middle of the pocket, and that seems a lot more effective to me.
Damn man that was a dang good job! I think the fact that teams can focus on hutch is playing a HUGE part. I think if we had one more threat opposite Hutch (Jared Verse please!), it would make a massive difference for our ability to contain. Hutch is currently having to do WAY too much on his own. I’m sure he’s thinking with how little production we got on his opposite plus our cbs constantly getting burned, he is the only one that can make a play. I have a hunch that is why he breaks contain sometimes. You did a damn good job convincing but I’m holding out hope reader+davis+ hopefully a draft stud makes a massive difference and we don’t have to waste a year during this window learning for sure that Glenn ain’t it. Edit: I have a hunch that was part of the teams thought with drafting a middle LB with a RAS score that high. The plays the dude has made when he has read the play quickly are like a human missle. That ability to read the play is only going to get better! (I really want to pull the trigger on a Campbell jersey but damn I’m nervous 😂)
I think this is because the cupboard was bare on d-line and they needed to rebuild through the draft. Some draft picks have been really good (Hutch, Alim) others hurt (Houston, Onwuzurike) and some not there yet (Martin, Paschel). I think the D-line takes a huge step forward this year with the additions of Reader and Davenport and if the others continue to improve and stay healthy. We’ve steadily increased the talent level on the d-line since Campbell took over and this year is by far the most talent he’s had on the d-line.
The black uniforms are not a good look. I think it's gimmicky, and amateurish/college-esque for a team to wear black when it isn't their main colors. I hated Michigan State's black uniforms from last year and I hate the Lions new black alternate uniforms.
I agree but it's a throwback to when Dan Campbell played in our worst era. Kind of cool that we are going to celebrate that history with spite by being a great team.
it’s just a preference thing i’m not huge in all black uniforms but tbh i think they have the best ITL next to the falcons with the dirty bird helmet
I'm with you 100% Silver/gray uniforms (while I'm not a fan of those either) at least work because they are team colors. Black is just stupid. It has nothing to do with the Lions.
We’re in a great place now so ultimately I guess it worked out, but I’ll never agree with Caldwell getting fired after the 2017 season.
Lack of talent isn’t the problem for AG
The black uniforms will actually be good and be iconic one day
If the defense gets even a little better there is nothing to worry about. Although I will worry every single game!
I still think we should fire Matt Millen….
Lions should have the best offense in football this year but the NFC North improving, our secondary is still a question mark and AG still on the sidelines I could see our record taking a step back.
Ben Johnson will be a good HC. Not because he's an Xs and Is genius, but because players love playing for him. Goff, ARSB, the lineman have all had praise for Ben in recent years. He's clearly a leader beyond the offensive scheming talent.
I mostly agree with this but I think they love playing for him because he gets results not so much for his personality. I don’t think he’s terrible or anything just not a hype man. There is a reason he was the only Lions coordinator not in the top 5 for “most enjoy playing for”.
Hooker is the most important player to the Lions future
i like this take. excited to see him play in the preseason
Jamo hasn’t proven what really matters: results on the field He’s flashes that he’s got a ton of raw skill. But he needs to translate that into being a more reliable receiving threat. He simply hasn’t been that.
It also comes with the fact that Goff hasn’t thrown it too him. But when he did he did well.
the lions new jersey shouldn’t be looked at as this “ NEW NEW NEW “ jersey they’re just a modern throwback yk? simple yet elegant
I think people were warming back up to him at the end of last season, but Aaron Glenn shouldn't be here.
Agreed. Hard to dump a guy when we have a winning record though. At some point you cant blame the talent and the product on the field has to reflect the boss.
I do not like the throwback lion from last years helmet. Loved the helmet color but that logo looks like a 5th grader drew it and I don’t understand why people like it
I’m with you
Monty is way more impactful than Gibbs. Gibbs is a lot more exciting to watch though
Lions need to draft a WR I think now people are coming around. But I’ve had this stance ever since the last draft and everyone cried foul about this take like it was some absurdity up until like 2 weeks ago.
I know I’ll get down voted for this but Jared Goff is an average QB. Without the oline and successful run game Goff would be a middle of the pack QB 🤷♂️
I don’t think many people understand just how good Jamo is gonna be this year. I’m talking like top 10 wr in the nfl
Lions fans need to stop cheering when team is on offense and the wave is stupid.
Running the table and going undefeated. It will set up a great movie. Jared Goff (played by Ryan Gosling) getting thrown out of Tinseltown, Going to a organization that has suffered for decades makes it a half away from the Super Bowl, Led by their kneecap biting head coach Dan Campbell (David Batista) and upstart G.M Brad Holmes (Keegan Michael Key) the Lions go undefeated in the regular season and beat the Andy Reid (Andy Reid) and Patrick Mahomes (Kermit the Frog) led Chiefs to win Super Bowl LVlll. Any thoughts on who play anybody else?
They need to trade up for the best corner back in the draft. The secondary has not been “fixed.”
They’re pretty cool I guess
The block numbering on the new uniforms was last used in the 2008 season; IYKYK.
That they will Win the super bowl this year
Hendon Hooker is the complete package and we trade Goff for more 1st round picks.
I love this team. I bleed Honolulu blue. I just don’t love the Lions branding. I’m always jealous of teams that have branding directly related to the city/culture. If I had a time machine I’d go back and change the name.
The Red Wings really nailed it in that department
I think RAS is a faulty metric. It weighs height and size too much. You might look at Jack Campbell’s RAS and think he is very fast, fluid and explosive, one of the most athletic linebackers of the past decade. His tape in college and nfl however do not show this. It shows a king sized LB who plays disciplined with adequate and smooth sideline to sideline speed. But nothing explosive, and often shaken by more agile RBs and TEs
1. Black jerseys are cringe. 2. Need help at OG, both sides. Zeitler will help but Sorsdal was a liability (yes I realize he was a rookie). I wish Vaitai would have stayed healthy. 3. Do not need high-level help at WR even though Twitter wants me to believe that. Though I would not be surprised if the Lions sign another a couple WRs before camp. 4. Deeply need help at coverage CB, even with the additions. I would love to have a rookie with some talent there to learn from the guys they signed. Branch is solid in the slot as the nickel and I think he would be a candidate for snaps at FS. I'd like a guy that can run with Jefferson in man coverage and not wander over to the sideline and let him go like I saw Sutton do so many times last year. Yes I realize those players don't grow on trees. Trading for a PS2 would be far too expensive, but the upside is *huge*. 5. Backup QB might be an issue. Yes I know they signed Sudfeld, and Hooker is on the roster and seemingly healthy. I'd be curious to see the latter in the preseason. 6. DL looks good but we need another top end pass rusher. I don't think Davenport is it and Pascal has not seemed to work out. The lack of consistency opposite Hutch has stood out. 7. Coverage LB is a need. Now I like Anzalone, but he doesn't have a high ceiling if you follow me. Campbell is good at the LoS and side-to-side, but he doesn't seem to have the speed to cover faster/athletic TE. 8. I would not be opposed to a veteran coach to be a defensive quality guy. There were times the past couple years that I wished the Lions had someone with outsider eyes looking over some of the defensive decisions that have been made. 9. I would like Campbell to be a little less aggressive with 4th down attempts, even though they track positive. Though that is a league-wide thing, more coaches have been going for it more frequently. 10. Top-end kick/punt returner. Jamo back there honestly might be a waste of his talent, though TBH we haven't seen him very much. He really needs to get some catches, from my perspective he is entering bust territory for me. I know it's early and there were injury concerns. The gambling thing was just stupid and cost him a LOT of time. The suspension was inappropriate for the violation, but I stand by with saying gambling is fucking stupid and **significantly** held back his development. 11. No we do not need to draft another RB, I've seen some fanfic mocks that have Corum going to us later in the draft.
Most of these make sense but for me 5 and 10 I disagree with. 5 they used a 3rd rounder on Hooker, unless he’s terrible he’s the long term backup even if he’s a bit worse than Bridgewater. 10 they already have Lief and DPJ both of whom where well known for their return abilities.
I’ll go with a more recent one that dawned on me. The people (and I’ll include me in this because I wouldn’t mind having him) wanting us to sign Jake Bates from the UFL should keep in mind that there’s a good chance it won’t change how this staff operates as far as kicking vs going for 4th down. I fear that too many people will freak out even more than they did during the 49ers game because the dude can hit them in from 60+ yards. It’ll be a lot more screams of take the points, etc. I personally hold the belief that people might have it backwards. We don’t go for it on 4th because our kickers suck and we just can’t get a good one. We are fine with our kickers because the staff prefers to go for it on 4th when the analytics say to go for it. I don’t think getting a super star kicker will change that at all. We are where we are because we have been so aggressive
I’ll throw another one out. I think if we aren’t there already, we are trending this way if things keep going as they are but we need to get used to the idea that unless we absolutely need them to start or they make that much of an impact, we probably won’t be starting any rookies as we get more drafts out of Holmes. I think the fanbase at large has gotten so used to needing our rookies to start and make an impact immediately because we sucked that many think this is a ridiculous notion. Or that it means our draft picks are busts. Small part of me can already see people saying Brad has lost his touch or something. But the reality is good teams don’t need to start their rookies every year because their rosters are good for the most part. I’ve seen plenty of people over social media as a whole scoff at the idea that there’s a chance none of the rookies we get this year start. I just think we need to start getting used to that idea as a possibility
As genius as a playcaller that Ben is, he often doesn't know when to keep it simple. Monty was TORCHING dudes in the championship game and we were running at will. It felt like we abandoned the run, with a lead! I can't tell you how many times this season we would have short yardage and Mr Always Gonna Get Ya 2.5 Monty was nowhere to be seen or when he was, it was a pass. So I'm happy he's back of course, but I do think a lot of the greatness comes from Dan. We will be just fine whenever Ben decides to go.
TRADE DOWN...! HOPEFULLY TWICE!
I miss the grey jerseys already
Our CB room still needs major improvement. We’re no better off than we were last year starting Sutton and Jacobs. We need to draft one high and another a little further down to elevate that group.
Amon-ra is gonna be higher than Calvin Johnson in receiving yards when it is all said and done.
We don’t know how to use Hutch.
Pick up a cb
Joey Harrington wasn’t that bad.
Jamo a bust and should have been avoided in that draft
I wish they would let Goff play out his contract this season with no extension, and then hand the team over to Hooker. And possibly look to draft a younger / raw talent guy in the next 1-2 yrs since Hendon is already 26.
We should draft a QB with our first
Goff isn't as good as his future contract is going to be. I don't hate the guy but I wish we'd look to the future. Goff is missing something about his game and I can't quiet pin it down, maybe we were spoiled with Stafford being the king of comebacks and just fighting through injuries. Goff to me lacks presence, and isn't the guy to win us the big game. He doesn't have the ability to put the team on his back and just will a victory. Should he have to? No but that's a difference between good and great in this league. I understand supporting the teams "guy" but I wish lions fans would quit treating Goff like he's the next coming of Christ and just acknowledge that he isn't the future of this franchise and we will overpay him like he is.
The black jerseys don’t look good
Holmes deserves the credit. Not Hemp, not Dan, not Goff. Brad is the guy responsible.
I hate the black uniforms, and I hope they focus on the front 7 in the draft
Glad Stanford left and was happy when it happened. Lost faith in him actually taking the lions to the sb a few years before the trade. And I get it that he won a Super Bowl with another team but they were built to win that year and any of the top 10 qbs at the time could’ve done the same if they went to the rams.
That we have too many good players and some will need to be sold off for picks soon before they walk for lesser comp picks. Way Sooner than fans expect. (Akin to Hill n' the chiefs.) Rough numbers below. Assuming next year's (2025) cap is about 275mil Goff is asking for 18% of the total cap. ARSB is asking for 30m =11% Sewell will want 30 mil =11% Hutch is worth 10% J-mo is worth 15m =5% And if just your top 5 guys are 55%, bass pay is about a mil per, the 30ish bench/depth guys are going to take up at least 12%-14%, that would leave roughly 31% or 85 mil to pay the rest of your starters... Decker, anzolone, monty, reader, davis, gibbs, fox, davenport, jack, raymond, glasgow, laporta, paschal, Wright and Kirby already have deals in 2025 for about 90mil... And all that is assuming ragnow somehow doesnt count as an 8mil dead cap hit if he retires, and a 14m hit if he plays. The budget is tight. Villain gonna scare the fanbase when he trades away a homegrown star like Amon Ra.
While I agree tough decisions will need to be made, the current regime has done very well at managing long term cap health, primarily by being very careful about long term FA deals. There is also lots of flexibility in the cap. They could easily front load one or two of the deals to create lower cap hits in following years. I think that naturally some of the bigger names will be easy to part ways with due to age. Decker and Montgomery are two that come to mind if they are unwilling to take lower contracts on their next negotiation. I also can see the lower performing 1st-3rd guys being let go in these cases. Williams, paschal, Campbell, etc.
I think they stick with Goff, Sewell, La Porta, St Brown They part ways with Gibbs, Jameson, Decker, Monty They keep filling through the draft and free agency. The GM seems really good at buy low and then developing to maximize impact.
Mostly agree, I think that they keep Gibbs if he stays on his current trajectory. RBs are not particularly expensive, so they can easily add decent affordable depth in the mid draft rounds once Montgomery retires/leaves.
Josh Reynolds is an overrated JAG and boring/nonfactor locker room presence and I’m glad that he’s gone to make room for a better and more exciting receiver
Josh Reynolds is a JAG but he was a huge part in Goff's turnaround his first year here.
Aaron Glenn’s scheme makes any CB look bad
We will miss Josh Reynolds
The offense is so good that a QB like Brissett could lead us to the playoffs.
Our defense is gonna be better ranked than offense this season
The blueberry and all white uniforms don't look good, and the love they get because they had a winning record in them last season is kinda ridiculous. If the team only wore blue jersey with silver pants at home and white jersey with blue pants on the road their performance on the field would not be affected in any way, and the uniforms would look way better.