Detroit Lions: We're Going to Bite a Kneecap Off
Larry Foote will be a Detroit Lion, ~100% chance of that.
Theres also talk between DET/KC that would involve Glen Dorsey coming here for our 2nd rd pick. Not sure I understand why Pioli wants to get rid of him but I'd gladly ship out our 2nd for him.
You add Dorsey/Foote and it makes our draft look that much better. Shaun Rogers also said he wants to come back to Detroit once he gets released from the Browns, which looks likely.
Biggest question going into the season is will Matt Stafford be the starter from weak 1.
Minny has no heart.
14-2 mother ****ers.
15-2 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lions beat the Vikings in a way NO ONE EVER EXPECTED!!!!!!! STIFLING DEFENSE!!!!
Gibbs went all Al Bundy on them!!!!
4 TOUCHDOWNS POLK HIGH!!!!
First round bye!! Let’s GAMEPLAN AND REST UP!!!
Super proud of this team!!!!
so so so happy for this group and for all of us that have been longtime Lions fans. enjoy it, fellas!
That defensive effort was a master class in coaching from Glenn. Bye is so fkn huge
Anzalone and Robertson? Just wow. A warrior and his dawg
DL? Wow again, ZERO starters from week 1 but still consistently getting pressure. 2 sacks and 10 QB hits, Darnold looked like he wished he was still with the Jets
Kerby? Targeted one time? So not good enough for the pro-bowl but so good a team schemes their entire playoff life on not throwing his direction. That's fkn nuts
What a f'n season. Sure hope it continues and they take it all, but it's really something to look back in time to the start of the MCDC/Holmes era to now. A super bowl win legit earns statues.
It's also hilarious Campbell is somehow not going to win COTY and Holmes never wins EOTY. I guess HOF will have to do.
I wanna consume 1100mg of caffeine to start the day like my hero Dan Campbell.
I remember caring about individual awards when we had guys like Barry, Calvin, and Stafford and it was all we really had going. Now I could care less if guys get snubbed. Give KOC all the coach of the year awards. Who gives a ****. We just bodied them in the biggest game of the regular season. Playoff time!
Washington seems like a good matchup. Yeah running QBs have done some damage but I trust Glenn to dial up enough to bait the rookie into mistakes. Their defense looks like others we have hung 40 on.
Drawing WAS, while ensuring we only see one of MIN/LAR/PHI in the playoffs is 100% best-case scenario. Them changing the rules however many years ago to re-align the brackets after round 1 (which means any upset winner heading to the 1-seed, vs. the 1-seed always playing the 4/5 winner) is a massive extra advantage to the 1 seed, which already had the biggest advantage possible with a bye.
Anything can happen in one game, but Daniels is going to be experiencing something he hasn't seen before - a road win in Detroit is an awful lot to ask of a rookie QB. And yeah, I think Johnson and Goff will have the offense ready to execute.
Anything can happen in one game, but Daniels is going to be experiencing something he hasn't seen before - a road win in Detroit is an awful lot to ask of a rookie QB. And yeah, I think Johnson and Goff will have the offense ready to execute.
Raymond James crowd seemed to be about split as far as I could tell. Gonna be a bit louder for Daniels and no way Washington fans make that much noise at Ford Field.
Wash run defense is bottom tier, Anzalone back is once again huge vs mobile QB. Really my biggest worry is if Arnold is healthy enough to suit up this week and beyond - any other positive news on injury front is just gravy.
Mike Evans is a stud but is Lattimore cooked or still injured? He looked like a replacement level player out there last night and Wash traded a 3rd, 4th & 6th for him and a 5th.
The defense never had a chance once the injury bug kept hitting. They couldve won this shootout but Jared Goff decided to fight was the time for his worst game. See you at the draft.
The Minnesota game allowed us to fool ourselves into thinking we could win 3 straight games with a Practice Squad Defensive Line.
We blitzed Darnold and played cover 1 or cover 0 man well enough to rely on Darnold missing easy throws. Better QB's including Daniels just won't do that.
We got no pressure with the front 4 and couldn't stop the run. That just wasn't gonna hold up for 3 games.
Now that I've had time to digest it, I'm fine just calling this the injury season. It stings because it felt like 4 years built up to this. They started at rock bottom in 21, getting objectively better every season so it felt like this was a natural build up to a championship year, but football just doesn't work like that. You can't lose 3/4 of your D-Line, your two best CBs, and a good linebacker, and expect to still be good.
For as beat up as the defense was though, they played good enough to win that game. But Goff is who he is. He has bad games. This was a bad one. When he forces throws bad things happen. You can bemoan Goff not being good enough, and maybe there's some truth to that, but at the end of the day there are a handful of teams that would kill for a QB of his caliber. The team is good enough to win if he doesn't make mistakes. Unfortunately he picked a bad game to make them.
My main beef with the coaching was the Jamo throw. I don't get it. You call that play for one of two reasons. Your offense is struggling and needs a spark, or you want to take a shot to put a nail in the coffin. This was neither of those spots. Your offense is moving the ball well in rhythm. There is no need to call a high risk play there.
My copium here is that for years I just wanted the Lions to be good. For pretty much my whole life they have been teetering between bad and mid. For all of our lives really, unless there are some octogenarian Lions fans on 2+2. Now we have a team that is at least talked about as among the best. They are competitive with the best teams. That's all I've wanted. Playoff losses happen. We're cursed to see another Chiefs/Eagles superbowl this year I'm afraid. Or maybe not. But I can at least say I'm happy with the direction of the team, and they should be good for a while.
The gameplan was to feed Gibbs. Ben ****ed up by deviating to whatever it is we saw.
I've been arguing this point on reddit a lot (no comments on how much of a loser this makes me). Ben absolutely did not **** up the game plan. We were very well balanced for three quarters, then skewed the stats pass-heavy because WAS had the ball for almost 15 straight minutes separated by 3 lions plays and the Jamo INT. Our first drive of the second half we ran 7 times and passed 5, which ended with a TD, score WAS 31 DET 28. Our second drive was one pass and one run, then the disastrous Jamo trick play.
The next time we got the ball back we were down 45-28 and there was 7:30 left in the 4th quarter. Not surprisingly, our last two drives were 7 pass plays/1 run and 10 pass plays/0 runs. Ben didn't call the wrong game; actually, he called a great game, except for the terrible Jamo pass (which admittedly really was terrible). (A lot of flack has been given to the empty-backfield throw on 3rd and 1 that led to the sack/fumble; Campbell spoke specifically about this, said it was supposed to get ARSB on Bobby Wagner 1:1 and they liked the matchup, and they'd run it on 4th and 1 if they didn't get it. Unfortunately A) ARSB slipped and B) Glasgow got eaten alive, and we got the result we got, but it wasn't IMO a bad play call, and it certainly wasn't the result of being under-prepared because BJ was prepping for the Bears as has been bandied about.)
Now that I've had time to digest it, I'm fine just calling this the injury season. It stings because it felt like 4 years built up to this. They started at rock bottom in 21, getting objectively better every season so it felt like this was a natural build up to a championship year, but football just doesn't work like that. You can't lose 3/4 of your D-Line, your two best CBs, and a good linebacker, and expect to still be good.
For as beat up as the defense was though, they played good enoug
Good post, I agree with it pretty much (particularly thoughts on Goff - is he a top-4 guy in the league? No. But, as Holmes says, it's a lot easier to get worse at QB than better here.
Copying from a reddit post I made, there was a picture that got posted showing the final defense 2-deep from training camp with 70% of the names crossed out that helped me feel a little bit better. It's f'n wild that we made it to 15-2 with the horrific injury luck we had. If you give us back Hutch and McNeil, very very real chance we go all the way. It's always going to sting to not have capitalized on the chance this year, but yeah, it's easy to feel bad and forget that I would have given anything to finish in the top-4 and top-2 once each in the last 2 years pretty much my entire life.
It's going to be very interesting for the next couple of years. Next year we get our stars and depth back on defense and the offense still looks great; but, we have a brutal schedule and two new coordinators. After that, we start losing some core pieces because we can't pay everyone. If Holmes really is a top 2-3 GM and we continue to find pro bowlers and quality starters (even picking in the late 20s every round) every draft, then holy hell, we're actually just set up to be the new Ravens or Eagles and be a true contender each and every year, and dear god hopefully once or twice we actually break all the way through.
The bad timeline version is that Holmes caught lightning in a bottle a few times with late picks like ARSB and Joseph, got some good fortune when Sewell and Hutchinson fell to him, and we combined that with a top OC who just walked out the door - then basically 2024 was the peak lions season, and now we've got one more shot with most of this group, then talent starts dropping off.
Fingers crossed we're in the good timeline not the bad.
One more Goff point: somewhere I saw a stat that Goff had a 5:1 TD to INT ratio against non-playoff opponents, which crushed the league average of 2.2:1. But, he had a 1.5:1 ratio against playoff opponents, which was actually worse than league average of 1.7:1. 5 INTs vs HOU certainly hurt this number, but it does give a bit of concern that he can look all-world against scrubs but not get you there when you need him to.
The narrative for almost a year is going to be that Goff chokes in big games and it's not like he didn't do his part to earn that. The numbers I'm not super worried about, that's some sample size stuff. But he does have some whoopsies now and again and they tend to happen when they are behind, are out of the scripted play window, and he starts forcing throws. Those things are more likely to happen against better teams. They survived the Houston game because that was when their defense, despite already having some key losses, was still playing at a solid level. They should have a good defense next year barring another bloodbath of injuries. There might be some regression on the offense just because of its historic play level this year. But even if they can keep it top 5 while getting the defense back in the top 10, that's all we need. We could even lose the turnover battle in a playoff game as long as it's not 5-0 and probably still pull it off. But I think we can agree that by the end of this year the defense had fallen back to worse than last years just based on injuries alone, and there was just no recovery from that against the top of the NFL.
Copying from a reddit post I made, there was a picture that got posted showing the final defense 2-deep from training camp with 70% of the names crossed out that helped me feel a little bit better. It's f'n wild that we made it to 15-2 with the horrific injury luck we had.
Saw that and it really put it into perspective. None of the remaining 4 teams would be there if they were missing 14 1rst and 2nd string players on defense, so there is that.
I live in Eagles territory and its laughable when they counter the injury argument with 'yeah everybody has to deal with injuries'. Right...because losing a 36yo rotational DE is the same as missing 7 starters. Kinda remember seeing something from mid Dec that showed Buffalo still had all 22 starters healthy from week 1
They survived the Houston game because that was when their defense, despite already having some key losses, was still playing at a solid level. They should have a good defense next year barring another bloodbath of injuries.
Healthy defense. Can't wait to see it -watching the best Lions team in my lifetime and couldn't even make the NFC Championship sucks. Not really worried about the offense regressing under a different OC as the need to score points won't be nearly as great.
Really curious if the Holmes draft magic continues. Hit on most early picks, found a couple All-Pros with mid-round picks, and found solid contributors in the later rounds but jury is still out on his long-term project picks.
Is Manu real? Is Hooker an NFL QB? Broderic Martin? Roster was so stacked those picks were an affordable luxury but when injuries hit so hard you were left to wonder if guys that could actually contribute this year would've made a difference. Project OT that was on the 53 man and inactive all year has to pan out and soon.
Really curious if the Holmes draft magic continues. Hit on most early picks, found a couple All-Pros with mid-round picks, and found solid contributors in the later rounds but jury is still out on his long-term project picks.
Is Manu real? Is Hooker an NFL QB? Broderic Martin? Roster was so stacked those picks were an affordable luxury but when injuries hit so hard you were left to wonder if guys that could actually contribute this year would've made a difference. Project OT that was on the 53 m
Yup I think this is probably the number one fascinating question. If Holmes is just straight up great at identifying talent then we've got the infrastructure in place and top talent at key positions to have an open window for the next 5+ years. But, there are several concerns. Martin is top on the list for me: he comes back from IR in November, but only manages to get on the field in 2 games, for 25 total snaps per PFF, despite us basically elevating practice squad guys. This is a guy we traded 3 picks for. He was on IR from Sep-Nov, so hopefully it's just a case of not getting the reps in. Big offseason for him coming up.
Thank goodness Mahogany looks like a future starter, we absolutely needed at least one of our OL picks from the last two drafts to hit. Would be pretty awesome if Manu or Sorsdal turns in a great camp this summer. Manu I'll fully give a pass to as everyone said he was too raw to play this year. Lots of others have said not to expect anything in Year 2 either. If he turns into an all-pro Decker replacement in Year 3 I will understand the logic; if he's just a guy, it's hard to understand the logic of spending multiple picks on a player who won't contribute for 2 of his 4 year rookie contract. Meanwhile I am not sure if there's any hope for Sorsdal or not. While the Oline is the strength of the team this year, we really need to be thinking about replacing 3 of the spots in the next couple years, and that's assuming Mahogany is a starting guard. Decker can't play forever, Frank was already near retirement due to injuries before, Glasgow isn't the player he was last year and is no longer a starter (and honestly bears as much blame as anyone for the loss to WAS, he got eaten alive), and Zeitler is a FA (would love to see him resigned from a football standpoint, not sure at all if we can afford it).
Regarding Hooker, I dunno, I won't fault spending a 3rd round pick on a high upside QB flyer. It is a little disappointing though we felt like Bridgewater was the better backup option at the end of the season. I didn't realize he had been elevated to #2 until he came in the game.
It's hard to tell if Holmes is elite or just a fish on a heater, but early signs do seem to point to elite. He inherited a big steaming pile of **** and turned it around a year faster than I thought even a good GM could do.
Mahogany looks like an absolute stud and a steal this year. But overall your team is built in rounds 1-3. He's done very well there. The Paschal pick seems maybe questionable. His two main projects, Brodric Martin and Manu haven't panned out yet, but give it time. I don't hate the idea of taking a flyer on freak athletes then seeing if you can coach them up. Even if they bust this team can still keep it going. Sorsdal was a 5th rounder and if he never finds the starting lineup or even rotational backup I think that's fine.
The two picks I'm most worried about right now are last years top 2 of Arnold and Rakestraw. Rakestraw seemed to have a solid camp and preseason. Apparently he was slated to start before suffering a pregame injury which derailed his rookie year. I'm looking forward to seeing him next year. Arnold has been a starter all year but has been... kinda bad? He's too handsy and doesn't play the ball well. He's not great in run D. It's a really tough position and we've seen rookies struggle and turn it around (Slay) so I'm not too worried, but I'm not exactly comforted by what I've seen. I guess he hasn't been a massive liability the way Okudah was on day 1, but that's not exactly the bar for this team.
I'm mostly optimistic about next year despite our coaching staff getting gutted. That's the price of winning in this league I guess. At least we're not the place where coaching careers go to die anymore.
The first sentence in this thread:
GREEAR is a ****ing legend.
Jets fan here so I feel your pain. Happy to get Aaron Glenn as HC. How do you think him leaving will affect the Lions defense next year?
