RedRamage

21 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

But it seems like they should be able to purchase a players contract. This guy made 2 more long field goals in his 2nd game. He's going to be kicking for somebody this fall...

But it's not in the best interest of the UFL to allow that. This isn't like the Major League/Minor League situation for a number of reasons:

1. The minor leagues aren't relying solely on themselves to be profitable. They are subsidized by MLB to a large degree. They can lose star players without having to worry that the league could fold because not enough people are watching it.
2. The UFL/NFL seasons don't line up. You can't have a player get his experience playing in the minor leagues and then call him up to the Majors if he's needed.
3. Football is a much more violent sport and injuries are far more likely. An NFL team isn't going to want to "season" a player in the "minors" in football when there's a relatively high risk of that player's career ending on any given play.

For these reasons the UFL doesn't want players getting poached mid-season and the NFL isn't going to want to sign a guy, but let him still playout the rest of the season in the UFL.

1 hour ago, buddha said:

he's a good blocker, that's about it.

Just for the fun of it, I looked up his Draft analysis on NFL:

 

Quote

Weaknesses

Competitiveness feels optional for him at times. Needs to play with more consistent urgency. Struggles with physical cornerbacks. Crowded and harassed by North Carolina's M.J. Stewart and finished with just one catch. Routes and stems are rounded. Needs to do better at disguising route breaks. Doesn't create as much downfield separation as he could with better route leverage. Doesn't extend to pluck and allows throws to get into him. Hand strength is below average. Has catches that turn into drops due to lack of hand strength through contact. Body positioning and ball adjustments down the field are just OK.

How the heck is he the brother of Amon-Ra? Like competitiveness is the default setting for ARSB.

On a purely side note... it's probably WAAAAAAYYYY too late to consider this, but I wonder if ESB might have made a good safety? It seems the biggest knocks on him (outside of the competitiveness) are directly related to receiver things: His routes aren't crisp and he doesn't have great ball catching skills. His strengths include:

Early push into routes with quickness to decelerate and open and uncover on comebacks. Effortless glider. Much faster than he looks. Easy maneuvering around route traffic. Staccato footwork provides above average change of direction without slowing.

Seems like things that would be good for a DB.

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

IDK all the reasons. Maybe it's in the players contracts?

This makes sense from a UFL stand point. As I've said earlier, Bates is an unusual case because the risk of injury to a kicker isn't super duper high. Obviously it can happen, but it's less likely.

However, a RB, for instance, is a different story. A RB had a few break-out games and an NFL team wants to give him a shot. They're gonna want him to quit the UFL right away, and the player will want that too. Both the NFL and the player would want to remove the chance of injury and a player will immediately jump for the league minimum NFL salary vs. UFL salary.

So I'm sure this is a UFL contract thing that they put in to protect the league. They don't want to see their star players getting poached mid-season.

Edit to add: I'm gonna guess the reason that NFL teams are allowed to talk to UFL teams is two fold:

1. It's a 'neutral' way for the NFL to get more info on a player without the NFL being able to influence the player directly. This helps the perception that the UFL is a way for players to showcase themselves for the NFL and makes players more willing to sign with the UFL.

2. It helps with the perception that the UFL is a minor league for the NFL... assuming they want that perception. If the Lions, for example, are in regular communication with the Panthers about various players they'll start to build a relationship.

Panthers looked really poor in yesterday's game. 

Kudos to the defense for not breaking... forcing 4 FGs when the Stallions were in or near the Red Zone. But the offense just couldn't get going at all. The OL was so bad that the a Sorsdal with a broken leg would have still been the best player on on that line. Passes were not crisp at all... mostly floater that had as much chance of ending up in the defense's hands as they did in the offense's. The offense has two key turn overs in the game too which killed momentum.

Panthers have never had much of an OL. I strongly suspect that Holmes is casting some sort of Voodoo magic that is draining away OL talent from the locker room during the USFL/UFL seasons and then transferring it to OL players during the NFL season. The Panthers have never had a great QB either... but it's sorta hard to judge how much of that is the QBs and how much of that is the wet paper bags that they are using for OL players right now. I mean serious the Stallions had 7(!!) sacks in the game, and 8 tackles for a loss. The Panther's lost 91 yards via sack or TFL!

The one really star for the Panthers though was of course Bates who had a 62 yard FG to end the first half that went through easily. Late in the 3rd Qtr he was called on again, but this from the chip-shot distance of only 52 yards... which he of course made as well. (Imagine kicking a 52 yard FG and it brings down the average yards per kick of your pro career.)

And Bates does it again! 62 yards.

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

They kept Jameson Williams and cut everyone else who got caught gambling. 

Yeah but...

1. Jameson was caught gambling on non-NFL games. Two others who were cut were caught gambling on NFL games. The other person who was gambling on non-NFL games was Stanley Berryhill who was really a "fill up the roster depth for training camp" guy... he was on 3 different practice squads in '22, nowhere in '23, in the UFL and CFL in '24. His position on the roster was so tenuous that if he farted at the wrong time he might have been cut.

2. Gambling =/= domestic violence ... and no, I'm NOT saying you were saying they were the same. I'm quite sure you don't view them the same way. My point is only that we don't know for sure if the Lions would have kept Jamison if it was domestic violence/running from the police instead of merely gambling from the wrong place.

Edit to add: Thinking about it some, I do think the Lions probably keep Jamison is he was betting on NFL games, so I do think they'll accept some level of "bad" if a player is talented enough. That's not surprising of course. The only question is how much "bad" will they tolerate?

9 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

It’s not about the warrant for me. Three people can see it, but three people are only seeing one version of events at that stage. People can have a warrant issued and be innocent.

It’s about the totality of what has leaked (police responded, woman having wounds, Sutton not being there, warrant being issued, Sutton leaving town, it going public, Sutton refusing to turn himself in, ten days passing with no word from him or his people, finally turning himself in, and magically a witness becomes uncooperative) that makes me think he’s in all likelihood a piece of ****.

100% this. I agree absolutely with this. The warrant alone isn't enough for me to say the guy's a bum. All the other stuff associated with it is what makes me think the guy's a bum.

11 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

I think they run it by the prosecutor b4 the judge...that' three sets of eyes looking at the same evidence

Yes but it's still evidence presented without defense. Look, I'm not trying to argue that Sutton shouldn't've been arrested here. Nor am I arguing that arrest warrants should be argued and defended before they are issued. That's not the purpose of an arrest warrant.

I'm just saying that it's entirely possible that the evidence looks worse than it really is or that the part of the evidence (ie statements made to police) could be false. That's why after the arrest the case goes through the court system.

3 hours ago, Hongbit said:

My initial thoughts were this too but the reality is that none of these players were signing NFL contracts right now prior to joining the UFL.   They didn’t have much negotiating room and the league can set it up how they’d like.  

This would be a really interesting reality show... follow around some fringe NFL guys. See how they make the decision of whether to join the UFL or not. I'd be really curious how a lot of the back of the house stuff works here... what their agents advice... how the leagues (both NFL and UFL) view this stuff.

49 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

There had to be enough evidence for the police to issue an arrest in the first place.  If he was truly innocent, he could have come forward weeks ago.  I’m less sympathetic or optimistic.

On the first part, yes... there has to be enough evidence to issue and arrest, but that isn't enough evidence to convict a guy... It is possible for a person to be "truly innocent" and be arrested. Less likely than if an arrest warrant wasn't issue, but absolutely possible.

And yes, it's certainly possible that the guy panicked and ran. It's again less likely that he was innocent and ran, but we can't know for sure.

So, adding unlikely plus unlikely and I come to the same conclusion that I'm not very optimistic or sympathetic toward Sutton.

37 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

First guess would be that if the UFL contracts didn't give guys rights to sign/jump to NFL deals, they'd have a hard time recruiting players.

Right, but I'm saying more like being under contract with BOTH. Like I said above an ideal situation for the Lions is that they sign this guy NOW (so another NFL teams can't) but still let him play with the Panthers. This gives the Lions a chance to see if this guy is for real or just got lucky in "real game" situations. It gives the Panthers publicity too... like: "Hey Detroiters, come see the future kicking star of the Lions!"

The UFL season will be done before training camp for the NFL season starts, so he could complete his season with the Panthers then just start training camp with the Lions. Obviously this would be super hard on a regular player, but I suspect a kicker could handle with without issue.

There's of course a danger for the Lions (assuming they were the ones who signed him) that he might injure himself, but this is also not as likely for a kicker (at least a kicker not named Gramatica) and getting more history might be worth it.

I'm glad he turned himself in. Obviously this story line is far from over... but it's nice to know that he isn't still on the run and that he didn't do anything to make the situation even more sad (ie, off himself). 

Now let's let him have his day in court. Public opinion is certainly going to go against him given he "ran" for so long. People are free to form their opinion if they want and while I certainly think his running makes him look... shall we say less then innocent, he does deserve his day in court before the gov't is allowed to punish him.

I think even if he's exonerated he's not coming back to the Lions. First, I doubt he'd want to after the team cut. Second, I doubt the Lions would want to be associated with someone who was running from police for weeks even if there isn't enough evidence to convict him of a specific crime.

I wonder if you can be under contract with both organizations? I mean, obviously this would have to be with permission but if I'm the Lions I'd certain be willing to sign the guy to a contract and let him keep kicking with the Panthers for the season. See what happens. Was this a fluke? If so, cut him before preseason and you out what, a few thousand dollars? If it's not a fluke he's getting good practice in "real game" situation and will be ready to compete come training camp. 

There's not the same level of danger of damage/wear-and-tear on a kicker playing out a season as there would be for other positions. UFL gets some publicity... Lions get a potential player locked up... win-win.

I know some companies/people do some decent stuff for April 1st, so thought it might be nice to share if you're found anything enjoyable.

For me a highlight of April 1st is the annual Lockpicking Lawyer video. If you've have seen them they are quite enjoyable in my humble opinion. The double entendres are extremely heavily used in his April 1st vids, so be a little careful where and with whom you watch them, but they are fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X2PuE6ELmg Nothing blatantly NSFW and nothing visually NSFW, but as I said, heavy amounts of double entendre.

18 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

I'd be fine with Chark, while it would be nice to have another stud receiver they really don't need one with St. Brown, Laporta and hopefully an improved Jamo but I do feel they need atleast one more semi reliable guy to fill that role. DJP is a possibility but I still want atleast one more guy for reassurance. 

I'm still not sold on Jamo. I'm not sure what the issue is, but he's been largely ineffective. Maybe part of it is defense scheming against him? Maybe part of it is just having St. Brown being so effective that other receivers don't get look. I dunno. But Jamo had only 24 receptions last year for 354 yards. That puts him behind not only St Brown (1515), but also Josh Reynolds (608) and Raymond (489), not to mention Sam LaPorta (889). Heck, Gibbs (316) wasn't too far behind Jamo. 

I just don't know if Jamo is going to live up to a high first round pick status. I know it's early... he was mostly a rookie this year and missed time at the beginning of the year because of the NFL's stupid rules. But I just don't have a lot of faith that Jamo will ever be a great receiver.

5 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

Where’s the Cliff Avril love? 

Maybe if he'd stayed with the Lions, but he was only here five years.

I mean is sacks were an official stat in '78, and the 23 is accurate it would be an NFL record right now.

10 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

In five years with the Lions Baker had 74 sacks. ...56.5 in his first 3 years. I knew he had a lot of sacks because I watched him play..had no idea he had so many

Baker was a little before I started watching football so didn't ever see him play, but yeah... 23 sacks in his rookie year? Looks like he might have gotten hurt in '81? His stats started dropping. Had a few decent years with St. Louis after he left the Lions, but was never the same as those first three years in Detroit.

Oh man, I completely forgot about Ansah. Yeah, health was an issue for him. Only two years did he play all 16 games.

Porcher is who I was going to say too. I just looked back on this guys career briefly... poor dude probably thought he was coming into the Lions at just the right time.

1991: Lions make it to the Conference Championship
1992: Lions draft Porcher, but then go 5-11... okay, well, bad seasons happen...
'93, '94, '95: Made the playoffs but bounced in out in the first game. Still, Lions did make the playoffs...
1996: Missed the playoffs, Fontes fired.
'97-00: In and out of the playoffs under Ross, who quits mid-season. Then in comes Millen... 

Poor guy thought he was coming into an up and coming team which just sat in "middle of the pack limbo" for most of his career before bottoming out at the end of it.

2 hours ago, ben9753 said:

I agree about the way they did away with onside kicks, but I think it's like when BB did away with throwing 4 pitches for IBB. There was no reason to do away with it, but it won't actually make much of a difference to the game now that its been eliminated.

Eh... yeah, kinda...

I mean the number of times when the pitcher threw 4 balls and something happened (The batter swung at the pitch, the pitch was super wild, the catcher messed up the catch) AND that mistake effected the game was not zero, but super duper low.

In the same sense onsides kicks that are successful are super duper low, so making that success rate even lower may not seem like a major deal, but...   Even though the percentage of successful onsides kicks are low, it's still much, much higher than a mistake on an intentional walk causing a benefit for the other team. And it's a way to keep a team in a game and make it interesting for fans watching.

In the end it's not something I'm going to be super upset about, it's just a little disappointing. But if the new rules can make returns more likely and more interesting on kickoffs, I'm okay with sacrificing surprise onsides kicks for that I guess.

I like the rule as far as kickoffs go. I think it will encourage more returns in a safer way. I just don't love the way it's (even more) nerfed the onsides kick.

Just thought this might be something interesting to do during the off season. Let's start a discussion about some of our players. The point here isn't to say that player-X is the best Lion ever or that he's the best player in the NFL ever, or even necessarily the best player in the NFL right now. It's more of a talk like: "I haven't see the Lions field a player of that quality since the 80s..." or something like that.

We'll start with Hutch:

Hutchinson is the best DE the Lions have had since __________________________ .

7 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Am I the only one that finds it weird that George W. Bush designed the new Lions uniforms?

He needed a hobby after the presidency. 

7 minutes ago, holygoat said:

Totally. Every time I hear someone on The Ticket say they want black jerseys or outlines I lose it a little bit, lol. Those unis were the worst in the history of the franchise, for the reason you mentioned: it was forced. Black works great when it's a primary team color, but it looks try-hard when it isn't. We're not the Raiders or the Steelers. We're the f**king Lions. Now with that said, I wouldn't mind a darker shade of blue. Not navy or midnight blue, but just a tad darker than Honolulu blue.

The jersey in that mock-up is honestly damn near perfect, IMO. I really hope they go back to traditional block numbers.

I just want them to add this somewhere...