RedRamage

I wouldn't bet against that... but that doesn't mean he's the best case backup.

Is he though? We really don't know anything about him. Now, there is a gigantic caveat here: The coaches do know him, at least significantly more than we as fans do. But even the coaches hasn't seen him in game in the NFL, and (hopefully) never will need to anytime soon. Add in that Hooker will be a very different style of player (more scrambling/mobility) and it would be potentially harder to transition to Hooker on the fly if we needed to. In my humble opinion the best-case backup would be a QB who has a similar skill set as Goff does and has a track record of NFL experience. That's not Hooker. Ultimately I'll defer to the Lions staff on this... they know him and the team far better than me so I'm not trying to say they should do X or Y or whatever. I'm just speculating: Hooker was a developmental guy who they could groom to replace Goff if they needed to. Now it's clear they don't need to or certainly don't intend to.

Pretty much agree 100%. I hoped he'd take less, but he's under absolutely no obligation to take less. He's earn his pay day and this is a fair payday imho. What's going to be interesting here is what happens with Hendon Hooker? Given that he was relatively old coming out of college, and now will be sitting for 4 more year (barring injury) what does he want? What do the Lions want from him? Does it make sense to test the waters of a trade? I still see some value in Hooker. For example, it's great to have a mobile QB for the defense to practice against, but I'm sure you can get that on the cheap. The reality is that Hooker is likely not going to get much value in a trade though without any real NFL experience to see if he's a NFL level QB. And that's likely (hopefully) not happening in Detroit anytime soon.

Top 2 teams from each division play each other, so we know we will be playing the Stallions. There is an outside chance we could host the game, but exceedingly unlikely. The UFL Championship, like the Super Bowl will be played at various member teams home stadiums. This years Championship will be at "The Dome at America's Center" home of the Battlehawks.

Holy crap... SA came back and won it! A 10+ minute drive in the 4th qtr for a TD, then a 3-pt conversion. On the kickoff Houston fumbled, SA takes over and drives down for a Ryan Santoso FG to win it and put the Panthers into the playoffs. Yes, that Ryan Santoso...

Well, the had one more drive in the 3rd quarter... and surprisingly this one did NOT end in a fumble or a punt:

So Michigan secures a playoff spot today if Houston loses. Houston is facing San Antonio. SA is 4-2 going into today's game... and this is their drive chart so far through, nearly through 3 quarters: They are Minus 13 yards so far for the entire 3rd quarter!!

Brian Lewerke is getting a lot of snaps as QB for the Panthers... he does NOT look good. His passes are not accurate at all.

40 yard FG is good. The field is NOT great either. Lot of runners slipping on the field.

22 yarder is good.

Bates with a 51 yarder... that's his first time kicking on a natural surface.

Okay so... YAOM (yet another old man -- pronounced: yeah-ohm) commentary: If I separate the uniform from the Tigers... I actually like the uniform over all. I think it has a pretty cool look to it... I like to colors. I even think the hat goes decently with the jersey. It's not perfect. In particular there are three things I'm "meh" about: I'm not wild about dark jersey on dark pants... I don't think you could do white pants, but maybe some more or bigger detail/stripe? It looks like the pants were a bit of an afterthought. The hat feels much the same way. I think it actually looks good with the jersey, but again the lack of detail (simply dark blue with "Detroit" in white using the same font as on the jersey) makes it feel like an afterthought. Very bland, and generic even paired with the jersey. Horribly boring by itself. Looks like something you'd buy at a Walgreens when you're leaving Detroit after visiting because you forgot to buy a better souvenir. The 313 patch... I get the intention with making the '1' stand out, and that's nice. But the 3's are WAY to light imho. Again though, over all I do like the look of the complete package over all. I like the colors, the details... I like the VIN plate... I like the Tigers Eyes at the bottom. As a whole it's a solid B from me. BUT.... Do I like them as a Tiger's uniform? Meh... not really. I wouldn't want to see them used regularly. The classic whites are a fantastic uni with a lot of history. No need to try to improve on perfection. So if you ask me: "Don't mess with greatness. There's no need for this." BUT.... No's asking me and more jersey variation means more sales for the ball club so it's going to happen whether I like it or not. So if it's going to happen... well, while I think they could have done better, they also could have done much, much worse. Given that it has to happen, I'm mildly supportive of what we actually got.

Bates today: 50 yarder: Good, but a penalty gave the Panthers a first down so didn't count. 43 yarder: Good 60 yarder: Good 39 yarder: Good 49 yarder: Good 47 yarder: No Good, but a penalty nullified the play 42 yarder: Good

He better be! I don't know that there's any connection with the Lions beyond that he's playing Detroit and I'm sure many (if not all) of the other NFL teams will at least have some level of interest in him. So I don't think it's automatic that he comes to the Lions but I certainly hope that he enjoys playing in Ford Field a lot.

No... there's a rule in the UFL that NFL teams can not talk to the players or the players' agents in season. So, no NFL team can sign him right now.

60 yards through to end the half.

55 yard successful kick from Bates. It doesn't count because defense jumped offsides and that gave the Panthers first down. Panthers gain 12 yards and stall our again, just Bates kicks it from 43 and this one will count.

Yeah well... I did need another suit. I suppose I could have done one of the UofM or MSU, but neither of them are red. And as bad as the Pistons are right now (I really don't follow them much, but even I know how bad they are) they've at least had championships within my life time.

Okay, well then yeah... that's an official partnership and yeah that's not a great sign if they're desperate enough for money that they'll partner with a timeshare. On a completely side note: has anyone ever gone to one of these timeshare sales pitch thingies? I sometimes thought about taking one of these vacation deals, then just trying to find someone local and paying them to sit through the presentation so I didn't have too.

Where was this being offered? I'm wondering if it's an official UFL or did they just buy the tickets for the game themselves?

Putting on my Motown Bombers hat a moment: I don't think there are too many QBs who don't struggle when protection breaks down or players missing blocking assignments. The question isn't if he struggled, but how much did he struggle and was it appreciably more than other QBs. Now, obviously a more mobile QB will struggle less (all other things being equal) as a mobile QB has one more tool to use in those situations vs. a less mobile QB. (Or perhaps it's better to say a more mobile QB has a better tool than a less mobile QB... splitting hairs here.) But all other things aren't equal, ever. Would I take Gared Joff who's identical in all areas to Jared Goff except he can run like Justin Fields? Hell yes! But Gared Joff doesn't exist.

Obviously we're still early in the tenue of Holmes, but what this does NOT feel like is a Dombrowski built team. I'm not trying to hate on Dombrowski because he pulled the Tigers out of the depths of the MLB and put the team in a position to win World Series for a while, but he also heavily mortgaged the future to do it. Holmes seems to be trying to build a consistently good roster, not just a "run for the SB and then suck for 10 years" sort of situation, but a sustained success. Time will tell if it works, but the results so far are very promising.

If you're grading on a curve, yeah. But this is kinda like the PFF method of grading. Each pick can only get an A+ grade. ARSB should be like an A+++++++++ grade. Top 10 player at his position in round 4? Yeah, that's big time score! But if you can only be A+ per pick, then you average all the picks, you come out with an A- because of Levi. Having said that, this isn't probably the best way to grade a draft.