RedRamage

On one hand I agree with you... This is "just" a prank call and I'm not calling for Jax to be tarred and feathered then kicked out of society. But, on the other hand it's about time and place. I don't think Howard Stern, or your local radio station, would prank call someone at such a time and place like this. It's one thing to call a random person and say: "Hey, is your refrigerator running? Then you better go catch it!" It's another thing altogether to "prank" someone on draft day. Most of us will never experience something like this so I'm trying to find some sort of analogy, but I can't. I mean you've got friends and family all there ready to celebrate... The next 5+ years of your life are about to change massively and with a potentially gigantic payday and some strange calls triggering all your (and your family/friends) excitement only for them to go: "Psyc! I fooled you!" Okay, maybe this analogy (kinda) works: You just found out your mom needs a kidney transplant or she'll die in a few months. You don't have the money for it, let along wondering how long she'll have to wait on the transplant list... you make a go fund me and talk about it on social media. Suddenly you get a call from a stranger: "Listen, I'm a multi-millionaire and my life was saved by a self-less organ donation in the past and I'm really moved by your story. I'm looking to pay it forward for the blessing I had. Not only will I pay for the surgery and the after-care, but I have connects and I'm getting your mom to the top of the list. You're prayers have been answered. Everything is going to be great." As you're tearfully trying to thank the man he suddenly interrupts you: "Ha!! You believed me? You loser! Ha!" and hangs up the phone.

I hope the phone call was more sincere. Here Jax says that his action was: Inexcusable, embarrassing, shameful, selfish, and childish. Jax says that made a terrible mistake and messed up one of the greatest moments of someone's life. I would expect a 21 year-old to have enough smarts to not do something that is inexcusable, embarrassing, shameful, selfish, childish, and messes up one of the greatest moments of someone else's life. I don't believe that Jax really thinks that way about what he did. Yeah, we all do dumb stuff sometimes. But it's pretty rare to do something that monumentally dumb.

You gotta be more than a little messed up in the head to think it's funny to call complete strangers to 'prank' them at a time like this. I mean seriously... how is that even remotely funny? "Oh look, you're all excited because you might get drafted... and I'm gonna pretend to be someone drafting you... and HA! You totally fell for it! How stupid are you!! Ha!" If I was Sanders or from the Sanders family I'd refuse to hear an apology from Jax. I wouldn't believe for a second it was sincere. Someone who doesn't see this as dumb and mean before doing it isn't going to suddenly change his tune and be remorseful. I wouldn't hold it against Jeff... but I wouldn't spend one moment of my time giving Jax any avenue to try to repair his reputation.

I totally agree on this. Glasgow is still valuable as a backup who can play either Guard spots or Center, but probably getting to be a bit too old to be a reliable starter for a full season.

After looking at your 2022 draft grade I thought I'd revisit your 2021 grade. Honestly, I think all the grades given then are still accurate. Maybe you could bump up Barnes to a B+, but that's hard to say given the injury.

I'm with MC here vs. MCS. Regarding rating philosophy: In situations like this I think we're evaluating the front office, not the players, so things like pick round/number definitely come into play here. A decent player picked in round 1 isn't good. That should be a star player. A decent player picked in round 6 is very good. Injuries aren't always easy to predict, unless the player has a history of them in college. Then it's fair to knock the front office for a player who's oft injured in the NFL. Off the field issues are tricky too, but I think part of the front office's job is to evaluate who is mature enough to be given multi-million dollar contracts and will handle it well. Now having said all that: Hutch is an easy A+. Jamo is a B for the reasons MC states. If you trade up and draft a guy high in the first round you better be sure of his physical talent and his mental make up. The mental side is holding me back from giving Jamo a higher grade. Paschal gets a C- from me. Injury history that the FO (I think) assumed wouldn't be a big deal, but has. When he's been healthy he hasn't performed great. Joseph: A+ only because there's no grade higher. a 3rd rounder who's performed like a 1st. Mitchel: D makes sense... you don't necessarily expect a star player in the 5th, but he should at least be a contributor and he never really was. Houston: B+ Yeah, he was only a flash in the pan, but for he flashed mighty bright and he was 6th round pick. I look at it this way: If we drafted a guy in the 6th round who was a roll-player who gave us 2 sacks a year for 4 years... who wouldn't say that that's a value pick in the 6th round? Lucas: B- He's a 7th round pick so any regular production is a bonus, but... we never got great production out of him. Even when our CBs were dropping like flies Lucas still didn't see much action at all. I won't expect more than depth for a 7th round guy... but when we really needed depth he still wasn't the guy they turned too to play corner, so I'm knocking him down a bit on that. Over all I'm going with an A- as well. You got a star in Hutch, but 2nd overall should be a star. You also got a star in the third round, so those right there are great results. But you also have another high first round that hasn't quite lived up to that high of a pick imho, and your 2nd rounder has also been spotty. That drags down the score just a touch.

We need to see if his socks are high or not.

I don't think that's the case. First let me just say that I don't think Jamo is getting traded. Not sure if the rumor came from the Lions or not, but if it did it was likely all a smoke screen. If it didn't, the Lions sure weren't going to dispel the rumors as it added confusion for people trying to figure our their plans. That said, anyone who might want to trade for Jamo would undoubtedly want his 5th year locked up. That makes him a more attractive trade chip.

And there goes my dream of the "All Campbell" team. 🥹

Is DT really the biggest need though? I'd say DE is a much higher need. Sure DT is a need, but you have guys who can play there. Now, I'm probably way over analyzing what was likely a semi-joke of a reply, but I don't see this as a pick to fill the biggest hole. Imho, DE and OG are bigger needs with DT probably slotting in at 3rd. Not the rehash an argument (which means I'm gonna rehash an argument), but yeah... needs should always be taking into account. It's not a question of IF, but of HOW MUCH, does the need influence the selection. Holmes has shown that it matters a lot less for him than for most GMs. To directly respond to last years draft: Yeah, CB was a huge need, but not the only one by far. So once we filled CB it would make sense to address other needs, right? But Holmes goes back to CB in the second round. Okay, I'll step off the soap box responding to a tongue-in-check reply now. Feel free to laugh at me for over analyzing at this time.

I wouldn't think so. I also heard Matt Dery on Locked on Lions question if DJ Reader gets cut. He's was only speculating not predicting, but I guess I wouldn't be shocked. Reader wasn't phenomenal in '24 and he's making a lot of money. On the other hand McNeill is likely not going to be ready for opening day and I don't think the Lions are desperate for cap space either so I don't think he'll be cut... just won't be super duper shocked if it happened.

Pretty much my thoughts. I mean at 28 I'm not expecting to be blown away with a "franchise changing player," but I thought there were other more pressing needs with equally quality options at those positions... but... It's pretty much impossible to argue with Holmes track record. Sure, not every pick is a star, but he's gotten it right far more than he's gotten it wrong in an field were I suspect the getting it right just 50% of the time is fantastic.

Crap... I was kinda hoping that the Lions would get Zabel.

At this point I just want the Lions to trade in front of the Packers. The content from Grossi would be worth it.

I got a friend who's a Bears fan. He's say that the Bears might run double TE sets alot and/or that they'd use him a slot receiver. Seems very Ebrone-ish...

3 OTs in the first 10 picks.

I suppose there's a possibility that Travis Hunter really ends up a 2-way star and if you get a star level WR and a star level CB it would probably be worth that kind of trade, but that's a looooooot of eggs in one basket.

What the heck?!? That's a deal I would have expected Matt Millen to do... wow!

What was the trade?

Also, in case you haven't seen it:

I continue to be amazed at how differently I feel about the draft vs. just a few years ago. I mean the draft used to be this HUGE thing. We'd all be speculating... wondering about trades, thinking who might fall a few spots. Hoping the next first round pick in the top 10 (where the Lions often picked) was going to be the savior of the franchise. Now I keep forgetting that the draft starts Thursday. Look at our 2022 Draft thread: https://www.motownforums.com/topic/99-2022-nfl-draft-thread/page/58/#comments More than 57 pages of posts BEFORE the draft started! Now, 1.5 days from the start of this years draft and we don't even have 10 pages yet. I know the old joke was always about how the Draft was the Lions' Super Bowl... but man... being on the "other side" now (ie, having a good team) it feels like there really was a lot of truth to that joke.

100% in agreement. I don't want to trade Jamo right now because there's no real value in it. No one is going to give up anything higher than a 3rd and even with Holmes drafting ability I don't see a 3rd making a significant impact THIS YEAR. On a side note... I think Homes.com needs to reach out to Brad for an ad deal. I mean if they can't legally use homesisthebest.com, they probably CAN use holmesisthebest.com. Just saying... seems like a winning plan to me.

Would it have even been possible to house three Campbells on the same team??

Bummer, but can't say as I'm surprised. I know we batted around the idea of increasing the yardage on this penalty to slightly off set losing the auto-1st down. Does anyone know if the Lions proposal had that? I don't think it did but didn't know for 100% sure. If it didn't, I wonder if including that would have had more people in favor of it?

It was a nice opening game for the Panthers. The defense showed up and limited the opposition to just one TD and a couple of FGs. The offense wasn't always stellar, but two TDs, two FGs were enough to win, even without the defense pick six. I'd say that QB Bryce Perkins, late of the LA Rams, was the star of the game. 16 for 19, 163 yards, one TD in the passing game, and then 14 yards on 6 attempt on the ground, including an Barry Sanders-eque run on 4th down, evading tacklers to dive into the endzone. On defense Frank Ginda (2023 USFL defensive player of the year) had 11 tackles and half a sack, and of course Kia Nacua (brother of Samson Nacua, Michigan Panthers; and Puka Nacua, LA Rams) had the late pick six to really seal the game. A new other notes: Michigan has historically alternated QBs each quarter or half. They intended to do that again this game but QB Danny Etling only saw a few snaps after taking a big hit to the chest. The hit would have been legal (ie, it wasn't roughing the QB or a late hit or a hit to the head) except the defender lowered his helmet and speared Etling in the chest. Etling didn't appear to have major injuries, but also didn't return to the game. I thought Perkins was the better QB in the game anyway, so I wasn't too upset over that. During the broadcast they continuously hammered how much access the viewer was given as they interviewed players, HCs, OCs, DCs, and of course head rules bigshot Dean Blandino. I'd say on maybe about 4 or 5 occasions I thought it was informative and helpful to the viewer. The rest of the time it was very distracting for me. It was hard to follow the game when the announcers were asking questions and I was trying to figure out who was answering and what he was saying. It was too much access imho. Fan turn out was... HORRIBLE. It looked like a COVID game. Seriously, it was BAD. I hope Michigan fans turn out better for next weeks game but Memphis fans? I think there were more players in that stadium than fans.