RedRamage

Or any time that Lions beat the Packers, at least according to some Packers players.

On one hand: Yeah...we'd definitely be favorites. On the other hand... fate is a fickle mistress. We saw last year how injuries can ruin a season and even in the best of situations the old adage of "any given Sunday" is still true. Given what we've seen with how Holmes builds the team I'm reluctant to mortgage too much of the future on a "legit chance of a championship" when I feel like we're already almost there.

Now that's an interesting possibility. If you trade him for a 7th then you a degree of control where he goes, and it's less likely (certainly not impossible, but at least less likely) that he's gonna get cut from that team and be available to be picked up by our rivals. I wonder what Ben Johnson's opinion of Hooker is? I wouldn't care about shipping him off to Chicago because BJ already knows the Lions well.

Part of me agrees with you, but part of me also says 2025 doesn't agree with you. If the playoffs happened right now: Blue Jays - 5th Tigers - 17th Astros - 7th Red Sox - 12th Mariners - 16th Yankees - 3rd Brewers - 23rd Dodgers - 2nd Phillies - 4th Cubs - 10th Padres - 9th Mets - 1st (Payroll source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2025/04/02/2025-mlb-team-payrolls-highest-lowest/82751012007/) There's more variation there than I would expected there to be going into the 2025 season. Having said that I would still prefer to a more level playing field in terms of payroll. I mean when the top spending team is spending close to five times as much on payroll as the bottom team more often than not that's going to make a huge difference in term of record. Now, on a side note: Maybe expansion is the perfect time to enact some level of media revenue sharing. Given that media is where the big dollars are, that gives a major market team a leg up, and smoothing out this discrepancy could go a long way to helping keep the league from falling into 4 vs 26. You could offer the big market teams a larger share of the expansion dollars in return for new rules for heavy sharing of media money.

I think you'd need an indoor stadium there too, which will be more expensive. When three of months of the season average in triple digits you're not gonna get a lot of fans hanging out outdoors.

Okay, now I've got to see what that looks like.

So... from a strategy stand point: Do you want to cut a QB who's been in your system for the years that Hooker has been? This is another factor that makes me think they'll try to hang onto him. Ultimately I think @1984Echoes makes a good point if they look at it and say: "We REALLY want to keep player-X, but we don't have room unless we cut Hooker," that's a factor against keeping him. But the idea that GB or the Eagles or whomever could pick up Hooker who's been learning out playbook for years is perhaps a reason to keep him around if the team is on the fence with him this year.

Who do I need to "talk" to to make Benetti our play-by-play guy for the Lions during the regular season?? I think I enjoyed the broadcast more than the product on the field.

I don't see the Lions cutting Hooker. I wouldn't be shocked if it happened, but I don't see it unless some good backup QB becomes available. After that last game Hooker is a distant 3rd on the depth chart, but what other options are out there? Unless the Lions decide to not carry a 3rd QB, Hooker is probably better than all the other options because: He's relatively cheap He knows the offense If some "better than adequate" backup QB gets cut from a different team and the Lions are able to land him, then I could see Hooker being cut. But I also don't see that as a likely thing to happen so Hooker'll be here as the 3rd emergency guy for 2025. Now after this season? I expect him to be cut barring a major turn around in practice during the year.

I think how TeSlaaaaaaa does this year will have a huge impact on how the Lions handle Jamo. Just to make it 100% clear: I'm am NOT saying that TeSlaa is as good or as fast as Jamo. What I am saying is that if TeSlaa shows he can project to be a capable #2 then the Lions may not feel the need to resign Jamo, or at least not break the bank to resign him. Considering all the other young players the Lions need to resign, if you have legit depth at receiver getting Jamo resigned drops down in priority.

So you're saying it's super easy, barely and inconvenience?

Wow... a second and a sixth round pick? Oh... you mean the FIRST Khalil Mack trade... Two 1st, a 3rd and a 6th in exchange for a 2nd and a conditional 5th... plus Mack of course. Feels like a lot given the way that Holmes drafts. Plus of course I'd assume that this would also require a new big contract for Parsons, which might limit the Lions ability to resign other people... Not 100% sure I'd do that. Not 100% sure I'd not do it either... but it's not an automatic yes from me.

I wonder what the price would be. Would you pay two firsts?

I thought about that too but then I thought I could easily justify the decision from two completely opposite ways so decided I just shouldn't read too much into it right now. Pro: The Lions know what they have in Hooker and they're comfortable with what they see, so they put in the other guy to get some "game tape" on him and get a better evaluation with better players. It's not that they don't like Hooker it's just that the wanted to see the new guy under the best reasonable conditions to get a good evaluation on him. Con: The Lions know what they have in Hooker and they're not terribly impressed so they want to give the new guy the best shot to evaluate him and make sure he's ready to be the primary back up.

It was a "middle" risk, high reward pick. If Hooker panned out and if Goff didn't didn't repeat his performance Holmes would have looked like a genius. Right now it looks like a wasted 3rd round pick... which isn't the worst thing in the world, but certainly isn't a good thing either. I just looked back at the 2023 draft for round 3 and I don't see any names I recognize but I also am not expert enough in other teams to know if those are solid contributors who just aren't household names either. So I don't think we "missed out" on some star by picking Hooker, but a solid rotational guy certainly seems like it would have brough more value that what we've got from Hooker so far, or likely to get from him in the future. On a completely side note: As I scanned through the list I notice that there are two "Byron Young" players taken in the 3rd round. The first was a DT drafted by the Raiders. The second a DE taken by the Rams. Now obviously the player himself knew ahead of time because we see that the teams call the guys before they announce the picks on air, but it must of have been a bit weird if Byron Young (the DE) was a friend or distant relative to hear his name called at pick 70, only to see it wasn't your Byron Young... and then just 7 picks later your Byron Young is drafted.

I'm just not sure how much importance to put on this one, ya know? But, how much of that is: no starters playing not enough time for the scrubs to learn the system how limited the offense and defense were in terms of play calling the players are bad the new OC/DC don't know what their doing Of the first three I'm absolutely certain it played a factor. I'm not sure on the last two but I suspect there was a part there that played a factor as well. The real question what percentage each of those contributed to the team looking bad? And of course there's no way to know that right now. We'll have to see how the rest of preseason and, more importantly, how the season starts.

You mean TeSLAAAAAAHHHH

TeSlaa sighting

This season is gonna be awful without Ben Johnson. It's clear Morton has not idea what's he's doing. Way over his head!

My guess is that bought insurance against this.

Mostly from baseball-reference.com

Obviously, it's going to depend on the foot. If the Lions' docs look at it and conclude that he's healthy to play now, then I'd definitely say go for it. To be totally cold and analytical about it: If this is a situation where the Raiders are saying: "We're concerned that if you don't get the second surgery you'll re-injure the foot and be out for an even longer period of time." Well, that's not so much an issue for the Lions if they sign him to a one-year "prove it" deal. For the Lions they need short term help until Alim is back. If Wilkins plays for 6-8 games, re-injures the foot and out for the season... well, that's about the time that I'd expect Alim to be thinking of coming back, as well as some time for Tyleik to learn the NFL and possibly be ready to step up to a bigger role. Now, putting a little humanity back on: I'd hate to the Lions to go into a situation like this with the idea that they could "use up" Wilkins and then just spit him out. I would want my team to look out for the player first. But the reality is that the Lions are in a position where it'd be great for some short term help at DT without major concerns if the help only lasts 1/2 a season.

I tend to agree... but I'm also gonna defer to people much smarter than I when it comes to football and the OL. If the staff things Ratledge can cut it and do it better than Glasgow, then obviously go for it. Still it seems like it's be easier on Ratledge to not have to learn the NFL AND learn a new position in the same year.

Van Andel I agree with everything you said except that Van Andel Arena can't do football*. It's a hockey/basketball sized place. *Okay, technically it can do Arena football. Fond memories of the Grand Rapids Rampage... but that's not UFL football.

Perhaps... but it also lent some appearance of legitimacy to the team as well. Just using my Grand Rapids example: Where would they have played? The best football stadium in the area would be GVSU, but as mentioned that's quite outside the metro area of GR. The other real possibility would be Davenport's stadium... I forgot that Davenport had a stadium in my earlier post. That's actually further away than GVSU from downtown GR, but closer to many of the suburbs of GR which sprawls more south than west, east or north and its also VERY close to the airport. Anyway, you're either in a Div. II stadium or worse, a High School stadium, if you center yourself in GR. Playing in a stadium like that is going to very much brand you as a very minor league team. Compare that with playing in Ford Field. Obviously no one is going to assume a team (or league) is a major player just because it plays games in an NFL stadium, but at the same time they're playing in an NFL stadium: That means they're not just some fly-by night thing, right? I mean NFL stadiums don't just open their doors because someone comes up and asks nice. They have to have some important people behind them to even get a stadium to listen to their pitch, right?