Motown Bombers

Almost every mock I have seen for 2024 have the Lions picking around 25. That would place the Lions at least in the divisional round of the playoffs.

Hockenson's cap hit is $9 million and it's all guaranteed. I suppose they can sign him to an extension and lower his cap hit this year.

If I had to guess, I would say Smith is the one they let go. Rumors are he's unhappy. I think they are going to move on from Cook. I'm not sure what they can do with Cousins contract since he has multiple void years. He's 35 so I'm not sure they want to sign him long term. They still have Jefferson to sign long term. June 1st is going to be interesting for them.

I have the Lions 1st and the Bears last, but I do believe the Bears will be better than last year. I go back and forth between the Vikings and Packers at 2 and 3.

The Vikings only have $1 million in cap space. They still need to sign their rookie class. There's a good chance they lose Za'Darius Smith or Danielle Hunter. Dalvin Cook also could be gone. If Hunter or Smith are cut, the Lions should swoop in.

Wait, when did Seattle get moved to the NFC North?

But you keep saying the Vikings are a threat so I'm going back to that well because they are not a threat. If they went 8-9 last year like their played indicated, you wouldn't be saying they are a threat this year.

I'm talking about Minnesota. The Vikings defense was as bad as the Lions and they did nothing to fix it in the offseason and could even be losing one of their top pass rushers. They were an unsustainable 11-0 in one score games. They are not a 13 win team.

I'm saying the Lions are going to win the division and the Vikings won't. I'm not sure then, what point you are trying to make. They were not as good as their record was and got exposed in the playoffs and then with their cap did nothing to improve the team.

Minnesota lost to a flawed Giants team at home in the playoffs. We all knew they were frauds and they proved it in the playoffs. Minnesota got blown out by almost any good team they played. They were down 33-0 to the Colts. The Packers could be more of a threat than Minnesota.

Minnesota had a negative point differential. They were more of an 8 win team. They were 11-0 in one score games. They only led the Lions for 45 seconds last year. They are up against the cap and didn't really address their defense in the offseason. The Lions were a better team than Minnesota at the end of last year. I wouldn't say they were playing with nothing to lose. They were in the playoff race until 30 minutes before the final game.

I wasn't the most impressed with the Bears offseason. I thought they could have better used their cap instead of going all out for linebackers.

At least we got a backup who's too injured to be a backup.

Minnesota only has $1 million in cap space and that doesn't include their rookie class. They are going to have to do some restructures or cuts. Detroit has $25 million in cap space before rookie contracts.

Lions have a lot of cap space too. Rumors are Za'darius Smith could be cut in Minnesota. He bounced back and had 10 sacks last year. Could be a nice June 1st pick up.

If not the Lions in the North, then who? Minnesota had a negative point differential. They basically treaded water this offseason and can still be losing Cook and Smith. They may be looking at a rebuild. Green Bay lost Rodgers and were 8-9 even with him. Chicago improved but they were the worst team in football last year. If you buy into football-reference expected win-loss, the Lions were an over 9 win team while Minnesota and Green Bay were expected 8 win teams. The Lions also had the 2nd youngest roster in the league last year, played one of the toughest schedules in the league last year, and enter this season as arguably the most improved team in the division along with the Bears. The expectation should be a division title.

The Lions are pretty clear favorites to win the division and that's not Lions fan speak. That's Vegas betting odds and almost all the national media. The Lions as the 3 seed seems pretty fair. Nothing Kool Aid about that.

I think back to the Philadelphia and Seattle games. The Lions could not stop either team at the end of the game when they were trying to run out the clock. Imagine of they could have put someone like Martin in the game to prevent them from simply running up the middle and ending the game.

Snacks had a RAS even worse than Martin. Martin is a space eating run stuffer. Those type of players aren't athletic and you can throw RAS out the window. They are there to be big, take on blockers, and free up your linebackers. He's more of a role player whose role was a need for most of the year last year. Maybe you don't draft him that high nor trade up for him, but I like the pick given the need for this team. That's a lot of beef now in the middle of the line between Martin and McNeil. It can free up Campbell, and Anzalone and Rodriguez to also chase down mobile QBs.

It was Quinn who brought in Snacks, but run defense was an issue through a lot of the season. It got better when they put Buggs at nose tackle. Martin is similar to Snacks and the entire defense guy better after they acquired Snacks.

I guess I'm wondering why they seemed to snitch on only Lions? Am I to believe that other than the guy in Washington only Lions players were using this app?

Sutton would be a good fit. Not sure about a 2nd rounder but I would be intrigued.

It could be why they were so aggressive in free agency with the secondary because they didn't have many highly graded defensive backs in this draft.