MichiganCardinal

WalterFootball's ratings for those who care: The only team to receive an A+ was the Eagles. The Lions were one of four teams to receive an A, alongside the Colts, Bengals, and Ravens. On the other end of the spectrum, the Falcons received a Millen and the Vikings were the only team to receive a D.

I was thinking in the 2021 Draft Grade thread.... If we aren't going to re-sign Alim because of cost (which I don't think is a foregone conclusion, but is possible), is there any chance Brad looks to move on him before the trade deadline? Particularly if Martin makes progress this year and Mingo looks like he's here to stay? I'd hate to see Alim go, he's one of my favorite players on that defense, but I'd hate it even more if he went for nothing. And high quality DTs don't grow on trees, especially not at 24 years old. I expect he might command a high 2nd or a low 1st though, and if you're not going to re-sign him it's hard not to think long and hard about that return on investment.

1.7: Penei Sewell, A+ One of the best in the game, and a perennial All Pro candidate if he continues on his present trajectory. It's so easy to forget this dude is only 23. 2.41: Levi Onwuzurike, D+ It'd be easy to run this dude out of town, but this story he wrote made me give him an enormous amount of respect. It would have been so easy for this dude to medically retire after 2022. No one would have blamed him. He's got serious grit, and I know he could have been so much better if not for his injuries. I disagree with the sentiment that the team should have known his back would give out on him, he started almost every game at Washington... At the same time, a #41 pick has to be better than what he's shown. It's not his fault, but with the additions of Reader and Wingo, I doubt Levi is long for the Lions at this point. I hope he lands on his feet somewhere that doesn't play Detroit twice a year and contributes. 3.72: Alim McNeill, A- He was a little slow getting going to start his career, but has easily turned into one of the unsung heroes of the Lions defense. Him and Hutch were the only two contributors on the defensive line for long stretches of time last season and I doubt we would have experienced the success we did without him. I really hope the fact that Penei and Amon-Ra were extended within hours without reference to Alim doesn't mean he's not being re-signed. 3.101: Iffy Melifonwu, B I almost gave him an incomplete grade, but I decided not to cop out. He would have been a C or C- until Week 14 of last season, when he got the starting nod over Tracy Walker and didn't look back. Will he continue to trend upwards? He could easily become an A if he does, he was lights out to close out the year. But I'm not yet ready to appoint him a sustainable success. If he continues the success into 2024, I'll be ecstatic. 4.112: Amon-Ra St. Brown, A+ Nothing more can be said. An absolute beast who would probably go in the top five in a re-draft. 4.113: Derrick Barnes, B A quality depth piece with shining moments, which is pretty good for a 4th round pick not named Amon-Ra St. Brown. He'll forever be remembered in Lions lore for his interception against the Bucs, and we will choose to all forget the missed sack against the Cowboys. 7.257: Jermar Jefferson, B He's still in the NFL and still with the Lions three years later, which is not easy to do for a 7th round pick. Kudos to him. UDFA: Brock Wright, A What a DUDE. He's as much as you could ever hope to get out of a UDFA. He's a fierce competitor, a solid player, and a fan favorite who was well worth matching a second contract for. To quote one Dan Miller, "BROCK. WRIGHT." UDFA: Jerry Jacobs, B+ He gets a lot of hate, but it's because he is a young UDFA who has been forced into a starting role for the Lions on multiple occasions, which wasn't fair to him. He went from being guaranteed $3,500 on his first contract to being an every-down corner on a team that won the NFC North. For context, a Last Chance U running back was signed by the Lions in the same offseason and was guaranteed $5,000. He held his own as much as you could expect him to. Overall: A+ I went between A and A+ on this. Levi is obviously less than ideal, but I still settled on A+ because I cannot imagine ever seeing a better draft in my lifetime. And if I do, I'll gladly give an A++. If we did a re-draft in 2024, neither Penei nor ASB make it to the Lions 1st round pick at #7. That's incredible in its own right. Add onto that that you added a defensive cornerstone for a trip to the NFC Championship in round three, solid depth and potential starters in the 3rd and 4th round, and a fan-favorite TE and starting corner as UDFAs? All in the first year of a regime, where you were hired three months before the draft and were simultaneously assembling a staff? Truly incredible stuff and completely unprecedented in Detroit... If you make Levi the 7th round pick and bump everyone else up a pick, it looks a lot better. I don't think one whiff in a draft should define the draft.

This gets me excited about the pick. I don't always trust Twitter. But when a random podcaster with 1500 followers reports an anonymous quote from a CFL executive that makes the pick who I had never heard of before yesterday sound promising? You're damn right I trust Twitter.

They should cut him, but wait until 4:00am, and then call Brad Holmes and tell him at 4:01am.

I think this is right, though I don't think Sorsdal's spot is guaranteed over Awosika's. Neither of them were very good last year when they had to step in, and they finished with almost identical snap counts (252 for Awosika to 253 for Sorsdal), but Awosika seemed to be the preferred option late in the season and in the playoffs when Jackson went down. In fact, Sorsdal didn't see a single offensive snap during the playoff run. They both have the flexibility to play tackle or guard, which is good, but ultimately we can only keep three or maybe four backups on the active roster. The other will almost certainly get a practice squad invite if they clear waivers. It's worth mentioning that they don't usually use Skipper as a LT or RT, but rather as a jumbo TE. He would only fill in for Decker or Sewell in the case of a real all-hands-on-deck emergency. This could be the transitionary role Manu takes over this year or next as he develops. I would think we would go with one of Awosika or Sorsdal as a backup lineman available to plug anywhere on the line, Skipper in the jumbo TE / emergency tackle role, Mahogany as a backup guard, and Manu as a 3rd string tackle who is inactive most weeks this year, unless forced in due to injury. The tough part is that our first alternative at center is probably going to be Glasgow, which means we are shifting two spots on the line with one (probably most likely) injury.

Amon-Ra can teach him how to use flashcards to learn those 60 names.

This is a lot of money to guarantee a UDFA. He'll have a shot at making the team.

I think there is an implicit assumption that if we had Moody or Bates or (insert a power-legged reliable kicker) that Campbell wouldn't have gone for it in those situations, and I'm not sure that's necessarily true. We attribute some degree of Campbell's aggressiveness to the fact that our kicker is in the bottom third of the league, but we don't know that he wouldn't be just as aggressive with the best kicker in the league. I think common sense is that he would go about his decision-making differently, but I would suspect that part of the calculus in Holmes' mind about deciding the resources to devote to the kicker position is in the fact that our head coach does not value field goals as much as the average NFL head coach.

The Bears have been absolutely gift wrapped an opportunity at relevance thanks to David Tepper and his moronic decision-making in Carolina... But I'll believe it when I see it. I think Ryan Poles is a mediocre GM. He's not bungled the obvious picks, like taking Caleb Williams, but the same could have been said for Martin Mayhew, taking Matt Stafford and Ndamukong Suh. Sometimes easy decisions happen upon average management. But like Mayhew, it's not the easy decisions that he will be judged on. It's the 2nd and 3rd round picks, the trades, and the ability to build and sustain around Williams. He hasn't inspired confidence in those areas yet. E.g., Trading #32 overall pick for Chase Claypool... E.g., his 2nd and 3rd round picks having disappointing debuts last year (Gervon Dexter, Tyrique Stevenson, and Zacch Pickens all had "disappointing" rookie seasons per Chicago pundits)... The only clear win on his resume is the trade with the Panthers, which is largely considered to have been stupid on the part of the Panthers, not genius on the part of the Bears. But worse for them is Matt Eberflus, who I think is just bad. His game management is not good (he lost them the game against the Lions last season), and some to all of Fields' lack of development has to fall on his shoulders. Does Williams have enough natural talent to overcome that? Maybe. But he's still a rookie. And if they disappoint this season, he's probably going to go into his sophomore season with a new head coach. Following the same exact track that Fields went on after getting picked by the Bears. The Lions success has taught me that there is truly something to be said for instilling a winning culture in a program in order for it to have success in the NFL. Obviously Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes have succeeded at that. I don't see that with Eberflus and Poles. But maybe I'm wrong.

Final attendance was 775,000. Wow.

Crazy how dozens of picks will pass without NFL Network batting an eye, but the Cowboys pick some random DT at #244 and they're airing the pick, and the draft room, and analyzing it.

Gabriel and Grayson Murphy (EDGE), Drake Nugent (C), Cornelius Johnson (WR), Marcus Rosemy (WR), and Jalen Coker (WR) would be my UDFA targets as of now.

With the 210th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions select future Hall of Famer Christian Mahogany, OG, Boston College.

Lions are on the clock.

I love the Mekhi Wingo pick. He was productive as all hell from the interior in the SEC, was one of the most athletic DTs in the draft, and was falling just because he’s a bit undersized. Put him between Reader and Houston on obvious pass downs and watch Caleb Williams eat turf.

I don’t love trading a future 3rd for a player who didn’t seem to be an obvious “how is he still on the board” guy. That said, it’s not sound reasoning, but I trust so completely in Holmes that I’m like “if he sees the heir apparent to Decker, who am I to judge?” It would take a lot to get me away from that mindset. If I was going to defend the trade, I think there are reasons to do so. For one, this is an incredibly deep team as it stands today. We don’t need filler players for spots 48-53, we need role players now who can become starters within two years. For another, we came into today with 9 picks next year. I have a hard time imagining us having nine holes to fill. On top of that, Jonah Jackson and CJGJ are both possible compensatory candidates to get additional picks. At the end of the day I’m not going to get worked up over sending pick 90-something away. Sure that’s a possible starter but Brad clearly saw a possible starter in this Canadien beast or he wouldn’t have made the move.

Damn Canadians are all neighbors!

I think this is exactly right. Special teams extraordinaire.

Brad seems like a man in win-now mode

I don’t love giving a 3rd next year for it but who am I to judge the almighty villain

700,000 and counting. New NFL record.

Detroit has really done this thing well. This is by far and away the nicest event I’ve ever attended in the city.

When they go 7-10 and clean house, they’ll be well on the way to ruining another quarterback.