MichiganCardinal

Okudah is an unfortunate story that is emblematic of the prior regime. A bad pick, combined with awful coaching, put together with poor injury luck. He wasn’t a guy from this regime, and it was time to move on. I do wish all the best for Okudah in the future. Seems like a great guy who never really had a chance here.

In fairness, Holmes likely would have gotten a lot more for Slay…. Or not had to trade him in the first place.

If you had asked me last week what I thought we would get in an Okudah trade I would have guessed a conditional 6th. I thought he was a possible training camp cut. With Holmes’ track record, I think I like the chances of a 5th rounder he selects working out as much as I thought Okudah would have been extended. I’ll take the pick.

I don't think there is any way they pickup the option. They may still extend him after the fact if he proves to earn his long-term spot on the team. But the odds of him being worth $11.5MM are extremely low.

I don’t think the Lions will draft a QB in the 1st round this year, but I also don’t think that this is indicative of that. This team is vastly different than the one Holmes took over in 2020.

That’s some damn good scouting. How have you not been picked up by a team yet? 😉

I can’t remember who it was but one of the beat writers wrote on Twitter that if the Lions traded up, the subsequent five minutes while everyone wondered who it was for would be among the most chaotic moments in Lions history. I’m pretty neutral on the Richardson topic. I like Stroud a lot, I’m not sold on Young, and I don’t like Levis, but Richardson is hard for me. They have the right guys in the organization to make that kind of decision. If they want to take him at #6 though to be the guy in 2024 or 2025, I don’t have a problem with them wanting him at #3.

I would be surprised if the Lions *weren’t* one of those teams. I don’t think the Cardinals are mulling anything. They’re holding out to draft day and hoping the price increases.

That’s like 4x more than what I would pay for a diva 30yo wide receiver who has not played a full NFL season since 2019.

Depends on what their other offers are. I think there is an assumption that the Colts, Raiders, and Titans want it, but the demand might not be there.

I think a lot of Johnson's gripes are sour grapes at the trajectory of his career, and they're blamed on the money because that's easier. I understand being upset that you're one of the greatest of all time at your position and never even won a playoff game. If he wanted to be upset with the Ford family, Millen, Mayhew, etc. for that, completely understood... But he's the one who signed a seven-year deal in 2012 and then bailed on it three years in, and he's the one acting like a child while Sheila tries to repair relationships ruined by her parents... I've always thought that if the Lions got good he would be back to be in the camera for the moment, so it doesn't surprise me that he's laying the foundation.

This is just great. I’ve really been losing a lot of sleep over the relationship between the dude who made $112MM in contract salary alone across his career but severs relationships over $2MM he didn’t earn and the corporate ownership team that literally couldn’t gift him the money even if they wanted to. It’s really nice to see that now that the Lions are getting good and going to be in the spotlight the former declares that the relationship is magically getting better. I’m sure that doesn’t have to do with wanting to be in the spotlight for his businesses or anything. /s

But did you learn your lesson?

I think the Lions are largely at the point across the roster that with very little exception (Bijan and Anderson are the only two that come to mind), no draft pick would be guaranteed a starting gig on day one. Which is a good place to be in, but it also means that in the case of LB, they may not take one high if when the 2nd and 3rd round picks come up and a linebacker isn’t the highest rated player on their board. That said, I do think Holmes would be a buyer at the deadline if we had a clear liability that needed to be addressed for a playoff push (like if Anzalone isn’t pulling his weight).

I think I differ with you here. Bijan may not be a huge upgrade over Swift at 100%, but we only saw that player probably twice last season - against the Eagles and Commies. Otherwise, he was out or on a pitch count, which seriously limited his usefulness.

If we can’t get Anderson, my hope is that the Cardinals screw up their trade talks, Richardson falls to #6, and the Titans trade Simmons and 11 to move up for him. We could probably take Bijan at 11, who may be the pick at 6 anyway.

I’m just shocked we are 81 pages in and no one has found a reason to fire Campbell yet. Blowing previous offseason threads out of the water.

That’s what I mean. If they start with 3 each, it’s probably easier to take away games from teams you know won’t draw / won’t be good and then all of a sudden the good teams are left and they’re getting 4-5. The Lions started without a prime time game last year, which by themselves puts up ~3 games for others to take. This year that could be the Colts or Raiders or Falcons or Rams not getting all three.

I wish I could be as bad at my job as Tim Boyle and never have to worry about finding employment. Career earnings over $7MM after this contract.

Even from just a pure numbers standpoint, with 16 MNF, 15 TNF, and 16 SNF, plus Thanksgiving and Christmas, every team would average around 3 prime time games if they were distributed equally.

TNF Opener @ Chiefs MNF v. Vikings Thanksgiving v. Packers SNF @ Saints

It may even be the season opener.

The Chiefs probably prefer to play the Bears internationally too, because they’d prefer to play the Lions at Arrowhead.

It likely means the Lions will “host” an international game in 2024, losing a home game. Probably the worst part of it.

The guys on the radio were very confused when he came out for the final shift with an empty net. Their scoresheet reflected that he got a game misconduct. They said postgame that he originally did get a game and then it was revised to a 10.