MichiganCardinal

In fairness to Brown, he wasn't even supposed to be the backup guard until Tommy Kraemer went down in preseason too.... also with a back injury.... Let's just wrap the offensive line in bubble wrap until September.

Vaitai's health has to be a question mark as well. He had back surgery. You don't want to restructure his deal, watch Brown walk away, and then have him re-aggravate it in training camp and he's gone again. They got burned with a back injury with Levi. Didn't seem like much in college but just kept knocking him out when he went pro. Backs are tricky things, especially when you're an interior lineman being asked to run into a brick wall every play.

Aubrey Pleasant was relying on those kicks being made as a part of his game plan. 😆

If we had a Hanson or Prater, the Bills game may have turned out completely differently. The 29-yarder he missed was the difference in the game, despite the Lions having a chance to win late. Likewise against Seattle, where Dominick Eberle (remember him??) missed two extra points. Having a reliable kicker is an absolute must in a sport where there are only 17 games, and many of them are decided by one score. I think Badgley was a satisfactory band-aid over the gaping hole at kicker, but I don't think he is any sort of long-term solution. He's not reliable past 50 yards, and when this team is really good (as soon as next year), I don't want to be faced with a 4th & 10 late in the game on the opponent's 40 where we have to make a decision to either go for it or punt. I want to put the next Evan McPherson out there and know he's going to drill that mofo through.

Long but worth it. He's rather candid at time, with just the right amount of politician speak.

I think when you’re engaging in a full scale tear down and rebuild, like Holmes needed to when taking over from Quinn, you don’t need to even think about need when you start, because everything is a need. You just need foundational pieces and talent. That’s more likely to come from a OT, Edge, and WR (his three 1sts so far) than a TE, but at the end of the day you just need to start somewhere. Two drafts later now, not that we are one piece away, but you’re able to start evaluating the roster more comprehensively. What pieces are here to stay? Where do we still need to upgrade? What do I need to worry about two seasons from now? Where do I need depth? That’s “need” to an extent, but I think it’s also just a map for building a good team.

Listening to 97.1 today someone mentioned the possibility of the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl and the Lions/Chiefs game at Arrowhead being the NFL opener. This wouldn't surprise me at all. The Lions are likely going to get a lot of national love this offseason and are probably going to be the odds on favorites to win the NFC North.

Listening to Holmes end-of-season press conference, he just gave a pretty resounding endorsement of Jared Goff. I'm sure a Tweet will capture it better than I did in the moment but one piece I did catch was that "it's a lot easier to get worse at QB than it is to get better".

This is fair. I don't think you would get much for him, but it's also not something I would set out to do. More so if you end up taking Bijan or Gibbs that you don't need both.

I think looking at games played is a little disingenuous. I'll admit my 10 touches metric is arbitrary, but it's fair to say that Swift hasn't been a valuable asset in every game he's suited up for. A player who suits up but sits on the sideline for all but a carry or two isn't helping the team and isn't worth a long-term deal. Additionally, even beyond the merits of Swift himself, I think it's a very rare RB that ever deserves a high priced second contract. Of that 2020 class, I could see working with Jonathan Taylor, depending on the amount. Of the first three rounds from the 2019 class that is up for decisions now (Josh Jacobs, Miles Sanders, Darrell Henderson, David Montgomery, Devin Singletary, Damien Harris, and Alex Mattison), I would probably try to keep Jacobs and that's it... I don't think there is anything wrong with drafting a quality RB high every 4 years or so, as long as you find the right one instead of Kerryon Johnson, Ameer Abdullah, or Mikel Leshore.

Swift's fragility and the decision about RB goes beyond next season. Swift is going to be due a contract after next year. He was a high 2nd round pick, so there is no 5th year option. He's just not a guy I would want to pay long-term unless he can show durability, and I've personally seen enough across three seasons to say we won't get there with him... 9 games of 10+ touches in 2020, 11 games in 2021, and 7 games in 2022. That's only 27 of the 50 games the Lions have played since he joined the team, and it's more likely to get worse than better as he ages. I respect the shit out of him going out there and battling through injury this year, but I just need more out of my RB1. I wouldn't love the idea of taking one at 1.6, but if you see a guy like Robinson at 1.18, or a guy like Gibbs in the late 1st or early 2nd, that can do what Swift did against Philadelphia and Washington, and do it consistently across a 17+ game season, I'm all in, 100%. Trade Swift to a team that is willing to pay him, pick up some additional draft capital, and replace him with his healthy alternative for the next 4-5 years.

I like the 6th round steals you grabbed!

3. Cheating the right way

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Usually it’s not. To draft over a T16 QB, you have to be willing to bet your job on a rookie. That’s a regime defining pick. The Chiefs did it, and it worked out extremely well. If the next Mahomes is sitting there at 9, yeah, go get him. I don’t see it though.

As of today, I think an edge is likely to be the best player available at 6. Possibly by a wide margin. Anderson for sure is a game wrecker that you can’t pass up. Myles Murphy and Tyree Wilson both have the opportunity to rise to that status in the coming months. It’s akin to taking Sewell at #7 despite having Decker and Vaitai under long-term deals. If he’s there, you turn in the card and don’t ask questions. I think you could put Hutch and the new edge across from one another and tell them to have fun. Meet at the quarterback. With Anderson in particular, they would likely quickly become the best edge duo in the NFL and simply take over some games. That’s not even exaggeration. You can’t double them both, and I think they would immediately help the secondary (especially in Glenn’s blitz heavy defense) by the very nature of the backfield being constantly disrupted. Houston is a good problem to have, and can be rotated in, or you can even have some unique packages for 3rd & Long situations where you send all three of them. Paschal played a decent amount of 3-tech at Kentucky, and can slide inside, especially if he puts on a bit of weight this off-season. He’s not the greatest edge rusher anyway, I think he would be complimentary. Cominsky has been a good story and a great pickup for Holmes, but I don’t think you let him stop you from from taking a 1st round athlete. He’s also another candidate to put on weight and play 3-tech. Jalen Carter may be the easiest plug-and-play, in terms of not having to adjust a ton elsewhere. If he’s not there though, there are other potential front seven game-changers that shouldn’t be passed up.

They went 13-2, that’s a bit harsh. To move the goalposts, they’re not Rutgers or Maryland where you can get away with only playing one half of football. But I think TCU is good.

At least Ruggles missed that kick.

Michigan would have played a much closer game than this absurdity. Not saying they’d have won, but if they turn the ball over 2x instead of 4x against TCU, they win. If they don’t turn it over at all, they win by 14+. They just forgot how to football in the first half. And you can’t do that against a good team.

I agree with a lot of what he said. I would take Sheila all day every day over a lot of the clowns that own NFL teams for status items, or who think they know more about football than they do.

Appreciate it! It was a fun way to stay involved. Wish I could have made one or two more for a run, but that'll be next year, otherwise I'll be on the hot seat for sure.

Perusing Twitter, it looks like the Texans have also requested DeMeco Ryans, Ejiro Evero, Shane Steichen, and Jonathan Gannon. Gannon was a close 2nd last year when they hired Smith. Ryans was a former star in Houston with ties to the organization. They've done their homework in requesting the interview with Johnson, but I doubt he's their first choice out of the gate.

MotownForums.com 😉 This was my first stab of the off-season.

I lol'd

They should be preseason Top Five.

Lol. I think we agree that we won't see him take another regular season snap in Detroit. Even if we say the three CB starters next year will be Okudah, a rookie, and a free agent though, who is your depth? Probably not AO, but if you can bring 90 players to training camp, I don't think there is harm on giving him the shot to be a backup... Hell, they gave Jarrad Davis that opportunity multiple times and he really stinks.