MichiganCardinal

I used PFN as well. I only took one trade even in the trade mock because largely I feel that they’re unrealistic. Traded 1.2 to the Jets for 1.4 and 1.10. 1.4: Aidan Hutchinson, Edge, Michigan 1.10: Derek Stingley Jr., CB, LSU 1.32: Jermaine Johnson, Edge, Florida State 2.34: Lewis Cine, S, Georgia 3.66: Christian Harris, LB, Alabama 3.97: George Pickens, WR, Georgia 5.177: Dohnovan West, OG, Arizona State 6.180: Marcus Jones, CB, Houston 6.218: Bo Melton, WR, Rutgers 7.232: Chigoziem Okonkwo, TE, Maryland Without trades… 1.2: Aidan Hutchinson, Edge, Michigan 1.32: Trent McDuffie, CB, Washington 2.34: Chad Muma, ILB, Wyoming 3.66: Myjai Sanders, Edge, Cincinnati 3.97: George Pickens, WR, Georgia 5.177: James Mitchell, TE, Virginia Tech 6.180: Justin Shaffer, OG, Georgia 6.218: Jack Sanborn, OLB, Wisconsin 7.232: Danny Gray, WR, SMU

I used to be in the “don’t draft a RB in the first four rounds EVER” camp. I think I’ve come around slightly in the last year or so to adding a RB in the second or third round, in some very limited scenarios. That said, the Lions most definitely do not fit in my circumstances for that right now. If you can add an Alvin Kamara, Derrick Henry, etc. to a really good team through the draft, you can make that team borderline elite. If you add Christian McCaffery to an aging Panthers team primed for a rebuild though, you can waste an elite player’s prime on a bad team, or more often waste a potentially good player (Best, Leshore, etc.) on a bad team. A RB has such a short shelf life in the NFL that it’s very easy to mistime their career arc. I actually agree with a lot of what Tater said. I agree that the recipe for success in the NFL is to score a ton of points and to play OK to decent defense that creates pressure, doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, and capitalizes when the other team makes mistakes. I also agree that I don’t think Swift is an elite RB. He could still be on the team when the team gets to “really good” status, but I don’t think he is going to be the kind of player to make us elite, and would more likely be RB2/change of pace back by then. If in 2023, we trade our two 1sts and our 2024 1st to go up and get Young or Stroud, and an elite RB (Kamara/Henry grade) is there in the 2nd or 3rd round, I would probably be okay with that. If we are a wildcard playoff exit in 2023 and take a RB in a higher round of 2024, I am probably okay with that. As it is though, we have so many holes elsewhere. We don’t have the offensive weapons elsewhere to best utilize a really good RB. We also don’t have close to an OK defense. Every position could be upgraded. I think a RB taken by the Lions now would just turn into the next Best or Leshore.

The Bengals route to the Super Bowl so nearly removed from being the Bungals gives me (false?) hope for the Lions future, so I'd like to see them complete the run and win the Super Bowl. I'd like to see Stafford do well though, I certainly don't wish him to have a bad performance. To a lesser extent, I am mindful of the draft position. While the Bengals will almost certainly take an OT with their first round pick, I think they may be one of the more likely teams to trade up a reasonable amount to go get their choice of OT. I wouldn't want to see whoever they trade with sniping Jameson Williams or Nakobe Dean from us at 31 while we sit at 32.

I'm far from giving up on Levi. He's shown flashes of why he was taken as high as he was. He had those back issues early on, missed most of training camp (after opting out of 2020), and I'm pretty sure I've read that they almost pulled the plug on his season entirely. Even though he fell off the injury report by midseason, back issues can definitely linger as your body learns to compensate and then has to unlearn. Beyond that though, even at UW, Levi was known more disruptively than productively in terms of sacks. He was known as a solid run defender who could stuff the gap, and as someone who would get into the backfield and make stuff happen, but not necessarily be the guy to put the QB to the turf (like Suh was). Levi only recorded 7 sacks in his entire collegiate career. I think he - more than almost anyone else on the roster - would benefit from the addition of a Hutchinson or Thibedeoux type. A guy like Levi gets sacks when QBs have the pocket closing in on them from the edge and have nowhere to go. A guy like Levi gets attention and notoriety when he can force the QB out of the pocket (even if he doesn't finish) for a guy like Hutchinson or Okwara to finish off. He needs to improve, but I'm definitely not worried about him yet.

They made me laugh the other day when someone (jokingly) brought up the notion of Urban taking the OC job at Michigan. Can you even imagine the pandemonium both in Ann Arbor and Columbus? LOL.

Interesting choice. They're trying to plant more recruiting roots in the south.

It all goes back to the NFL trying to make objective an inherently subjective experience. It has to be done somewhere, but it doesn’t actually help the problem. I recall Elizabeth Warren releasing a DNA test a few years ago that said she had maybe some Cherokee in her dating back 6-10 generations. It backfired on her big time. Because who cares? It’s about experience, and one’s experience is oftentimes dictated by color of your skin, not by ancestry percentages. I get that to provide objective compensation to teams, you have to have objective standards. But it’s not as easy as X=Y. It’s why I’d prefer a committee approach.

The offseason is in full swing now. /s

With Nagy and Gase still available? Typical meathead /s

Keeping Glenn!

I think this will turn out to be a very hard draft to predict. There is no clear cut top tier of prospects like there usually are and I think teams’ various grades of prospects may differ wildly. I also think that may lend itself to a large number of trades occurring, as teams see guys they have ranked far higher than other teams slip, they’ll seek to jump up and get him.

Exactly. It read to me like a reporter asked a source with the Saints how Glenn preformed and they gave the can of corn answer they would have given for any of their interviewees.

Bienemy interviewed for nine hours yesterday and they’ve concluded their first round of interviews, which included 6 candidates… Glenn reportedly “impressed” them in his but I don’t know how much that actually means.

I have to imagine that right about now they wish they hadn’t fired Culley.

For a few years as a kid, my parents would throw me a birthday party on the Pro Bowl. It worked because we weren’t cool enough to pull people away from Super Bowl parties, you could make it Hawaiian themed, and it’s just on in the background while you do party things. The product has gotten worse though in the last ten years. Just the lowlights I saw on social media told me that. Their best bet if they’re insistent on keeping it is to lean into the skills competition portion and make the game itself a charity flag football game, akin to the charity softball game that MLB pulls off. If you’re going to be a gimmick, just say so.

I think that if there is more to the story (as the smoke appears to indicate) that there is a way to both fire back at Gattis while being PC. Even a one or two sentence statement that there is an ongoing investigation would suffice. Twitter will do the story-telling for you.

Mike Hart seems to be the obvious replacement.

Not a good look for the program. McDonald going to the NFL is one thing. Gattis taking a lateral move to an ACC program that hasn’t been good in ages means that Michigan either wasn’t going to pay what Miami is, or that Gattis didn’t believe the success at Michigan could be replicated. Or both.

This came out after Wannstedt said that on the Colin Cowherd podcast. I've also seen other journalists say that Wannstedt "incorrectly reported" the hiring. With the smoke, Nagy was probably interviewed. But I think that's far from hired.

Can't wait to see Belichick Gase put up 50 on the Jets this season.

Vic Fangio has extensive connections with Jim and was rumored to be his pick for DC in Minnesota if Jim got/took the job. If Fangio doesn't land on his feet with a DC position in the NFL, he would be a great get for Michigan.

I think there is a difference between eluding that any white coach being hired is an example of racism, and eluding that any white coach being hired is a potential exacerbation of this problem that exists. I think the issue with the Rooney Rule is that it is all about image rather than practice. People (meaning the national media) pay attention to the GM and Head Coach searches. There are headlines for every interview, and so the Rooney Rule makes it look better that these clubs are interviewing minorities, even if they don't ultimately hire them. There are no headlines for the lower-level positions that actually feed into the positions who are ultimately hired for those positions. If Ben Johnson is hired as OC, it will make a few local headlines and quickly be out of the limelight. Further down, if the Lions are looking to hire two entry-level quality control analysts and interview five white dudes in their 20s, no one bats an eye. There is no rule being violated and outwardly no one even really knows it's happening. Ten years from now though, when the two white dudes who were hired have made their way up the organizational ladder (either with the Lions or elsewhere) and are being considered for head coaching positions across the NFL, they are likely the more qualified candidates, more likely to be hired, than their minority counterparts who were not even interviewed for that quality control position today. This is practically what happened with the Washington Commies having Shanahan, McVay, and LaFluer all on their staff. I would also argue that those lower-level positions are the more likely positions to have an interview mean something, because by the time you're being considered for a position akin to a CEO, you have a decade of experience to judge from beyond any one or two-day interview.

For what it's worth, from the outside looking in, I would also prefer Ben Johnson. If you evaluate him only as a coordinator and position coach though, Nagy has been pretty good. There is a reason the Bears hired him. On the whole, he was awful as a Head Coach. There is a long list of people who are awful as head coaches but pretty good to great coordinators, and Nagy could very well fit into that list. My only point at the end of the day is that he shouldn't be ran out of town before his flight lands if he's Campbell's ultimate pick. There is a track record to defend the pick, and Campbell has shown that he's not afraid to cut loose of people pretty quickly (Lynn) if it's not working out.