MichiganCardinal

I think there is a decent chance he doesn’t make the team. Likely depends on who is drafted.

Reading the tea leaves, this likely points the Lions away from Willis and towards WRs, Hamilton, or the field of edge rushers. I think most team moving up would be doing so for Willis, so I wouldn’t expect a deal to be done until after Jacksonville picks. (Otherwise leaving the door open to being jumped themselves).

I think this could be a real opportunity for MCDC to sell Detroit to the greater NFL players community before we start really looking to compete in 2023.

This. Don’t play into the Giants’ hand. They know that teams who want a QB next year will need to pay a fortune to move up to 1 or 2. They will very possibly be in that boat, as will the Lions. It’s smart of them to try to gain more assets in preparation of doing so. If the Lions can do the same with #32, they should.

Then he won't make the team out of camp. I'm sure they're not signing him to some mega-deal.

I don’t think Mayfield is that bad. I even think he’s slightly better than Goff on any given Sunday, though not by much. Certainly not enough to overcome the baggage that would come with him. And certainly worse than whatever QB I would hope the Lions take to be the next face of the franchise. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do well somewhere though. He’s only a year removed from putting up 48 points on Pittsburgh in the wildcard round and nearly beating the Chiefs to go to the AFC Championship.

For all that was made about Thibs, it shouldn’t be overlooked that he was the consensus #1 overall prospect coming into this for a reason.

That's the nature of the NFL anyway. If you don't make the playoffs in three straight years, you're on the hot seat if you aren't fired outright. If these teams can't manage some success now, those 2024 and 2025 draft picks won't matter to those front offices anyway. Becomes a problem of the replacement regime.

I’m not remotely interested in Malik Willis. In a “normal” year, I think he’s a late 1st or early 2nd round prospect. He’s risen because people drool over QBs every year. I could be wrong, and if we take him I’ll hope like hell that I am. It’s not impossible a mid-1st prospect turns into a good NFL QB. I just think taking Willis at #2 would be making the move we are “expected” to, just because we are drafting #2. If we envision ourselves as building how the Chiefs did, then patience is a-okay.

It was nice to see Ford Field matter at the tail end of 2021. Riding a three game home win streak into 2022. Don’t do that very often.

With the Panthers at 6, Falcons at 8, and Seahawks at 9, this Matt Ryan trade definitely helps the Lions trade prospects.

I think I am about to contradict my previous points some, but I think a lengthy suspension at this point is a little ridiculous. What was the entire last year? Anything now might as well be 17 games plus what they suspend him.

It was reported that he was accused by two of the women of forcing them to give him oral sex. Without knowing Texas law, that would be a form of Criminal Sexual Conduct, which certainly could result in jail or prison time, depending on the circumstances. I don’t think he’s a serial rapist. I do think that he’s not been told no often in his adult lifetime, and may not taken resistance appropriately when he was getting a massage. Maybe not 22 times, but I do believe that some of those encounters were not with two totally willing partners.

Just because a grand jury doesn't indict someone doesn’t mean that their actions are morally acceptable. Things the everyday American would go to prison for can be swept away with piles of money by the NFL quarterback. It doesn’t mean the latter’s actions are any better or worse than the former’s.

In fairness, I don’t think any fan base is exempt from this. If the Lions had gone and picked up Watson, the fan base would have rallied around him (as long as he was winning and performing well). Certain fans would have had moral objections to the addition, but they would have been a quiet minority, so long as he was winning. The majority would have eaten up the storyline pushed by Watson and his agent, that these were consensual encounters and that these massage therapists were just out for a pay day (otherwise he would have been indicted!). Despite knowledge that that’s not how this works. Locally, we saw this with Adrian Peterson. He pretty brutally abused his very young son with a switch, and to this day has not even admitted that what he did was wrong. He even went so far as to admit in the years after he was charged with felony child abuse (and pled to a lesser charge) that he still uses a belt to physically discipline his child. Yet when the Lions added him, few had a problem with him doing well on our team’s dime. Some even went as far as to use the excuses pushed by AP and his people, that this was just cultural and how AP himself had grown up. Balancing wanting your team to do well and being morally opposed to individuals on that team isn’t easy, and can certainly lead to back-bending hypocritical beliefs and actions.

I agree. I wouldn’t take him until at least 66, but I would definitely consider him there as a second edge rusher. Redshirt him a year and when you’re ready to compete for the playoffs in 2023, he’s a practical third 1st round addition in that draft.

Will get to see a rematch of The Game in the Sweet 16 if Ohio State can knock off Villanova. Otherwise we will see a rematch of the 18 National Championship.

For context Dayo Odeyingbo tore his Achilles last year in the lead-up to the 2021 draft. He was more of a hand in the ground 3-4 DE than Ojabo is. He was projected as a borderline 1st round pick and only fell to #54 where the Colts picked him up. Ojabo may fall out of the 1st round but I doubt he's still there at 66.

If it’s a top five pick I like Travon Walker, even at #2. If it’s outside the top five, I like whoever we have rated highest at WR.

I don't think he will fall further than the 3rd or 4th round. The Lions are becoming Achilles experts, I would definitely consider him at 66. We can afford a redshirt season.

I'm sure it is. If this is as bad as it looks for him though, the damage is likely done. Recovery will likely take him out for at least the first half of the coming season, and he is not likely to have as strong a season coming off of injury and not being across from Hutchinson. He could fall even further if he suffers a setback and misses the entire season. He is likely better off taking his tumble in the draft. A team that can afford to redshirt him will take him, it's not like he'll go undrafted. He could have gone top five though.

Depending on how serious it is, he could lose millions in his rookie deal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see projected first round picks be healthy scratches from the Combine and Pro Days in the future. Why risk it?

I will participate in bracket challenges and fantasy football with friends, but I think the mass commercialization and availability of sports betting and online gambling will be looked on extremely poorly in the next 10-20+ years. Potentially the next global health crisis. Too many people are too easily influenced and hooked. As opposed to making a conscious choice to enter a casino, to go to an ATM, to interact with a cashier, it's just too easy to just keep using that credit card in the dark bedroom or office without any realization for the real impacts you're having. Until you can't afford gas or groceries the next day, or are paying $100s in interest fees. Then the occasional win becomes an opioid-like high, and there is a constant chase, while your thousands of dollars line the pockets of billionaires. It's the wild west right now. The free bets and credits for things that happen every game are just capitalizing on the chase of the high. The radio reads on 97.1 make me sick sometimes, with the books paying to push certain lines.