MichiganCardinal

I’m starved for football content. He didn’t keep me much longer though. Lions have their best chance of a deep playoff push in franchise history and he started blabbering about Connor Stallions not getting a job at Berkley High School.

I’m planning to post the week one GDT this weekend, does anyone have any requests for things it should include before I recycle last year’s template?

Meanwhile Mike Valenti is seriously doing “Brad Holmes is a bad 3rd round drafter” radio right now.

I agree. My hope is that between the two of them, Reader and Levi can keep each other healthy. It's not for nothing that Levi has made it through camp 100%. Has he ever done that in a Lions uniform? I think the defense ultimately looks very similar to last year, at least to start the year. Lockdown on the ground, shaky through the air. We are going to be relying on one rookie corner to be on the outside, another rookie in relief, and a player coming off his statistically worst year to be the veteran CB1. There will be some growing pains.

Replace Reader with Benito Jones and you have effectively our 2023 DT depth chart. I'll take Reader over Benito any day. It's a weird time to be a Lions fan when our question marks are WR3, OL6, and EDGE5.

Two thumbs down. The draft is IN Detroit and we don't get draft room footage? Boo.

No news is good news, and I do think the surrounding context - including that he put his shoe back on and walked under his own power to the locker room - makes me optimistic that he escaped anything too serious.

I feel like if a free agent was in the cards they would have already brought them in to have them compete against what they’ve got. My preference would probably be Michael Thomas if they go the free agent route. He’s 31 to Jones’ 35 and likely knows Campbell from New Orleans. He can’t help himself from getting injured, but we would only be asking him to split WR3 snaps with Raymond.

Preseason 53-Man Prediction 2.0 Quarterbacks (2): Jared Goff and Hendon Hooker No change. I really hope they're not actually going to keep Sudfeld. Sudfeld will clear waivers to the practice squad and if Goff goes down with a multi-week injury, you can call up Sudfeld and start him the following week if you really don't think Hooker is ready. Keeping three is wasting a roster spot in a year you will have trouble sneaking valuable players to the practice squad. Running Backs (4): Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, Craig Reynolds, and Sione Vaki No change. If Jermar Jefferson didn't get hurt, he probably could have made a play for RB5 and one less WR, but I don't see it now. Wide Receiver (5): Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, TBD, Kalif Raymond, and Isaiah Williams IN: Any WR3 who has actually earned an NFL roster spot, OUT: Antoine Green. No one on this team has earned the spot of WR3 and they're not going to keep someone by default. The Broncos are an interesting team to keep an eye on. They have seven receivers right now who are better than our WR3. Tim Patrick and Devaughn Vele are both 6'4" prototypical X receivers, and they probably only have space for one of them... but I doubt they make it to the Lions on the waiver wire. The Lions may swing a trade for one of them, sending a late round pick or a late round swap for someone better than what we got. Jermar Jefferson, Colby Sorsdal, and even James Houston are also possible trade candidates... On the other hand, I'm sticking by my Isaiah Williams prediction. He's a hard guy to find a role for on offense, but I think they'll be hard pressed to release him with the state of that room right now. Tight End (3): Sam LaPorta, Brock Wright, and Shane Zylstra OUT: Hesse I want to keep four and I want to keep Mitchell, so naturally I kept three and cut Mitchell. I'm really not sure who has the upper hand here. If we only keep three, I think Zylstra makes more sense as a combination pass-catcher to backup LaPorta and blocker to backup Wright. If we keep four though, I think Mitchell might be the better pure backup to LaPorta and Hesse to Wright, and I would rather do that all else being equal. I think the addition of Mahogany complicates things though, which led me to only keep three. I'd prefer to keep four. Offensive Line (10): Penei Sewell, Graham Glasgow, Frank Ragnow, Kevin Zeitler, Taylor Decker, Kayode Awosika, Dan Skipper, Colby Sorsdal, Christian Mahogany, and Giovanni Manu IN: Mahogany Mahogany's return after missing all of camp creates a dilemma. If he's fully cleared, I don't think they can NFI him to save the roster spot, meaning both he and Manu have to be carried despite neither actually being NFL ready, lest we waste a rookie draft selection. Sorsdal is likely on the bubble as a result, which would make sense given his 100% snap count on Saturday. I think he could very easily be an odd man out they hope to get to the practice squad. Awosika is our backup guard (including if Glasgow slides to center), Skipper is our backup tackle, Mahogany is our emergency guard who doesn't dress, and Manu is our emergency tackle who doesn't dress. If Sorsdal sticks, he's the second backup anywhere on the line except center, before Mahogany or Manu. Edge Rusher (5): Aidan Hutchinson, Marcus Davenport, Josh Paschal, Mitchell Agude, and James Houston No change. I do think Houston is on the bubble, but he makes the roster somewhere in #50-53. He may not dress every week though. He's just a one-trick pony. Against a pass-heavy team (i.e., Minnesota), it makes sense to have him. Against a run-heavy team (i.e., San Francisco), he probably doesn't dress unless injuries force it. Defensive Interior (6): Alim McNeill, DJ Reader, Levi Onwuzurike, Kyle Peko, Brodric Martin, and Mekhi Wingo No change. This seems pretty straightforward. Linebackers (5): Alex Anzalone, Jack Campbell, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Malcolm Rodriguez, and Derrick Barnes No change. I think they probably hope for a couple of their currently rostered players to make it to the practice squad. Cornerback (6): Carlton Davis, Terrion Arnold, Amik Robertson, Ennis Rakestraw, Khalil Dorsey, and Kindle Vildor No change. I still think Vildor edges out Joseph but wouldn't be surprised to see Joseph win this battle. Safety (4): Brian Branch, Kerby Joseph, Iffy Melifonwu, and CJ Moore No change. Moore's special teams contributions probably earn him a spot on its own. Special Teams (3): Jake Bates, Jack Fox, and Scott Daly No change. I do think they eye any kicker waiver wire additions, but end up going into the season with Bates.

Interaction at a rural Iowa gas station while pumping gas: Stranger: “Beautiful weather we are having” Me: “absolutely!” Stranger seeing my Lions sweatshirt: “go Packers” Me: “well at least we agreed for a second” Not another word was spoken as we pumped gas and went our separate ways.

Come on now, show some grace. Who hasn’t urinated on a fellow passenger forcing an international flight to return to Boston at least once in your life?

I would call and ask to be sure but usually it’s two hours in advance (so 11am). It can vary based on the game though, like I think they opened the gates for the Rams playoff game three hours before kick because it was so cold and the demand was so high. In yesteryears, I could see them opening later for a preseason game. They usually don’t fully staff the preseason. But I’ve seen they’re selling standing room only tickets for that game, which is insane, so hopefully they’re fully staffed. This ain’t your grandfather’s Lions team.

He’s back and better than ever.

I predict the Chiefs beat the Lions by 30-40 today, leading the media to grossly overreact to how much better Chiefs starters are than the Lions backups.

The drama going on in Cincinnati with JaMarr Chase and Dallas with CeeDee Lamb makes me appreciate Holmes even more. He got it done with ASB. It was easy. You can always question the timing, but he got it done before Justin Jefferson or either of these guys, and now both of these guys want to reset the market and are in a game of chicken with their team with the season on the horizon. You can even throw in San Francisco with Aiyuk. No drama in Allen Park, just all ball.

For his long-term career, redshirting this year was probably in his best interests anyway. I’m not sure how much he can do the way of working out with the team while he rehabs, but I don’t think this is any kind of death blow to JJ’s career or the Vikings in 2024 (though I never thought they would be good this year). 2024 Sam Darnold was probably better than 2024 JJ anyway.

Today was supposed to be a scrimmage day but after all the injuries yesterday Campbell changed course and they don’t even have pads on today. Combined with this news and it looks like Team Bubblewrap is winning.

I wonder if the beat writers knew about Carlton Davis’s injury but realized if they reported on three corner injuries in one day they’d be likely to start riots.

And Rakestraw! We can breath again!

And Gibbs.

There are analytics for this kind of thing. This guy uses an algorithm to create the “Adjusted Games Lost” statistic. It accounts for injuries, including those who get a “questionable” tag and still play, and gives more weight to projected starters and more important positions like QB. It’s likely not perfect, but by his measures we were middle of the pack last year. 13th most fortunate on offense, 24th most fortunate on defense, for 18th overall. Luckiest in the league was the Rams. Unluckiest were the Texans. As an aside, I would expect the Lions to sustain more injuries in camp than most because of how physical Campbell runs things.

Hoping no news is good news so far on Rakestraw and Arnold.

They’re typically slow to heal, but the average ‘out’ time for a hammy in the NFL is 13 days. if they shut him down now I’d be surprised if he’s not ready for the opener in a month. The lingering can come when it happens mid-season and guys try to come back too soon, aggravating it.

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Surprised by this. They kept him around all of last year. Must not see the development they want. I think this puts Fountain in the driver's seat for the WR3 role. It's him or DPJ, and DPJ has done himself no favors this camp. I like Isaiah Williams for the 5th spot if DPJ gets cut.