Jason_R

It’s great to see BB blitz but why was Hutch covering a TE?

They forgot to cover Deebo?

Jay-Mo!!!

TeSlaa!

I am not a fan of the new kickoff rules. As if we needed to legalize the game any more.

WTF Bates?

I think Morton called the last two plays.

Yes they should have traded for backups based on anticipated injuries.

He is calling them telepathically.

Ok, they scoring fiddy today.

He put on some glasses. Evidently he didn’t know what was on the playsheet last week.

Was that Morton giving the fan base the finger with the most complicated screen pass of all time?

Sewell on the field.

It is supposed to look this easy with all of this offensive talent.

Oh geez. Sewell down.

It was a three point return.

Fipp should have told them to tackle him.

Way to tell them to score a touchdown, Dan Campbell. I was getting tired of John Morton telling them not to.

Good start.

I think it is. First down Jaymo.

Oh good it’s Jonathan Vilma on the call. Did he just say “Hayden Hutchinson”?

Good to see a body weight call go against Minnesota today.

Everything you say here is reasonable. But I’m not the one using outlandish rhetoric. I’m not the one criticizing Holmes for not signing a guy who retired mid-season. I’m not the one saying any player can be had if you just want him bad enough, then putting up asterisks and saying, “Well, maybe not him, and maybe not him.” I believe that Holmes has a top tier scouting staff, both college and pro. I believe they know who they have and they have a good sense of who in the NFL is better than their guys and who is not, so when they say “We’re good,” I generally think they believe it. I think Holmes has reached for a few players who haven’t worked out, and maybe he would have been more active at trade deadlines if he had retained assets, but I’m not too mad because he “reached” for a lot of the players who are now part of the core. Mostly, I think the offensive players, and Campbell for that matter, are hinting the problem is with Morton not with the OL. It is not good to have lost Mahogany but they seem to think they have the personnel to ride out a few weeks without him. Maybe they are wrong, but they make multiple millions of dollars every year to make these decisions, so they cannot afford to get too many of them wrong. If they thought their season was on the line due to losing mahogany, I believe they would have paid the price.

I don’t take MB as saying that anyone was arguing that Brad should trade for Cam Robinson. I take him as using Cam Robinson as an example, just like everyone else was, of the kind of player that one team would find expendable at the trade deadline but another team might need. Last year, given Minnesota’s circumstances where Darrisaw was out for the year, it may have made sense for them to trade for Robinson. It is notable that Robinson was only made available by Jax because he had warts as a player, which are evident in the fact that he has been on four teams in the past year. It is easy to say that Brad could have had almost any player if he just cared enough about the roster, but the fact is players don’t get moved unless there is a really good reason. Maybe we think they should feel like they were in as much of a crisis as Minnesota was in last year, but they don’t. Maybe they are wrong but we will see.

You talk about logical fallacies then say "...almost any player can be had for the right price... the middling players that other teams can replace and that are an upgrade for the Lions." With the trade deadline being halfway through the season and especially with the extra wild card team, very few teams were obviously out of playoff contention. And even those that are out of playoff contention are not necessarily in fire sale mode. GMs know they have to field a roster next year, and, in fact, the rest of this year. So while, in the very abstract, one GM could pry away a player another GM was not actively shopping by making a ridiculous offer, that strategy is not going to work long-term. Also, maybe five years ago or more, a middling player on another team might have been an upgrade for the Lions, but this roster is now one of the best in the NFL. How many middling players on the Jets, Titans, Raiders -- players they believe they can field a team without -- would actually be an upgrade for the Lions? I don't think there are as many as you think there are. The people complaining now that Holmes did not make a trade at the deadline are the same people complaining that he didn't re-sign Zadarius Smith in the offseason. Hmmm... maybe he knows things we don't. Holmes does have a track record of reaching with those third-round picks. It is hard to see the investments in players like Martin and Hooker not pay off, and maybe if he had been more conservative there he could have been more aggressive at the trade deadline. But this is the best Lions team we have ever seen and they are a legitimate Super Bowl contender if they can dial in their protection and play calling.