Mr.TaterSalad

I like the idea of acquiring Jeffery Simmons a lot as he fills our biggest remaining need on the team, an interior pass rusher and run stopper. That said, the asking price for Simmons shouldn't be two 1sts. If AJ Brown only netted Tennessee one 1st then why would Simmons be deserving of two? #18 overall for Simmons or #18 plus a 3rd or later round pick should get it done if the Deforest Buckner trade is any market indicator. If we don't get back Tennessee's pick at #11 and we have to trade both #6 and #18 I'd be out on Simmons. #6 + #18 is a massive overpay for him. I even think that the asking price for moving up for Tennessee should potentially include Detroit hanging onto the pick at #18 and instead giving up the two 2nd round picks instead. Tennessee has to pay a price for moving up and compensating us for dropping out of the top 10. I think that compensation would be us getting to hang onto #18 and them instead getting our two 2nd round picks. So a trade in that scenario would look like this. Detroit gets: Jeffery Simmons + Tennessee's 2023 pick at #11 Tennessee gets: Detroit's 2023 pick at #6 + picks #48 & #55 in the 2nd round

At least he laid the foundation for a solid offensive line for Holmes to build off of, so it wasn't all for nothing.

That's perfect. Just enough space to now go and sign Bobby Wagner for 2 years @ $13 million with $8 million guaranteed up front for the first year.

Matt Dery had Lions Beat Writer Justin Rogers on his Locked On Lions podcast today. Rogers threw in his opinion of the Jalen Carter to the Lions situation. He said he got the vibe from talking to people at the combine and based on Carter's terrible Pro Day that the Lions would pass on drafting Carter. He thinks Carter is not a character fit for what this team is trying to build from a culture standpoint and feels his work ethic isn't up to par for what they are looking for.

Could be Chark? Could be Charlie Batch? Maybe Scott Mitchell?

I think Dorian Thompson-Robinson from UCLA is a really intriguing prospect. He's fast and athletic but not a particularly strong arm. No idea if he can make all the throws and full read through progressions.

If trading down isn't an option I am probably taking Tyree Wilson, the Edge from Texas Tech. I'd also be ok with the Lions taking anyone of Christian Gonzalez, Devon Witherspoon, Quentin Johnston there. I wouldn't take Peter Skoronski this high, but if they did so I would understand the logic behind it and wanting to continue to have the very best OL in football.

Two of the top ten Tight Ends in the NFL were first round picks. One of them was just traded and didn't even complete his full rookie contract with the team. Stop drafting first round Tight Ends!!!!! Travis Kelce - 3rd Round George Kittle - 5th Round Darren Waller - 6th Round Mark Andrews - 3rd Round Kyle Pitts - 1st Round Dallas Goedert - 2nd Round Dalton Shultz - 4th Round TJ Hockenson - 1st Round Hunter Henry - 2nd Round Dawson Knox - 3rd Round

My first Lions memory was the 1993 Lions team I think. I might have some vague memories of the 1992 team and Barry Sanders, but the 93 season was what I can really remember earliest. I remember the three headed monster at QB of Rodney Peete, Eric Kramer, and Andre Ware. I remember Barry running all over Tampa Bay at the Silverdome that year with nearly 200 yards rushing I think. I somewhat remember the actual in-game play of Farve to Sterling Sharpe wide open in the end zone in the playoffs and Chris Berman on NFL Primetime calling the play too.

Dak sucks in the playoffs. I know Dallas beat us last year and we look pathetic against them. But the team that lost to Dallas and this one are world's apart. We'd be Dallas if we played them at the season's end. If you gave me the choice to build my offense around Dak or Goff I'd pick Goff, assuming we get the Goff of last season.

I think we are lacking game wreckers and playmakers at a few different positions beyond LB. You can't expect to have game wreckers and playmakers at every single position, but there are two important ones I still think they need. At DT they need either someone who can give them an interior pass rush and disrupt the QB from the inside like you'd get from a Suh or Javon Hargrave type player or an elite run stopper who can really plug the run. I like what they have with Cominsky, Buggs, and to a point McNeill. But I still feel they need another top-tier player at DT to fill one or both of those roles. They have some nice pieces at DT to round out the position for secondary starters and depth, but the Carolina game last year really exposed how weak they are against the run and up the middle. The other area I think they have a need for a true playmaker is CB. I like Cam Sutton a lot and think he was a great signing. I still feel though that we could go out and find ourselves a true 1A, lockdown CB. Sutton's never had more than 3 INTs or 52 tackles in a season. I'm not saying we need Sauce Gardner out there because guys like him are unicorns. But having a top 10-15 CB in the league would be real nice to have if we gotta go up against Pat Mahomes or Joe Burrow in the Super Bowl.

If not in the first round then sure. But you cannot take a first round TE. Michael Mayer cannot be on their draft board.

Zach Bryan is such a great songwriter and singer. Love his song Shivers Down Spines.

I feel good about it. CGJ had a 65 PFF grade last year but was effective and good enough to be the starter on a Super Bowl team with a really good defense.

I would imagine then if we want Chark it becomes a bidding war that we probably aren't out to win.

There is almost no backup in the league who could come in and carry this team onward to a deep playoff run. What San Francisco did with Brocky Purdy was an anomaly. Most backups can and should be counted on only for a game or two. If Goff goes down our season goes with it likely. How many teams survive a season ending injury to their starting QB and end up winning a playoff game, let alone in them? I do agree though that we need to get a better backup and having an Andy Dalton or Teddy Bridgewater on the roster would be nice. I don't know who we could conceivably get at this point though.

One of the most disgusting things in the 21st Century has been how George W. Bush has been able to rehabilitate him image post Iraq War and post Trump Presidency. This week marks the 20th Anniversary since George W. Bush unlawfully and immorally invaded Iraq. He chose to invade a country based off of false pretenses and doctored, if not outright fabricated, intelligence reports. George W. Bush sold lies to the American people that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi Military had weapons of mass destruction and were actively engaged in a chemical and biological weapons program. That was a lie, Saddam had no active WMDs or an active program to build more. Bush told the American people that Saddam was trying to acquire yellowcake uranium from Niger to build a nuclear weapons program. That was a lie. Saddam was never developing a nuclear weapons program and was not in connection with the government or any entity in Niger trying to acquire yellowcake uranium. Bush told the American people that Saddam was connected to 9/11 and Al Qaeda in some loose form or fashion. That Saddam was harboring terrorists in Iraq pre and post 9/11. That was a lie. Saddam had no connections to Al Qaeda and was not harboring terrorists from that organization. Bush told the American people that the Iraqi people would throw white roses at our feet and greet us as the great liberators from tyranny and oppression. That was a lie. In-fact, the exact opposite happened and they say us as invaders in their country, illegally and immorally occupying it. The Iraq War made people Iraqi people and those in Arab states hate the United States even more. Bush told the American people that we'd be in and out, done in a matter of months. He sold to us a war that would be over as soon as it started and we'd turn Iraq into a free, functioning, democratic government and nation almost overnight. That was a lie. The war in fact drug on for years and the death toll climbed and climbed from American Servicemembers to Iraqi Civilians. Shock and awe turned into occupy and control. The Iraqi people did not look at us as heroes, bringing them democracy. What we got in Iraq was not what George W. Bush promised us. What we had instead was a horrific tragedy, on one of the largest scales of the 21st century. We had over 4,000 flag draped coffins, with American Service Members whose lives were tragically cut short. Soldiers and Military Members would never come home to their families, lost to the horror of a needless war forever. We had the loss of over 100,000 Iraqi Civilians and the disruption of a people's entire way of living, thrown into chaos and mass violence. 100,000 Iraqi Civilians who might still be alive today had we not invaded. Children who might have gotten to grow old. Parents who never lost a child or a child who never lost a parent. Entire families, friendships, and villages torn apart in a matter of days, months, and years. We had the destabilization of an entire region thanks to the upheaval caused by the ousting of Saddam Hussein's regime, with no clear, working plan in place to have a functioning government after his removal from power. A region taken over not by a wave of freedom and democracy as the Bush Administration had promised. Rather, a region held hostage by terror, paralyzed in fear, reduced to rubble, with people left broken, impoverished, homeless, and starving. Entire countries destabilized, allowing the rise of violent extremist and terrorist organizations like ISIS. I'm posting about Iraq as a solemn reminder of the horrors and barbarism of war. I'm posting it as a reminder so that we learn from our mistakes of the past, think more critically in the future, and not fall for the same drumbeat off to war as we did in Iraq. I'm posting as a reminder that individuals like George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Richard Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Bremmer, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and many others who served as the masterminds behind the war effort be held to account. A reminder that there were those who distorted the intelligence reports and insisted Saddam Hussein and Iraq were a grave threat to America, but were too cowardly themselves pick up a rifle, sit in a tank, or fly a mission and fight the battle. A reminder that President Bush is a war criminal, not an American hero. To all those family members and friends who lost a service member they loved in the War in Iraq I am so deeply sorry for what happened to them and to you. No amount of I'm sorries can overcome your anguish or bring them back. The tragedy of Iraq provides us all with a great opportunity to learn to think critically about the nature and brutal destruction of war. It lends us the opportunity to be critical of those in power who seek to rush us off to war. God bless all who served and sacrificed their lives and each of their families. God bless all the Iraqi Civilians who were lost to this war.

Regarding David, I would have been willing to overpay on a two year deal if it meant we were getting the better player of the two, which I feel we would be for at least a season. I would have offered a deal that was heavy in up front, guaranteed money for year one and then less on the back end. I would go 2 years @ $14 million with $10 million guaranteed and an incentive laden $4 million for year two if he both performs well and wants to return for a second stint. If he was willing to bite on a deal like that it would allow us to draft a Trenton Simpson, Jack Campbell, whomever and have him sit behind David for a year. Same kind of deal for Wagner too probably. I'm just playing Madden GM there though and that's easy to do. I'd like to think we are getting the Anzalone from the last 6 or 7 games (minus Carolina) of last season. As you said though, his career sample size doesn't dictate that. Hopefully Holmes and Campbell bet correct on their own guy here.

I hope this doesn't preclude us from drafting Jake Moody.

I wouldn't expect anything to leak on Holmes' end, but a players agent could leak something out to an Adam Schefter, Ian Rappaport, Dave Birkett after the fact. I doubt we'll hear much, if anything, about whether or not the Lions were in on David or Wagner.

Sorry, I missed the not part in my post. Maybe the upgrade comes in the form of a draft pick who eventually out players Anzalone. I sorta think the book is out on Anzalone himself, but maybe he just outperforms expectations as well.

If a report comes out that he tried going after David or Wagner then great. I suspect that they wanted their own guy back in Anzalone all along, but of course don't know for certain.

When you see what a better player like Lavonte David signed for in Tampa Bay it makes this deal that much harder to accept. I trust Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell on the whole and like what they are doing, but as Buddha said earlier, they are infallible people. I just can't help but wonder if we could have gotten one of David or Bobby Wagner at that price.

I've been dismissive of the Lions drafting a WR or OL with their first pick in the first round, whether at #6 or if they trade back. But maybe I shouldn't be. Is there a realistic chance that Brad Holmes has either Quentin Johnson or Peter Skoronski rated highly enough on the Lions draft board that he would pick one of them at #6 or with a trade down to a few spots lower? I originally would have dismissed this idea entirely. However, there are a few not very scientific things that make feel this isn't entirely a stretch. I do feel their draft board has changed with the recent Jalen Carter news and I think he has fallen down or completely off their board, opening up a spot for someone to rise up. They haven't resigned DJ Chark yet and clearly still need an outside, big-bodied, contested catch WR and Quentin Johnson fits that role perfectly given his height and style of play. As well, Brad Holmes has clearly shown he loves building in the trenches and dominating up front. It seems he feels the key to success is to have a dominate offensive line and Skoronski could become their long term starter to replace Vaitai or slide over eventually and replace Decker at Guard. Should we be giving more credence to either one of these two at #6 or if they trade back a few spots?

WOW, $42 million for Slay with $23 million in guaranteed money. A bit surprised at 32 years old that he's getting that.