Mr.TaterSalad

IF we did trade for Tee Higgins he's going to want #1 Receiver money and at least 4 years, no? I would guess something like 4 years $70 million with $55-$60 million guaranteed. Too low, too high for Higgins? We would instantly have the best receiving corps in the league assuming Williams hits his potential and Higgins is as good as advertised without Burrow as his QB. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't some appeal to a Higgins/St.Brown/Williams wideout group. Given that we're playing in an NFC that's got teams that are weak on offense and given that we are a dome team, we could really run up the score with a set of offensive weapons like those three. Who could opposing defenses double cover? What offenses in the NFC sans the Eagles could keep up with us in a first to 30-35 track meet type of a game?

I finally watched the Elvis biopic with Tom Hanks and Austin Butler and it was not good. The directing and film making were what bothered me most. In particular, the editing, and constant scene cutting was annoying and not enjoyable to watch. I think Tom Hanks was surprisingly disappointing as Colonel Parker as well. I thought his acting was campy and hokey. I wanted this to be a standard biopic format from childhood through the end of his life, giving us the timeline of his life and career. I felt with all the constant scene cutting and jumping we didn't get that. Walk the Line and Straight Out of Compton did the music biopics right. I might be in the minority on this, but I was hoping for an Elvis version of Walk the Line. Replace Johnny Cash's life and backstory with Elvis but follow the same template, editing, and directing style.

Not all trade ups are created equal. I believe it was reported that Holmes wanted to possibly move up to get Chase (maybe Sewell too, but I remember it being discussions around Chase). As well, he allegedly had to be talked out of moving up to get Levi. Trading up for Levi would be proof that not all trade ups are created equal nor good for the franchise, even if the GM has an otherwise solid drafting track record.

Believe you me, if Michael Mayer is the Lions pick at #6 like some random football analyst on Twitter mocked a month or so ago, we can have that fire everyone conversation again lol

That is great to see that people actually would want the guys we drafted. That is a positive indictment on Holmes and the front office he assembled. Did the redraft happen to say where Josh Paschal would have went?

I think Holmes may well have have taken anyone of Ed Oliver, Brian Burns or Montez Sweat. Clearly Oliver hasn't lived up to the hype, but I think Burns or Sweat lined up with Hutch on this defense would have been a plus for us.

The boy from Scranton, Working Class Joe, siding with big rail corporations over working people and local communities. The Biden Administration is about to side with Norfolk Southern over working people and communities who are victims of rail disasters and over employees who worked for a rail corporation.

Does everyone here watch the 90s-themed police drama Tokyo Vice on HBO Max?

Chad Reuter in NFL.com has us taking CB Christian Gonzalez at #6 and TE Michael Mayer at #18 in his latest mock draft. If that were to happen who would you all like as far as new GM candidates because I'd be looking for one if Brad Holmes went CB-TE in the first round.

RIP Raquel Welch. She was a real menace.

Yeah sure, they should have taken Cam Jordan in hindsight over Nick Fairly. I'd probably also have taken Jordan over Peterson. But Peterson is no slouch, he is a multi-time All Pro corner. At the time too, CB was a huge need going into the 2011 offseason for the Lions, just like it is today.

I wanted him so bad in the 2011 draft and so did then-GM Martin Mayhew per reports. I went to war with people on the old board at the end of the 2010-2011 season over the late winning streak the Lions went on to close out the season. I was all in for the tank once Stafford went down. I remember arguing that it was meaningless to win these games because Matt Stafford wasn't even starting at QB, it was Shaun Hill, and it wasn't as if the offensive players were gelling with Stafford. I didn't think any momentum would translate over because Hill was starting at QB and not Stafford. I also thought it would do more harm than good to win those games because we would miss out on drafting Peterson and we needed a CB something awful at the time. I thought Peterson would be one of the best corners in the league, if not the very best. In the end, we didn't tank and missed out on Peterson and drafted Nick Fairly instead. We also ended up having a solid 2011 regular season with Stafford staying healthy all year and the team going 10-6. Of course we then got bombed out in the playoffs by New Orleans because our defense was garbage. In the end it's water under the bridge. I'd be lying one two accounts. One, if I said I was upset that we drafted Nick Fairly. I was not, I actually liked that pick at the time. Two, if I said I didn't feel that losing those games and having Peterson on this team for the next decade over Nick Fairly (who didn't make his second contract) wouldn't have made a difference. I think it would have.

Would signing Patrick Peterson to a 1 year deal be worth it to anyone? Peterson did have 66 tackles and 5 INTs last year even at the tender age of 32.

Even with Comerica Park the Ilitches could have opted to renovate Tiger Stadium instead and kept it going similar to the Red Sox with Fenway or Cubs with Wrigley.

How many of the top RBs, say 10-15, were drafted in the 1st round? Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffery, Jerry Jacobs, who else? I'm not completely opposed to drafting Bijan at #18 or if a trade back from #18 happens if the organization believes he will be a transformational piece to this offense. I probably wouldn't do it given that you can find good RBs all over the draft and the positional value is lower, but I'm not dead set against it. Look at the team that just won the Super Bowl though, their 1st round RB was nowhere to be found and their 7th round RB Isiah Pacheco was the starter.

If we're in the playoff chase (we are now, aren't we?) do you keep Bertuzzi and just hold down the fort?

First off, I know you aren't defending Chris Ilitch or the Ilitch family business practices. 🙂 I understand the District Detroit was not Chris' idea, but daddy's boy will gladly take all the corporate welfare through subsidies and tax abatement he can get. He will also not give back or refund to the taxpayers, in one of the poorest cities in America, those subsidies and abatements Ilitch Family Holdings has already received. He'll also come hat in hand asking for another $616 million in a brownfield redevelopment subsidy to finish the project. I think the city should explore using eminent domain to forcibly take away Ilitch-owned properties.

The Ilitches were doing the parking lot game long before the pandemic. They have been demolishing historic buildings to put up parking lots for decades. They have also been allowing their commercial and/or historic properties to sit vacant for decades and rot away. Compare the Ilitches and Ilitch Family Holdings to Dan Gilbert and Rock. Look at what Dan Gilbert and Rock did with the Campus Martius area and what they are now doing on the Hudson site project. The Ilitches would never turn their properties over that quickly and redevelop them. They certainly wouldn't do it without a huge tax abatement from the state or city. Back in 1994-1995 when the Comerica Park project was first bandied about Mike Ilitch proposed the Foxtown Development. What was Foxtown supposed to be? It was supposed to be an area around the Fox Theater and Comerica Park with apartments/condos/lofts, shopping and dining, office space, museums, and more. And what became of Foxtown? Nothing! Just like the District Detroit today, it was all a scam for the Ilitches to buy land on the cheap, get subsidies to demolish historic buildings, get a stadium built with taxpayer money, and build out none of the rest of the promised development. All the while, taking your taxpayer subsidies to the bank, in one of the poorest cities in America, laughing all the way while you count how much scratch you just made off the suckers. Sound familiar . . .

Karsch and Anderson were talking about this on The Ticket today and I thought I'd ask it here. Pick #6: Do you think it is more likely the Lions trade back, move up, or draft at #6? Pick #18: Do you think it is more likely the Lions trade back, move up, or draft at #18?

LOL! And they were behind schedule on even getting the glass pizza building done.

Detroit News: District Detroit: Inside the Ilitches' land of unfulfilled promises This is what they do. The Ilitches and Ilitch Family Holdings have made a career and lots of money out of operating this way. When they built Comerica Park they promised a Foxtown development, complete with a rendering, just like they did the District Detroit. Guess what happened to that promised Foxtown development, it never came to fruition.

The Ilitches have rehabbed one historic building in 30 years and still brag about the work they did over 35 years ago on The Fox Theater. They promised an entire arena district complete with bars, restaurants, unique shops, lofts/apartments, office space, and more. They have built none of that, sans the arena, in the District Detroit area. They have torn down and raised dozens of buildings to put up surface lots and charge $40+ a day to park there. All the while they got hundreds-of-millions in subsidies from one of the poorest cities in America. That's tricky alright, a tricky way for them to reap the rewards without having to put in any of the promised work from their business proposals and renderings. They are running a scam operation. Parking lots make you a lot of money and it is clear they won't develop anything without the taxpayers either footing the bill or taking care of a large portion of it. That's why they are now going back, hat in hand, asking for an additional $616 million in Brownfield money to start construction on the rest of the neglected District Detroit.

Great renderings of new developments or renovations that never deliver on the final concept are also uniquely Detroit and uniquely Ilitch.

They got hundreds-of-millions in subsidies and tax abatments from one of the poorest cities in America and built less than a quarter of what they promised initially with the District Detroit. It's an arena and then a bunch of parking lots. Next to none of the other retail, commercial, or office space development has even broken ground. They took the subsidies to build the arena and ran away laughing to the bank. Now according to the Detroit News they are coming back asking for another $616 MILLION in Brownfield Redevelopment subsidies for the District Detroit development from one of the poorest cities in America. Fuck them and their parking lots!!!