NYLion

A work in progress but I expect that offense to translate big time. Apparently the Thompson twins are good/athletic defenders but they play a bunch of nobodies so it's all projection with those two and neither shoot that well against...again... nobodies. Whitmore looks like a bouncier Saddiq Bey to me, not overly impressed with him. Miller has the highest floor of all these 2nd tier guys, at the very least you get a 6'9 guy who can shoot at an elite level. If he develops his handle more, he's a perennial All Star IMO even if the defense doesn't come around.

The thing is, Goff is right smack dab in the middle of his prime so he could have another 5 high level years easy so if Goff is your starter leading you to the playoffs regularly for the next 2-3 years and Richardson never gets off the bench outside of mop up duty or the occasional meaningless game like Love, how much value does he have when you realize, again, that Goff is your guy and Richardson needs a fresh start elsewhere? You're certainly not trading a 28-30 year old Goff if he's leading a perennial playoff contender. Also, in the interim during a winning window, you're getting nothing from your 1st round pick whereas you'd potentially be missing out on an impact player with that pick you wasted on Richardson like a defensive fix or a franchise RB in Robinson if they choose to go that route. I guess an alternate take would be if you're not buying in on Goff and see Richardson as a guy that can supplant him either next season or the one after if he falters. I think this regime is fully buying in on Goff. Drafting a QB with either 1st would contradict that so I don't see it happening regardless.

Is it great trade bait? How much value do you think Lance or Love have right now? A lot less than it was on draft day, I'll say that much. If you have a QB sitting behind your starter for a few years, it's a depreciating asset. If you're taking a QB in Round 1 that means you don't believe in your current QB to be the answer for much longer, I don't think that's the case here. Favre was old when Rodgers was drafted, Smith was older and fairly average when Mahomes was drafted, Garrapolo was average when Lance was drafted etc. so I don't see those situations as the same of this one with Goff who was a borderline top 5 QB this season.

Most NFL regimes don't have 3 years to assess their backup QB. I'm all for drafting for upside down the road but not in the 1st round when they are closer to winning than originally planned. This thing is being built around Goff so lets get players that can contribute next season and beyond, not 3 years down the road. Take a swing on a QB in the 3rd like the Titans did with Willis or the Falcons with Ridder etc. if you want to take a shot at upside.

That's an extreme outlier. And even if you want to draw that parallel to drafting Richardson, you're willing to burn a 1st on a player who might be a starter in 4 years? Hell, this regime might not even last 4 more years for all we know.

When you're using significant draft capital to draft a QB, you're drafting him to be a starter sooner than later. Otherwise, what's the point? We see how well that's worked out for Green Bay and yes, I'm aware that Goff isn't Rodgers but that's besides the point. Hasn't worked for the Niners thus far. You say that backup QB is one of their biggest needs. Well, I disagree. I think backup QB is largely irrelevant in the NFL. Any starter goes down for a significant period of time and it's curtains for just about everybody except for a team like San Francisco that depends on their QB arguably less than any other team in the league. Oh and btw, their current QB was drafted late. Furthermore, Richardson isn't winning games for the Lions next season most likely so he doesn't fill an immediate need either. He's being drafted as a Goff replacement if he's taken high in the draft.

Brandon Miller. I liked him the moment I watched him in pre-conference play and he's grown on me more and more with every game. He's been shredding SEC competition vastly improving his inside the arc efficiency while still destroying it from deep. 6'9", nice length, not plus plus athleticism but he moves smoothly kind of like a less athletic Paul George. I know a lot of Pistons fans probably prefer an uber athletic guy like one of the Thompson twins but Miller's game seems a lot more advanced than them and he's a deadly 3 point shooter which is vital to have in todays' NBA. He's my #3 right now, fluid situation and all.

I saw somebody on another forum comparing him and Geno Smith in the sense that neither will get respect for their breakout season because of past perception. Uhh, one major difference. Geno was a complete bust until last season while Goff went to a Superbowl and was a two time pro bowler. People seem to conveniently forget that. I know you've touched on this before but Goff is much more on a Stafford trajectory than a Smith trajectory careerwise. Apples and Oranges comparison. There's no guarantees going forward so maybe Goff will regress to what he was in his late Rams tenure but how can anyone not give him the respect he deserves based on what he's done here thus far. He has something like 40 TDs and 9 INTs since Lynn was let go (with periods of a heavily injured receiving core to throw to) and was nearly flawless during the Lions 8-2 run to close this season. What more could you want from him really.

They see something special being built here and want to be a part of it. I know most Lions fans have PTSD from the past and I get it but football people actually want to be here now, get used to it. I also think Sheila probably gave him quite a bag to convince him to stay. Probably wishful thinking but I wonder if their own free agents will take a bit of a discount to stay. I see Williams and Cominsky as possible candidates to take a bit of a paycut to be a part of this.

The Lions have their starter. Goff has proven over the last season and a half (ever since Lynn was turfed) that he's still a legit starting QB in this league. If you want to draft a developmental QB that could supplant him in 3-4 years perhaps then take one in the later rounds but Goff is their guy for the foreseeable future. How could he not be?

He deserves some leeway when you're talking about when a QB as highly touted as he was goes 7-2 down the stretch with 15 TDs and 2 INTs under a real coach now (I don't even think the season with Urban should count). I think he'll start to take off from here, too much talent and drive to not to.

You don't need to draft a developmental QB in the 1st round who will be a backup for the next few years. Perhaps if Goff had an uneven performance this season and the Lions were further behind in the rebuild. Now that they are closer to "win now", you want to draft potential starters with the high picks and take the project QB later in the draft.

It's a full scale rebuild and, really, only the last 2 years have been full scale. They traded Rose and bought out Griffin 3 years ago. I know it feels longer but only the last two years have been Weaver's full teardown roster. With a healthy Cade, I could guarantee that they would have progressed beyond .280.

I don't think Weaver is doing a bad job, it's a rebuild with a roster full of young players and a few supporting vets sprinkled in. Did you want him to make more "win now" moves? The biggest difference between OKC/Orlando and Detroit right now is that their stars are playing and in OKC's case their star has turned into a superstar, the Pistons star isn't playing. I don't know how many wins a healthy Cade would add (and lets be honest, he was clearly "not right" even when he played this season) but if he kept progressing, I bet they would have been where Orlando is now. In any event, if they aren't ready to take a step forward next season with a healthy Cade, with another top prospect in the fold, another year of experience for all the young guys and presumably some additions with their truck load of cap space then that points to a much bigger problem with the entire regime, Weaver and whoever the coach is.

There are sellers every year in the NHL, no less so than the NBA. You don't have load management in the NHL because NHL players are wired differently than NBA players (namely they'll play through anything, most of them at least) but there are teams built specifically to tank, look at Arizona and Chicago this year.

I don't think lots of wins was an expectation but, ideally, you want to see development, some improvement, a team that's developing an identity and this is a team that generally looks clueless on the defensive end and stagnant on the offensive end. At least some of that falls on coaching. Let me ask you then, did you expect them to make a big jump in the standings this season especially with Cade out? Do you think that Casey is the right coach to take them to the next level? I don't think Casey should be fired now but I do think they need to move on from him when they're more serious about winning which should be starting next season. If they don't make some significant improvements in the standings next season then Weaver should be on the hot seat.

They're missing their best player pretty much the entire season and this was a rebuild year even with Cade. This is really only the 2nd full year of the rebuild which I'm sure was given the ok from upstairs. I doubt Weaver is even remotely close to the hot seat. Casey, on the other hand....

There's no point in tanking in the NBA either. All this tanking for Victor yet you only have a 14% chance of landing him if you finish bottom 3 and the odds are smoothed out after that. You take out the lottery especially in a draft like this in the NHL and NBA with generational talents as the prize and it would be a complete shitshow of positioning to land these guys. I'd agree that a generational prospect changes the trajectory of a team in the NBA more than the NHL (as an Edmonton Oilers fan, I sadly know this all too well) but tanking teams would be stepping on the neck of their fellow tankers like we've never seen before for Bedard if there was no lottery.

Those road stats are deceiving. Once the team got healthy and went on a roll, he had 5 TDs and 0 INTs in his last 5 road games including many big throws in clutch moments, in the cold btw. The stats are skewed by the Patriots and Cowboys games when the team was in a bad place and was ravaged by injury at the skilled positions.

That's a good question. Holmes tends to look for two things in a player, elite athletic profile and culture fits (kneecap biters and such). I'm starting to think a trade down is possible. Think about it, there doesn't appear to be any standouts at the top of the draft outside of Anderson and Carter, and I'm not sure if these guys are good as they been billed to be, so there's motivation to trade out unless they REALLY like a guy, plus the Raiders and Panthers (QB needy teams) are directly behind them so assuming that Young and Stroud are gone and with this being a top 3 QB then drop off draft and only one of those top 3 left, you'd think that the Panthers or some other QB needy team would be motivated to jump the Raiders. I think there's a better chance of a trade down in this draft than the Okudah draft for two reasons. There were 2 QBs to choose from in that draft (Tua and Herbert) as opposed to one in this draft so the Dolphins had their pick of the two and the Chargers take the other one plus Tua had serious health concerns while I could see Levis being one of those guys because he's a physical freak that would kill it at the combine and raise his stock. Just some food for thought. I doubt it happens but I think it presents an interesting option for Holmes if he's not in love with any of the players at 6. Nice to have these options when you just came off of a breakthrough season and have tons of draft capital to play with.

If there's any pattern with Holmes, it's expected the unexpected and one of the things to not expect is for him to draft for need. He seems to shoot for guys with high ceilings, elite level athletes. I don't see him shoehorning himself into taking a DT or CB simply because it's a big need. If he sees a receiver he really likes, I could see him taking one in the 1st round, same with running back, offensive tackle, maybe even QB (Richardson?). Elite athletic traits, that seems to be what Holmes thirsts for.

Walker might not return until late next season and next season could be a write off of (similar to what happened with Okwara) so I wouldn't be counting on Walker to be 100% even when he returns. Chark is a #2 and was key in the Lions resurgence down the stretch. I don't think he's irreplaceable but I think he's an important re-sign if the Lions have designs on contending. Maybe Jamo is ready to take on Chark's role and they can bring in a cheaper guy to eat up some receptions but Chark is a key player because of his ability to stretch the field and catch 50/50 balls. Cominsky is a must re-sign, the difference when he was out was very noticeable and his pressure rate is high end. Buggs as well, played a big part in their improved run defense (Carolina game notwithstanding).

I don't put much stock into what next years schedule looks like right now. Remember when everybody said this schedule was easy and it turned out to one of the toughest in the league. If Rodgers and Brady move on, it becomes more manageable.

The Lions have their QB. I'm wondering what the Lions will do with their own free agents... Williams, Chark, Cominsky, Buggs, Anzalone, Eliot. All those were key players on this team and I doubt they'll be able to re-sign all of them so some tough decisions to make this offseason. There's also 4 potential cuts that they'll need to make to free up cap space. Brockers for sure, probably Harris too then Okwara and Big V.

Goff played well in the clutch moments which I place a lot of value on and, AGAIN, didn't turn it over. It's tough to play against good defenses in the cold on the road and he handled it well I thought, answered a lot of questions. With that said, I wouldn't mind take a late round flier on a developmental QB but there should be no question that Goff is the guy for the next couple of years at least.