4hzglory

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

Per the link above,  the Dodgers are expected to owe something like $400M in luxury tax. If there are 15 teams getting equity payments, that $26.6M per team just in luxury tax revenue, just from the Dodger.

 

i read their CBT number would be close to $400 and their tax payment would be $120 mil. 

Ben to the Bears

7 minutes ago, Stanley70 said:

Jamo had already taken and end around for a TD earlier, they probably hoped the DB's would all be worried about that and maybe left a receiver open. He just shouldn't have thrown that up for grabs.

Still not the time or place to put the decision and execution in Jamo’s hands.  Totally unnecessary when they were moving the ball well without trickery.  No reason to be desperate.  

Just now, Stanley70 said:

They still put up over 500 yards of offense, Ben wasn't the problem. With how bad the defense was playing he probably felt they needed to take some chances to keep up.

I don’t think Ben was the problem, but I do think the Jamo pass was a disaster of a decision that ended any realistic chance of comeback.   
 

the decision to pass on 3rd and 1 ended up being wrong, but was defendable.

21 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

That was a stupid play, but if it had worked we'd be marveling at the genius of it.     That was how they got to 15-2, doing crazy stuff like that.   Why change?    It just didn't work this time.     

No, that one would still be stupid.  Down 10 needing to score for any realistic chance, with the weapons the Lions have and they way they were able to move the ball, you don’t have a wr having to make a decision to pass or throw it away.

the end round and Montgomery shovel pass to St Brown are the ways the lions got there,-safe plays with very little risk of disaster-not WR throwing passes down 10 at the end of the 3rd quarter 

1 hour ago, monkeytargets39 said:

Btw….the start of last year had lots and lots of playing time going to folks like Gio Urshela, Carson Kelly, Javy Baez, Matt Manning, Alex Lange, Akil Baddoo, Joey Wentz, Shelby Miller, and Mark Canha.

 

Once all of those players were dealt/injured/released, we started winning.  So I wouldn’t necessarily say that we couldn’t win with the current group we have—most of them just don’t have an established track record.

And a version of Meadows that wasn’t close to the Meadows when he came back up.  (And Tork to an extent).  As well as Greene and Carpenter out for extended time at the same time.

I don’t think we will ever see another comeback like August-September, but hopefully we don’t see performances like April-mid July either.  We finished close to the top end of where I expected going into 2024, (77-85 wins) just took a crazy way to get there.

1 hour ago, buddha said:

So the department of education says title ix applies to NIL.  lol.

so now your nil money has to be equitably distributed between mens and womens sports.  

bwaaaahaahaa.  let the cheating RECOMMENCE!

Isn't it only of the $20.5 mil that the schools were going to be able to allocate themselves?  Still huge, especially for group of 5 schools, but doesn't change anything from the current system does it?

22 minutes ago, RedRamage said:

I think it's also worth pointing out that Darnold did better against the Rams than the Lions:

~80 more yards on one fewer attempts and nearly 20% higher completion percentage. The Rams numbers are not really that far out of line for Darnold over the season. His season average (including the playoff loss) is 254 yards per game with a completion percentage of just barely shy of 66%.

Now, I'm certainly not trying to say that the Lions defense is stellar now because they dominated the Vikings to end the season. We should NOT read too much into that. But I think Darnold is getting too much of the blame for the Rams game. He ABSOLUTELY deserves a good portion of it. But any time an OL is giving up 9 sacks and the RBs only manage 87 yards combined... there's problems there beyond just poor QB play.

 

As far as the 9 sacks, a fair amount of that is on Darnold and O’Connel.  Darnold held on to the ball way too long and O’Connel kept calling slow developing plays even though he saw for 2 weeks Darnold wasn’t processing well.

We’re signing Jose Ramirez!

53. Jose Ramirez, C/OF, Venezuela (Tigers)
Athletic enough for catcher and cf.  high baseball IQ, good swing decisions, uses whole field.

And these are ranked by projected signing bonus.  So Rodriguez is projected to sign for the 4th most $

61. Carlos Benavides, C, Venezuela

advanced catch-and-throw skills for his age. …..Benavides is a righthanded hitter with a line-drive approach and doubles power. 

28 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

Come on Harris, swoop in there and steal Sasaki.

Rangers, Diamondbacks, Mets, Yankees, SF are out.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/01/roki-sasaki-reportedly-informs-yankees-they-are-out-of-running.html

Or swoop in and sign some of the Dodgers or Padres International FA's like the Pirates did.

Then you get the Packers fumbling the opening kickoff.

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

I guess my dislike of deferring is because of the SOL days. The games they would defer, they would be down by multiple scores by halftime. It didn't matter if they got the ball 1st in the 2nd half if they were down by 28 points. And yes, I have said if you have a great defense, go ahead and defer. But with this Lions offense? I want the ball, score and play with a lead. At least get a few 1st downs and pin the other team deep with a great punt. And I'll always say, it's giving away a possession. Give up a score and you're playing from behind before you even get the ball. And just like this Bills-Broncos game, Buffalo didn't get the ball to end the 1st half, Denver got it. And drove into FG range (but missed it.) 

I did some looking at this season’s drives for the Lions

1st drive of game:

TD on 6

FG on 2

INT on 2 -1 play and 5 plays

6 punts: 4-3 and outs, 1-6 play snd 1-7 play drive

1 drive ended on downs after 4 plays:Fake punt after MN

So scored on 8 drives, 6 drives without a first down

2nd half first drives

TD on 8

FG on 1

Int on 3 drives: 1, 2, and 3 play drives 

1-11 play drive ending on downs

4 punts:  2-4 and outs, 1-5 play and 1 6 play drive

so scored on 9 drives, 1-11 play drive ending on downs, 5 drives without a first down.

2 extra TD’s in 2nd half, another long drive, but also an extra int

47 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

Buffalo defers and gives up a TD. But that's OK, they have a 10% chance of getting the ball back at the end of the 2nd quarter, with under a minute left. There's only so many possessions in a game, just give one away? I can't understand that logic....it's illogical. 😆

Well in the CFP, both Ohio State and ND had scores at the end of the half and got the ball back to start the 2nd.  ND scored again, Ohio State didn’t.

The “middle 8” has been key to ND this postseason.  
 

I don’t see it as losing a possession at all-is it possible to end up 1 possession less?  Sure.  It’s also possible to end up with 1 more possession.  To me it’s more about are you more confident in your pregame preparation or your halftime adjustments.  Are you more confident in your offense at the start of the game or the 2nd half?  I wonder what the stats are of teams scoring on their first possession of the game vs 1st possession of the 2nd half?

53 minutes ago, buddha said:

texas deserved that loss.  pin it right on sark's head for trying to get cute on the goaline.  running wide on second down killed them.  RUN IT STRONG.  

michigan spends 4 (really 3) years showing you how to beat ohio state and still everyone wants to drop back 30 times a game.

we'll see if notre dame has figured it out.  probably not considering how they played against similarly weak penn state.  run the damn ball.  and tell ryan day his team is too soft to beat you.

i hate osu (and notre dame) but back to back big ten champs would be cool.  

While I do agree to an extent, Michigan is so in Day’s head (and thus the whole team is tight-  see 2 missed field goals, picks, etc) I don’t think the results are necessarily the same against any other team. I say this as someone who’s been a lifelong Buckeye fan who is going to be rooting for the upset as the only team I’ve come to root for more is ND (since my son is a graduate and his fiancé graduates this year)

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I don’t think so either. He’s not emblematic of the direction this team is forging. I just threw out a possibility of a single year of JV not to trigger fan endorphins, but to possibly eat innings for a year for relative cheap. It’s the kind of long shot we might have taken had he been still available after camp were to break.

I don’t think we’re seriously into either Bregman and Santander, either. I doubt we are in the market to forfeit our second pick (plus our third pick if we sign both) and half a million international bucks. I’m thinking based on the direction they’ve been going, one more draft will be considered crucial by them to firm up the firmament. 

I believe we actually would forfeit our 3rd pick (2nd round) and would not lose international money as we receive revenue sharing.

10 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Ohio State, Penn State, Texas and Notre Dame?     Yuck.    I'm out 

As someone who grew up a Buckeye and has a son who is a ND grad, this is getting quite interesting.

38 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Not if the idea is to get less left-handed. He did have some decent MiLB contact numbers though - better than Torkelson's ever were.

I'm waiting for some sense to emerge from this off-season, so far I don't see it. Keith looks like he could turn into a good OBP hitter, but he's not shown any power yet, so moving him to 1st seems like a misfit - or at least premature. I'm pretty luke-warm about Torres unless he was willing to move to a corner and supposedly he is not. Baty would just be more confusion.

I know you sort of have to take hitters where you can find them, but pretty recently we've also seen the futility of rosters full of big bats who don't add up to an good baseball team so you don't want to end up there again either.

Keith has shown power in the minors though, so I think they believe it's there.

1 hour ago, RandyMarsh said:

To be fair I don't think Michigan beat THIS OSU team, I think it did create it though. 

This is honestly the type of team I was expecting to see all season when you looked at their roster. It took us embarrassing them for it to come out. 

Michigan is just so into Day’s head.  He coaches completely different against them than everyone else.  

26 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I didn't say he would need an escape clause to go to Detroit but not to Boston. I said only that if he agrees to Detroit, he’ll do so only if he has an escape clause.

For someone who is looking to sign his last big contract and isn't going to be a Hall of Famer, does it matter to them what counting stats they put up?  Or is total $ and fit/chance of winning more important?  Meaning, if a number of Bregman's home runs become doubles in Detroit and his slugging drops but OBP rises, does that really matter that much to him if he's looking for a 7 year deal to take him to age 37?  If he can only get a 4-5 year deal I get it, but if Detroit would match the Adames deal which added 1 year at the same rate Houston offered, He isn't likely to get another big deal after that one anyway.

11 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

The coaches he has aren't doing him any favors. It's hard to evaluate the kid with bosses who are idiots. I say he'll be a fine QB if the Bears get somebody who knows what they're doing.

Maybe.  There are a lot of players with elite skill who never really make it, especially QB’s.  He will definitely get many chances because of his undoubtedly extremely rare skill level (maybe costing many coaches their jobs along the way)

i have been concerned drafting him.

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Agreed. Most young players go thru growing pains. Williams will be a very good QB if coached up properly. And more quality OL.

Maybe, but he doesn't seem to have any real football awareness.  Reports are didn't even know they only needed a field goal to tie on Thanksgiving Day.  Many of the sacks he's taken show no awareness.  He has elite skills which have always gotten him by, but does he have the head to be more than a talented athlete?

12 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

Walker costs us our second rounder. Our third pick. Even if it was our second pick, the competitive balance pick cannot be forfeited unless it is acquired via trade.

Thank you for the correction.  That’s is considerably better especially drafting in the position we do.

55 minutes ago, KL2 said:

Fits does not make a great free agent class. 

Walker, a 2.6 WAR player last year and total of 15 over 10 years. Never an all-star. Heaney was an under 1 war player, who has been 8.6 war player over 11 years. 

My point was on illitch and spending. WHile these are decent 'fits' its silly to get mad on whether illitch spends or not based on these players. If Walker gets 200 million thats gonna be a terrible contract. I'd rather us not sign that deal just so Chris can prove he spends. It's a crap free agent class with little other than fill in guys. 

And Walker costs us our Competitive Balance pick which is the 2nd competitive balance pick and I believe will be pick #31 based on what Edman said with the Mets, Yankees and Dodgers dropping 10 spots and the 2 picks for players winning awards.

17 minutes ago, NYLion said:

Just gotta keep winning. Can't depend on others for help.

Actually, I believe they can still afford to lose to Buffalo (AFC loss) and still control their destiny for the 1 seed.

According to everything I’ve read, the Lions have all the tiebreakers, so they can go 3-1 and lose any and still have the #1 seed.

13 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Why did someone find that funny?    I think this is a good call actually.   I think it's a bit low.  7/200 maybe.  But a lot of people are saying Giants for him.  

Because it was already done.