2026 Detroit Lions Offseason Thread

[Jason_R]

McDaniel is too weird. I can’t imagine he will get another HC job soon, if ever. But he could ride the mad offensive scientist wave for a while. 

Stefanski will get another shot because he almost made the Browns respectable despite a ridiculous amount of mismanagement. 

[Shinzaki]

Signing C Seth McLaughlin to a futures contract could turn out to be a sneaky smart move

[Sports_Freak]

4 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

Jameson Williams is Tykreek Hill, St Brown is Waddle, Gibbs is Achane, Goff is a much better version of Tua, and then add some pieces like Laporta, Montgomery and a possible emergence of Teslaa and he could make hay. 

Is he considered a very good offensive coach? I didnt know that. I have heard speculation that the Lion OC job is very desirable because of all of our talent. The Lions should have their pick of the very best coaches...

[Sports_Freak]

3 hours ago, Jason_R said:

McDaniel is too weird. I can’t imagine he will get another HC job soon, if ever. But he could ride the mad offensive scientist wave for a while. 

Stefanski will get another shot because he almost made the Browns respectable despite a ridiculous amount of mismanagement. 

Serial killer vibes...😆😆

[sagnam]

12 hours ago, Shinzaki said:

I wish the Lions had drafted Fannin...I like Teslaa...but Fannin is a dude as a TE/H back.  

They wouldn’t have played him much and you wouldn’t be as impressed. Gotta get snaps for Zylstra. 

[sagnam]

7 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Serial killer vibes...😆😆

He’s got addiction issues. He just replaced alcohol with South Beach fashion.

[Motown Bombers]

6 hours ago, sagnam said:

They wouldn’t have played him much and you wouldn’t be as impressed. Gotta get snaps for Zylstra. 

Well no, he would have been behind Laporta. 

[sagnam]

There was a time that Kennedy was getting snaps over TeSlaa.

[Motown Bombers]

There isn’t a single week where Kennedy got more snaps than Teslaa. The only time Kennedy got more than five snaps in a game was when St Brown went out early with an injury and Raymond was injured. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

 

Does "same approach as last year" at the Edge position mean Marcus Davenport is back again? Because that was their approach last season. As for the "position wasn't ignored in the draft it just didn't come together" comment about Edge, I guess a guy they like didn't fall to them and so they didn't make a pick. To some fans, they will see not drafting one as ignoring it or at least inactivity.

Remember, they could have drafted Mike Green, but chose not to draft him. Now Green didn't light the world on fire as a rookie, but he was touted as one of the best pure pass rushers coming into the draft. I certainly recognize though that Mike Green doesn't check the culture fit box for the organization and was never likely an option given the sexual assault allegations in his past.

[Motor City Sonics]

I am getting pretty annoyed at all the heat on Holmes.  He built something amazing very quickly here.   Had a step-back year.  It happens.   You don't throw out a GM like that because of a mulligan.     The 15-2 season almost everything broke their way.  The 9-8 season almost everything different.     It really came down to the O-Line losing it's anchor in the middle and having an LT put together with duct tape and a bunch of guys who were pretty green.   It's fixable.   A 4th place schedule won't hurt either.   Everyone need to chill the **** out.  

[Motown Bombers]

It’s funny because their top edges combined for 26 sacks and everyone wanted Hendrickson which would’ve been a disaster. 

[MichiganCardinal]

1 hour ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

 

Does "same approach as last year" at the Edge position mean Marcus Davenport is back again? Because that was their approach last season. As for the "position wasn't ignored in the draft it just didn't come together" comment about Edge, I guess a guy they like didn't fall to them and so they didn't make a pick. To some fans, they will see not drafting one as ignoring it or at least inactivity.

Remember, they could have drafted Mike Green, but chose not to draft him. Now Green didn't light the world on fire as a rookie, but he was touted as one of the best pure pass rushers coming into the draft. I certainly recognize though that Mike Green doesn't check the culture fit box for the organization and was never likely an option given the sexual assault allegations in his past.

I posted my reply in the wrong thread too, whoops. But.....

I think it means nothing at all.

Anything they do could be defined as the same approach as last year. If they trade for Maxx Crosby, well they tried last year but the price was too high. If they draft a 1st round edge, well they wanted to last year but the value wasn't there (or character RE Mike Green). If they sign Trey Hendrickson in free agency, well they wanted to sign a free agent last year but they got out-bid. If they do none of that and run it back with multiple high-injury risk players like Davenport, Paschal, Onwuzurike, etc., along with next year's version of AQM, well that's the same approach and the same result.

That being said, I doubt they bring back Davenport. He was useless and I suspect they'll cut their losses. Doesn't mean next year's Davenport will be any less injury prone though.

[sagnam]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

There isn’t a single week where Kennedy got more snaps than Teslaa. The only time Kennedy got more than five snaps in a game was when St Brown went out early with an injury and Raymond was injured. 

You are right. Tesla’s started seeing playing time once St Brown and Raymond got hurt. I was exaggerating when mentioning Kennedy.

 

What is also true is Fannin played 72% of the snaps week 1 and played between 63-96% all season. Even with Njoku on the roster he was getting playing time. There is no reason to believe that Fannin would have played over Brock Wright to start the season.

[Motown Bombers]

Perhaps not but Holmes wasn’t going to draft a TE2 in the third round so I’m not understanding this strawman. 

[Shinzaki]

I like Fannin especially because I went to BGSU...

[Jason_R]

Even in a 15-2 season, though, everything did not break their way. They had one of the worst seasons in NFL history in terms of defensive injuries. Then they arguably had a worse injury season this year. 

Holmes swings for the fences too often. I didn’t like the Hooker or Martin picks when he made them and now I like them even less. His job is getting harder now that he doesn’t have all of those extra pics, and now that he is drafting toward the bottom of each round. But he still built one of the best rosters in the league and their window is still wide open. 

[Motor City Sonics]

59 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

Even in a 15-2 season, though, everything did not break their way. They had one of the worst seasons in NFL history in terms of defensive injuries. Then they arguably had a worse injury season this year. 

Holmes swings for the fences too often. I didn’t like the Hooker or Martin picks when he made them and now I like them even less. His job is getting harder now that he doesn’t have all of those extra pics, and now that he is drafting toward the bottom of each round. But he still built one of the best rosters in the league and their window is still wide open. 

I didn't say everything broke their way.   I said ALMOST.   The injury thing was the one thing that finally bit them, even though they did a nearly miraculous job at surviving it.    And that might not be what killed them.   We've had Goff wilt in a few MUST win games and that Washington game was one of them.   He gets one more of those and then I'm done.   No more empty stats.  Play great when it counts.   Ryan Raburn always looked great in the last two months of the season when the race was over.  We throught, "Hey, maybe this guy's good."  Nope,  he's only good when it doesn't matter, when there is no pressure.   Goff is a lot better than Raburn was, but you can't collapse like that in a big moment again and expect people to believe You are the guy.      

Edited 12 hours ago by Motor City Sonics

[MichiganCardinal]

14 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I didn't say everything broke their way.   I said ALMOST.   The injury thing was the one thing that finally bit them, even though they did a nearly miraculous job at surviving it.    And that might not be what killed them.   We've had Goff wilt in a few MUST win games and that Washington game was one of them.   He gets one more of those and then I'm done.   No more empty stats.  Play great when it counts.   Ryan Raburn always looked great in the last two months of the season when the race was over.  We throught, "Hey, maybe this guy's good."  Nope,  he's only good when it doesn't matter, when there is no pressure.   Goff is a lot better than Raburn was, but you can't collapse like that in a big moment again and expect people to believe You are the guy.      

I don't think Goff can really shoulder the blame for that Washington playoff loss. Not to say he played well, he definitely didn't, but I'm not sure a perfect performance from him wins that game. The defense was atrocious. The play calling from Ben Johnson screamed "I prepared for interviews instead of this game." Goff wasn't going to stop Jamo from throwing a pick when the offense is driving.

Goff was a cog in the 2024 Lions machine that blew up in a picture reminiscent of Deepwater Horizon. 

[Motor City Sonics]

47 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I don't think Goff can really shoulder the blame for that Washington playoff loss. Not to say he played well, he definitely didn't, but I'm not sure a perfect performance from him wins that game. The defense was atrocious. The play calling from Ben Johnson screamed "I prepared for interviews instead of this game." Goff wasn't going to stop Jamo from throwing a pick when the offense is driving.

Goff was a cog in the 2024 Lions machine that blew up in a picture reminiscent of Deepwater Horizon. 

But he's now had a few of those games.  Everything's going great and then he becomes a turnover machine.   Yes, the O-Line was bad in the second Washington game (sorry but if Goff was on his game they could have put 50 on the Commanders).  But Goff looked like David Blough out there in Minnesota.     He was out of synch from the first snap and it looked just like the Minnesota game.  The defense played their asses off, they should have won that game and should be in Chicago this weekend. 

 The evidence is becoming clear that Jared is a good QB, but his O-Line has to be near-perfect for him to really shine.   So make sure you build one this offseason or we'll end up the same way again.   We can win it all with Goff, but the O-Line has to be absolutely it's best.     It seems like they need four new pieces there, but it's really only 2.   They need a real ACTUAL Center and not someone moved over from another position and they need to Frankenstein the hell out of Decker, which may not be possible anymore.   But a C and LT between the draft and Free Agency and even a trade is absolutely possible.   Then you hope for health. 

Edited 11 hours ago by Motor City Sonics

[Motown Bombers]

A turnover machine that only threw 8 INTs all year. Goff was top three in almost every passing category. I thought I was done having to correct this nonsense. 

Edited 11 hours ago by Motown Bombers

[MichiganCardinal]

1 minute ago, Motor City Sonics said:

But he's now had a few of those games.  Everything's going great and then he becomes a turnover machine.   Yes, the O-Line was bad in the second Minnesota game, but Goff looked like David Blough out there.     He was out of synch from the first snap and it looked just like the Minnesota game.   The evidence is becoming clear that Jared is a good QB, but his O-Line has to be near-perfect for him to really shine.   So make sure you build one this offseason or we'll end up the same way again.   We can win it all with Goff, but the O-Line has to be absolutely it's best.     It seems like the need four new pieces there, but it's really only 2.   They need a real ACTUAL Center and not someone moved over from another position and they need to Frankenstein the hell out of Decker, which may not be possible anymore.   But a C and LT between the draft and Free Agency and even a trade is absolutely possible.   Then you hope for health. 

I agree he has a tendency to turn into a pumpkin 1-2 times per season. 2023 against Chicago he threw 3 picks (the Lions won anyway). 2024 against Houston he threw 5 picks (the Lions won anyway) in addition to the playoff game. 2025 he was dreadful against both Philly and Minnesota (the Lions lost both). It's worth noting that even he as a pumpkin is better than a ton of the QBs in the league.

I'm not sure it's really correlated to must-win games in any meaningful way either. Minnesota and Washington were obviously unfortunate. But the others were just random one-offs. And that's supported by the surrounding context, as he usually bounces right back anytime he lays an egg.

I have total faith that he could lead us to a championship.

[Motown Bombers]

I was most impressed with Goff because he had the second best year of his career despite a weaker offensive line. 

[Motor City Sonics]

5 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

A turnover machine that only threw 8 INTs all year. Goff was top three in almost every passing category. I thought I was done having to correct this nonsense. 

In that game he was.    that's the problem.  He's fine until the big game, the must-win.    You get one more shot at that with me  - then I'm moving on.    then it's Next Up because you'll be wasting ASB and Gibbs and Jamo and LaPorta on someone who wilts under the bright lights.   It's on hiim.    Even if the O-Line isn't good - the greats rise above.   

[Motor City Sonics]

Not ready to move on just yet.  But another one of those game in the big moment and it's a real trend.  It's evidence.