With no Lions. Who you backing for the Super Bowl?

[Motor City Sonics]

A couple of questions

 

1. Who would you like to see win it? 

 

2. Which team out of all of them do you NOT want to see win it? 

 

3. Who do you  think will be in the Super Bowl? 

 

4. Who will win the Super Bowl? 

 

Some fresh blood in the playoffs this year.   Jacksonville is a great story.  A redemption, of sorts, for Trevor Lawrence.  I am sure if they won the whole thing we'd get a better DUVALL from Liam Coen than we did in his press conference.    The fresh blood in the AFC might ber stifled by Buffalo and Baltimore - showing that playoff experience out does W/L records.      

In the NFC Ben Johnson certainly is the story for the coaches.  Amazing turnaround.  We lost a real gem there.  But it would be so painful to see Stafford win in his first year after the Lions and then Ben win in his first year after the Lions.   I don't think the Bears will.  11 or 12 win teams are not frauds, but they did benefit from a weak schedule, and keep in mind that last year the Bears were a better team than their record.  They Eberflused several games.   Philly's obnoxious.  Seattle is the team tucked way up in the corner of the country that nobody seems to talk about.   That works in their favor.   And Carolina is a cute little story - but a reason that the Lions were right to try and change playoff seeding.  It's ridiculous that a 12 win team from the West has to go on the road to Carolina or Tampa to play an possible 8-9 team.  

 

 

 I'll Go First

1. Buffalo.  As a long-suffering Lions fan, I feel their pain.   I would love to see that city exorcise it's Super Bowl demons

 

2. Rams. I just don't want to see Stafford win 2.  That would rip me up.  2b. Chargers.  Because Jim Harbaugh is a dirty rotten sociopath and the ****ing Chargers belong in San Diego so we can hear that great disco Superchargers song again.  Put Chicago, Philly and Green Bay near the top.  Yep, good ol' spite

 

3. Buffalo vs. San Francisco.    No more Mahomes to get in the way and San Francisco's return to form would give me hope that the Lions could see a similar path soon. 

The least-likely would be Carolina vs. Houston.  

 

4.  Buffalo 41, San Francisco 35.     I think long playoff experience comes in handy for both coaches.   

[Hongbit]

1)  Bills or Seahawks

**Note any Lions fan that answers Bears or Packers needs to keep that **** to themselves.  You can think it but it should never be said publicly by a Lions fan**
 

2) Bears or Packers 

3) Rams vs. Patriots

4) Rams 31 - 17

[Motown Bombers]

Panthers

[MichiganCardinal]

In order:

1. Panthers
2. Chargers
3. Bills
4. Jaguars
5. Broncos
6. Texans
7. Patriots
8. Steelers
9. Ravens
10. Seahawks
11. Buccaneers
12. 49ers
13. Rams
14. Eagles
15. Bears
16. Packers   

[GalagaGuy]

Bills, Jags, Chargers would be my top 3.  After that, I don't really care as long as the Packers don't win it.  

[Sports_Freak]

On 12/30/2025 at 11:31 PM, Motor City Sonics said:

A couple of questions

 

1. Who would you like to see win it? 

 

2. Which team out of all of them do you NOT want to see win it? 

 

3. Who do you  think will be in the Super Bowl? 

 

4. Who will win the Super Bowl? 

 

Some fresh blood in the playoffs this year.   Jacksonville is a great story.  A redemption, of sorts, for Trevor Lawrence.  I am sure if they won the whole thing we'd get a better DUVALL from Liam Coen than we did in his press conference.    The fresh blood in the AFC might ber stifled by Buffalo and Baltimore - showing that playoff experience out does W/L records.      

In the NFC Ben Johnson certainly is the story for the coaches.  Amazing turnaround.  We lost a real gem there.  But it would be so painful to see Stafford win in his first year after the Lions and then Ben win in his first year after the Lions.   I don't think the Bears will.  11 or 12 win teams are not frauds, but they did benefit from a weak schedule, and keep in mind that last year the Bears were a better team than their record.  They Eberflused several games.   Philly's obnoxious.  Seattle is the team tucked way up in the corner of the country that nobody seems to talk about.   That works in their favor.   And Carolina is a cute little story - but a reason that the Lions were right to try and change playoff seeding.  It's ridiculous that a 12 win team from the West has to go on the road to Carolina or Tampa to play an possible 8-9 team.  

 

 

 I'll Go First

1. Buffalo.  As a long-suffering Lions fan, I feel their pain.   I would love to see that city exorcise it's Super Bowl demons

 

2. Rams. I just don't want to see Stafford win 2.  That would rip me up.  2b. Chargers.  Because Jim Harbaugh is a dirty rotten sociopath and the ****ing Chargers belong in San Diego so we can hear that great disco Superchargers song again.  Put Chicago, Philly and Green Bay near the top.  Yep, good ol' spite

 

3. Buffalo vs. San Francisco.    No more Mahomes to get in the way and San Francisco's return to form would give me hope that the Lions could see a similar path soon. 

The least-likely would be Carolina vs. Houston.  

 

4.  Buffalo 41, San Francisco 35.     I think long playoff experience comes in handy for both coaches.   

A Buffalo Chicago Super Bowl would be entertaining. But while Buffalo might make it, I see San Francisco or Philly making it. Or maybe the Rams or Seahawks. So...IDK. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

If the Jags make or win the Super Bowl that's an indictment on Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes. For a team that fired their Head Coach and GM in Doug Pedersen and Trent Baalke to then start a retool and make it after one season, that looks bad on Brad and Dan. It looks good on Liam Coen and James Gladstone of course. Jacksonville was aggressive and proactive in addressing needs in free agency. Dan and Brad were largely not and thought they could run it back with the same players and next man up. 

[MichiganCardinal]

19 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

If the Jags make or win the Super Bowl that's an indictment on Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes. For a team that fired their Head Coach and GM in Doug Pedersen and Trent Baalke to then start a retool and make it after one season, that looks bad on Brad and Dan. It looks good on Liam Coen and James Gladstone of course. Jacksonville was aggressive and proactive in addressing needs in free agency. Dan and Brad were largely not and thought they could run it back with the same players and next man up. 

Winning the Super Bowl isn't a perfect formula. You have to have the talent, but you also have to have the health and be hot at the right time, along with the luck to win 3-4 single elimination games in a row, in a league where like 80% of games are decided by one score.

Campbell and Holmes have done enough to satisfy the talent piece. At least they did in 2023 and 2024. Now it's about maintaining that talent, and having everything fall together in a perfect January storm.

Jacksonville winning it all would be no more an indictment on the Holmes and Campbell regime than had Washington won it all in 2024, or the 2017 Jaguars, or the 2014 Colts, or the Mark Sanchez led Jets, or even the 2007 Giants. The NFL format is such that a fairly mediocre team can do little things right, capitalize on a few turnovers, and find themselves a game away from a Super Bowl... If anything, it would just be an indictment on this version of the Detroit Lions that they couldn't put themselves in the position to be that team that's just a few lucky bounces away.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

The indictment is that they didn't utilize free agency to address the needs they had on the offensive line foremost and also on their pass rush. They had one of their top interior lineman leave in Kevin Zietler and another retire in Ragnow. They knew, as many fans and media has speculated, that Ragnow was contemplating retirement for two seasons now. They knew they Zeitler was only around for one year. They had to know Glasgow's play was declining. Jacksonville knew they had a problem on the offensive line and their new GM was aggressive in free agency to try and address the problem. Our GM did not proactively address the offensive line in the 2024 draft, nor did he address it at all in free agency and instead had one of his top interior lineman walk on him. 

Being aggressive in free agency can be a big issue when you overpay for players, put your team in a bad salary cap position by doing so, and then the signings don't pan out or live up to the salary you're paying them. Trent Baalke, Jacksonville's prior GM, is an example of someone who overspent on free agents and it didn't work out at all.

On the other side of that coin is the Brad Holmes/Scott Harris approach of doing little in free agency, relying on the draft and next man up to fill your needs. It looks good when you win 15 games and have a strong, productive draft class. It doesn't look good when you allow a strength to become a weakness. That's the part that would be the indictment IMO.

[Motown Bombers]

Tater is never going to understand the Lions don’t have the cap space. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

42 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Tater is never going to understand the Lions don’t have the cap space. 

Resigning Kevin Zietler and adding another free agent Guard would have hurt the Lions financially when they had the 5th most cap space coming into the season?

And I already know the rebuttal you'll give "But they need that money to resign their own players." And that is part of the problem. They're overvaluing their own talent for one and they're trying to resign most of the picks they drafted and replace other starters with cheaper players. It backfired on them and didn't work. In particular, it killed them along the offensive line. I'm not resigning Kirby Joseph or Brian Branch or Jack Campbell if it means I have a weak link at one ore more offensive line positions. I'll take a chance at a 4th or 5th round project pick starting at safety versus the offensive line. The offensive line is the most important position group on the team and has the most important individual positions outside of QB and maybe edge/pass rusher. Everything this team was built off of, their entire identity, was predicated on their strong offensive line. Their running game, the ball control on offense, wearing teams down by controlling time of possession, the play action they run with Goff, were all successful because their offensive line was elite. It's no longer elite.

This year it became a weakness. It cost them multiple games and a shot at the playoffs. It cost them against Green Bay in the opener, Minnesota twice, Philly, and Pittsburgh. If this year's offensive line was as good as last year I think you're looking at another 2-3 wins.

Edited 12 hours ago by Mr.TaterSalad

[Motown Bombers]

Just now, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Resigning Kevin Zietler and adding another free agent Guard would have hurt the Lions financially when they had the 5th most cap space coming into the season?

And I already know the rebuttal you'll give "But they need that money to resign their own players." And that is part of the problem. They're overvaluing their own talent for one and they're trying to resign most of the picks they drafted and replace other starters with cheaper players. It backfired on them and didn't work. In particular, it killed them along the offensive line. I'm not resigning Kirby Joseph or Brian Branch or Jack Campbell if it means I have a weak link at one ore more offensive line positions. I'll take a chance at a 4th or 5th round project pick starting at safety versus the offensive line. The offensive line is the most important position group on the team and has the most important individual positions outside of QB and maybe edge/pass rusher. Everything this team was built off of, their entire identity, was predicated off their strong offensive line.

This year it became a weakness. It cost them multiple games and a shot at the playoffs. It cost them against Green Bay in the opener, Minnesota twice, Philly, and Pittsburgh. If this year's offensive line was as good as last year I think you're looking at another 2-3 wins.

Yes, it would have. You understand cap rolls over? They were projected to be over the cap even with rolling over cap. Zeitler is just a bandaid. 
 

Who do you replace Joseph, Branch and Campbell with? You would be complaining about letting them go like you are with Zeitler. One side of your mouth you say they should let players walk and the other they should resign. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

1 minute ago, Motown Bombers said:

Yes, it would have. You understand cap rolls over? They were projected to be over the cap even with rolling over cap. Zeitler is just a bandaid. 
 

Who do you replace Joseph, Branch and Campbell with? You would be complaining about letting them go like you are with Zeitler. One side of your mouth you say they should let players walk and the other they should resign. 

Who you let go and who you keep matters based on the position they play. Positional value matters to every team. Offensive line positions, all three of them, matter more than almost every other position on the field. They especially matter when your teams identity is based off of what that positional group can give you.

This team built an identity and won off of their offensive line. Their identity was a tough, bullying line, that allowed them to have a dominant offense. A line that allowed them to run the ball, control the line of scrimmage, dictate the pace of play, eat up time of possession, and give Goff the protection needed to be aggressive with play action. They let the line become a weakness this year. If I have to let a Jack Campbell or Brian Branch walk because I want 5 solid starters, with no weak links, along the offensive line, it's the price I am willing to pay. 

[Motown Bombers]

1 minute ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Who you let go and who you keep matters based on the position they play. Positional value matters to every team. Offensive line positions, all three of them, matter more than almost every other position on the field. They especially matter when your teams identity is based off of what that positional group can give you.

This team built an identity and won off of their offensive line. Their identity was a tough, bullying line, that allowed them to have a dominant offense. A line that allowed them to run the ball, control the line of scrimmage, dictate the pace of play, eat up time of possession, and give Goff the protection needed to be aggressive with play action. They let the line become a weakness this year. If I have to let a Jack Campbell or Brian Branch walk because I want 5 solid starters, with no weak links, along the offensive line, it's the price I am willing to pay. 

I guarantee after one year of Zeitler and Branch is on the Eagles going to the Pro Bowl, you wouldn’t be saying the same thing. 

[Motown Bombers]

We also haven’t gotten to the fact Zeitler wanted to be closer to family. At some point, you were going to have to get younger at the position. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Just now, Motown Bombers said:

I guarantee after one year of Zeitler and Branch is on the Eagles going to the Pro Bowl, you wouldn’t be saying the same thing. 

Branch still had years left on his contract. He was not in the final year. I guarantee you if this offensive line hadn't directly or indirectly cost them between 4-5 games this year we'd probably be in the playoffs and having a different conversation.

[Motown Bombers]

Just now, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Branch still had years left on his contract. He was not in the final year. I guarantee you if this offensive line hadn't directly or indirectly cost them between 4-5 games this year we'd probably be in the playoffs and having a different conversation.

All offseason you wanted Hendrickson which would have been an unmitigated disaster, now it’s the offensive line and you were willing to sacrifice Brian Branch for one extra of Zeitler. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

Just now, Motown Bombers said:

All offseason you wanted Hendrickson which would have been an unmitigated disaster, now it’s the offensive line and you were willing to sacrifice Brian Branch for one extra of Zeitler. 

All offseason I wanted another offensive lineman too. I advocated for bringing back Zietler or getting someone else in here. And if you go back to the 2024 draft thread, I was talking about the need to get younger at the offensive and advocating back then to take a guy like Jackson Powers-Johnson, Zach Frazier, or Cooper Bebe.

[Motown Bombers]

4 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

All offseason I wanted another offensive lineman too. I advocated for bringing back Zietler or getting someone else in here. And if you go back to the 2024 draft thread, I was talking about the need to get younger at the offensive and advocating back then to take a guy like Jackson Powers-Johnson, Zach Frazier, or Cooper Bebe.

I know, you live in fantasy land. It’s not even like Zeitler is a huge upgrade over Ratledge. 

[number20]

Ben Johnson was smart to choose the Bears. We all know he needs an elite OL for his offense to work (and multiple quality TEs). He had that Detroit, and Chicago offered him the resources to go buy one for his new team. Thuney $51 million ($33 guaranteed), Dalman $42 million ($28 guaranteed), Jackson $54 million ($30 guaranteed)… he built a juggernaut OL that stayed healthy most of the year and should be a fixture for the next few. And he inherited a young RT who’s become a solid player. It was the whole key to their success this year. Unfortunately the Lions just don’t an open checkbook like that. MB’s right

[number20]

Pains me to say, but I actually think the Bears might be the new Lions. You can see what Ben’s doing. He now has his dominant bully OL, and I’m predicting he spends a high pick on a game-breaking running back next year. He knows what Gibb’s did for the Lions - there’s no way he’s settling for Swift. He already added his LaPorta. He wants his Sonic and Knuckles, He’s clearly building what he had in Detroit

[Motown Bombers]

11 minutes ago, number20 said:

Ben Johnson was smart to choose the Bears. We all know he needs an elite OL for his offense to work (and multiple quality TEs). He had that Detroit, and Chicago offered him the resources to go buy one for his new team. Thuney $51 million ($33 guaranteed), Dalman $42 million ($28 guaranteed), Jackson $54 million ($30 guaranteed)… he built a juggernaut OL that stayed healthy most of the year and should be a fixture for the next few. And he inherited a young RT who’s become a solid player. It was the whole key to their success this year. Unfortunately the Lions just don’t an open checkbook like that. MB’s right

Because the Lions draft significantly better than the Bears. 

[number20]

4 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

Because the Lions draft significantly better than the Bears. 

They do. And I wonder how long Chicago's expensive, off-the-rack OL will hold up (it's not exactly a youth movement). Still, Ben Johnson falling into their laps was galactically stupid luck. That franchise is so dysfunctional top-to-bottom - they have no clue what they’re doing. Ben stepped in and singlehandedly turned that entire thing around while they all stood by picking their noses. Beefing up the OL was so obviously his doing. Without Johnson, it’s doubtful those players get signed because the OL was never a priority with Poles. The guy had the second-cheapest OL in the league last year.

It'll be interesting to see how deep of a run they make in the playoffs