It would be very, very different now than even a year or 2 ago.
One lion that would push the entire club over the edge to juggernaut would be Suh.
Our entire OL might be on or near “the best ever” for lions football.
Barry
Gibby
KJ
WR - Ra ranks VERY highly, & Jamo may too
Laporta? #1 for sure!
Some of these cats in our secondary are young, to be sure…but Branch will be up there. Campbell will be up there (mark my words)
Alim will be a good one (top 8?), & Hutch too (top 5?)
Sleeping on Sewell and Ragnow.
Anzalone has been right up there the last two years.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Terrion being the best CB the Lions have ever had.
With a few exceptions… this is a list of guys I saw play. Not many old timers on it.
QB: Goff
RB: Barry
WR: Moore, Calvin, St Brown
TE: Sanders (Laporta if I’m leaving out old timers)
OT: Sewell, Lomas
OG: I’m open to suggestions
C: Ragnow
DE: Hutchinson, Porcher
DT: Suh, Karras (S Rogers or Ball if I’m leaving out old timers?)
LB: Spielman, Levy
CB: Lane, Lebeau, Barney (Bly? Slay? hopefully Arnold? DB has not been a strong point in my lifetime)
S: Blades, ???
I always enjoy this.
Without looking up, I’ll try and post my first team, the get mad when there’s a couple guys I forgot.
QB- Goff, Stafford
RB- Don’t ask such silly things.
FB/H Back- Schlesinger
WR1- CJ
WR2- Sun God
WR3- Golden
WR4- Herman
TE- Still sticking with Sloan. But LaPort isn’t far removed.
OLine- Sewell, Sims, Glover, Ragnow, Lomas (I got two centers. Sue me)
DLine- Hutch, Suh, Rogers, Porcher (this line made it move a lot)
LB’s- Boyd, Levy, Spielman
CB’s- Bly and Slay. Nuff said.
S1- Quin
S2- Bennie
K- number 4
P- no need. We’ll never punt.
There’s another way to do this using pro football reference’s AV metric. Don’t shoot the messenger:
OFFENSE:
QB: Stafford. (back-up Greg Landry). Agree. (Goff is 5th but ascending fast)
RB: the greatest. (back-up Altie Taylor edges Billy Sims). surprised.
TE: Charlie Sanders. not close…Agree.
LT: Lomas Brown (back-ups Jeff Backus, Taylor Decker)…Agree
RT: Rocky Freitas (Penei will be here but needs 2-3 more years).
C: Dom Raiola
LG/RG: Kevin Glover, Ed Flanagan (I’m having #2 and #3 centers fill in here because guards are so far down the list)
WR: Calvin, Herman Moore, Johnny Morton (Ra climbing fast).
DEFENSE:
Ends: Robert Porcher, Larry Hand (Hutch needs more years)
Tackles: Alex Karras, Doug English. If you want a true NT its Jerry Ball.
MLB: Mike Lucci (whole heartedly agree)
LB’s: Wayne Walker, Paul Naumoff (ditto - Naumoff has to be the most underrated lion ever) apologies to Spielman and #57.
CB’s: Lem Barney, Dick LeBeau (this is the right answer!), Slay is up there.
S’s: Yale Lary, Benny Blades (not close)
K: Jason Hanson
P: Pat Studstill (#3 is fifth).
If you did this by season rather than career, it would be different, but our current guys need more time to break this list. But they will.
It looks like the AV metric gives alot more value to games started, esp for OL. It probably undervalues pro-bowl and all-pro selections. Agree on Glover for sure. Flanagan? probably would also put him above Raiola.
