Funny thing is, I listening to his entire season ending press conference where he talked about how HARD it was to try to trade for a defensive end and how teams will not get rid of them last year. If you cannot trade for them, and we certainly didn’t sign any, I guess that leaves drafting them. Something he didn’t care to do either.
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Yeap I still have the question how does he not think DE need improvement, I’m ok with his draft but with all his resources why nothing at that position in the whole off-season. I’m mean no good Edges in this draft. He said he doesn’t chase position but that doesn’t sound true he chase players.
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Would having a 3rd rounder that we traded for Manu helped to move up for the defensive end?
Brad has a plan and the draft might not be the way it gets addressed. Looking more and more like. Zadarius will be resigned to me. Still have plenty of time to makes some moves before the season starts.
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Probably, its a point to consider. But the thing is, like Bubba said yesterday, Manu is making progress in his development. So its unclear if Brad deserves a ding for that yet.
Yep. Manu has all the physical tools and is not an idiot. He just needs coaching and reps. At worst, I would expect him to be our swing tackle at some point. At best, he takes over for Decker. To be determined.
Can you point me to the Manu progress update?
This quote is his motto and exemplifies exactly what some simply can’t understand. It took me a couple drafts to realize this is now the way forward with the Lions, and its the reason we have won the division the past two seasons.
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Bubba said Justin Rogers had a piece about it. I saw this article earlier too:
I don’t think it’s weird. I don’t even look at it as aggressive. I see an honest exchange that at one point revealed his frustration in making a point that he has made over and over and that he thinks guys are picking up, but then they ask a question that reveals they’re still back at square 1.
People spend 4 months stuck in a pre-draft process where they match teams up with prospects at obvious positions of need. We do it here. It doesn’t seem to matter how many lessons we learn along the way, we revert to “roster hole, meet draft pick”.
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To be fair: Millen, Mayhew, and Quinn didn’t care either. It’s the success that allows you to not care and get away with it.
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We needed a DL
We needed an OG
We needed a WR
Those three positions along with edge were the biggest needs.
TE and S a bit less so.
He drafts the best player at positions of need.
I’m thinking he sees day3 targets at Edge but not elsewhere.
He comes across as a little defensive and combative when discussing edge.
Whatever, He’s earned our trust.
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Yeah, I agree. He clearly prefers to when it makes sense. He just doesn’t do really stupid things like reach when he knows the player is not a value there. Show me where even one pick this year is not a need, you know? The counter is that you can claim anything is a need if you project the roster far enough. And Brad does just that. Brad just uses common sense. He’s is not going to draft a non need player he likes just a smidge more than a need guy he likes. But if the other guy is a dawg and the need is meh he’ll take the dawg.
I’ve been saying for months that this draft is wide open to Brad. He could literally draft any position he wanted.
If there’s no Ratlege, there’s no question Glasgow is starting.
If there’s no Williams, there’s no question Lopez is playing for a 2nd Detroit contract.
If there’s no Teslaa, there’s an obvious reliance on Patrick.
No matter where you look on the roster, there was room for depth. In the case of DE, it’s a sore spot for everyone. He doesn’t balk at people saying he needs a DE, he balks at:
- people discounting how badly we were affected by injury
- people discounting that he can evaluate players and pick them where they should be picked.
Our problem is we don’t see how the top tier bucket had a DE that they wanted, but that he couldn’t swing a trade for. We don’t see that the next tier bucket had a DE he would have drafted, but Williams was a holdover from the tier above that they refuse to step over in preference of filling a need.
I don’t know, bud. We all sort of see what we see. We see CB’s added last year like they were and assume it was addressing needs. We disregard how he says they were players they had rated highly, and then maybe expect the same thing to occur this year. He didn’t grade players the way I graded them. He didn’t take Jihaad or JTT or Swinson or Scourton. Hell, Scourton wasn’t even the same player I thought he was in terms of fit according to Nick Saban. In the end, I don’t know shit, I’m just observing the moves.
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Brad Holmes second career as a US Marshall…
I agree. I see all 3 being starters at some point during the season. Many people on here are screaming defense but forget we had a pretty good defense last year and that is with a bunch of injuries. On Defensive ends Hutch and Davenport will be back from injuries and I expect they will sign Smith to a more friendly contract. As far as the middle they signed Lopez and drafted a monster in Williams and have Reader and Alim coming back from injuries at some point during the year. The back 7 are pretty set with some pretty good back-ups.
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It basically comes down to this: Was there any DE who is immediately better than Za’Darius Smith?
If not, you take the best player and sign Smith.
Holmes hasn’t changed course much. He pursues HIS guys, the ones he knows will contribute in some way, even though that’s getting harder to find with an improved roster.
He’s 29-for-29 in the last four years. EVERY pick of his is still in the NFL (some just hanging on, like Chase Lucas, Antoine Green, James Mitchell and James Houston, but still on an NFL roster). I don’t know that has ever been accomplished over a four-year span.
I absolutely agree with you. I love all the criticism. I keep forgetting how many people on here have actually run football teams
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Great post!
I think it’s as simple as this…
Brad sees Tyliek as a 700-800 snap stud that will fill in for Alim and then, spend 4 years starting next to him, and that is 650 pounds a man and both has some interior juice!
Brad sees Ratledge as either mauling RG, or possibly a move LG that can attack at the second level and pull with his freaky athleticism. If he can play LG, then Mahogany is nasty at RG and GG can backup 3 spots. If Tate is only a 5-10 year RG, the. mahogany and GG battle it out for LG (like last year when we were the #1 offense)
Brad sees Tesla (granted I don’t personally see this one as clearly) as a Puca type and a long term X…. We may not have Patrick on 26’, nor Jamo in 27’… having a 6’3” 215 speedster that can catch, block, and brings a lunch pail to work makes our WR room “younger” which is what Brad said he wanted to do.
DE? I’m sure I missed 1 or someone could debate a guy like Ellis or Bennitto is a DE, but I don’t see us going in rounds 1-3 on a 3-4 OLB body to start across from Hutch
So here are the 30 guys I found drafted between #28 and #102 over the last 4 years between 255-285 pounds…
Braden Trice- 0
Marshawn Kneeland- 0
J Hunt- 1.5
Chris Braswell- 0
Myles Murphy- 1.5
FAU- 1.5
I Foskey- 0
Tuli- 6.5
D Hall- 4
Harrison- 2
B Young- 7.75
L Hall- 2.75
Diaby- 6
Karlaftis- 8
Paschal- 1.75
Wright- 1.5
Cam Thomas- 1
M Sanders- 1
S Williams- 2.75
P Turner- 1
G Rousseau- 6.25
Mafe- 6
Oweh- 5.75
Shoyinka- 3.75
Odeyingbo- 4
Basham- 1
Koonce- 2.5
Ossai- 3
Gholston- 2
P Jones- 3
20 of these Edge solutions have averaged 3 sacks or less…and 15 averaged 2 sacks or less.
Tuli- 66
Rousseau- 83
Oweh- 71
Mafe- 76
Young - 59
D Hall- 60
Karlaftis- 68
Diaby- 76
I would argue that Oweh, Young, and Hall wouldn’t fit our scheme as guys who weigh in the 250s and are most stand up OLB rush edges. Even Mafe is listed as an OLB in a 3-4
Karlaftis, Diaby, Rousseau- that’s the list of 70 plus rating DEs over 260 pounds drafted from #28 to #102 over 4 years.
—- Z Smith: averaged a 74 ratings and 8.5 sacks the last 3 years….
Other than maybe Rousseau or Karlaftis- it’s possible Z will be as good or better the next 2 years than any or most of the 30 players drafted the past 4 years within our range?
Pretty funny that we could sign Smith today and problem solved?
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1000%
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