EDGE wasn’t the issue this season. Another guy he brought in had 10.5 sacks so I don’t get all the handwringing about who he didn’t bring in at EDGE, these same posters were lambasting him for not bringing back Smith. Well, who had a better season? AQM or Smith?
The problem was the interior of the D-Line. McNeil was clearly heavily hampered by the injury (Not Brad’s fault), Tyliek was a rookie who just got broken in and Reader got very old very quick. Perhaps Brad’s fault for not projecting that but any fan that thought Reader would fall off that hard after a very good season is a liar.
The secondary lost Branch, Kerby and Terrion most of the season. Not Brad’s fault.
The other big issue was the offensive line. Well, Ragnow retired late in the off-season after free agency (not Brad’s fault), Zeitler left to be closer to home (Not Brad’s fault). He did what he could to patch the holes by drafting a pretty NFL ready Ratledge, drafted Mahogany last year who was playing pretty well before the injury (not Brad’s fault) and Frazier as well. Could he have done more in free agency? Perhaps, so yeah I guess you can pin that on him but he might not have known Frank’s final answer at that time.
Yes a few missteps but, again, he does not deserve the some of the ridicule that he’s getting.
Longest time to pressure or sack in the NFL. That’s an edge issue. McNeil was a major problem, our run defense collapsed when the Lions tried to force him back in the lineup. However, watch the Giants game again and again and see how much time Jaemis Winston had to throw and find receivers.
AQM is a great #3 edge, he is too light to be a #2 every down edge. He is great on the 3rd and longs where he can chase opposite Hutch’s side. Hutch is very good, but he is not elite. The Lions must give up on the Marcus Davenport experiments and find a legit pass rushing #2 edge who can not only help Hutch, but also spell him. Lions put all eggs in the Hutch basket and it’s clear he ran himself ragged. He even said later in the year he realized he needed more rest to rush at his peak.
I’d agree with what you are saying. I am not calling for Brad to bat 1.000, and I am not going to Iggy it and disagree with every single move he makes. However, the last 2 drafts have been very suspect. Really since the 2nd round of 2023, there has been a sharp fall off. Bottom of the draft guys should still be pushing for roster spots. Ours are being hidden on IR because they are so completely ineffective that they nearly killed our franchise QB. Wingo spent all year on the bench. We’ve went from finding the Malcolm Rodriguez and James Houston’s, to finding Colby Sorsdal and Manu. I do have hope on Frazier, and I am also hopeful Mahogany bounces back or the Lions let those two compete for starter. OL is the biggest concern going into next year, but it’s not the only one either.
Most ordinary people REALLY downplay their own misses and overstate their guesses that work out. Kudos to fans who even remember all the times they were wrong, much less actually acknowledge them.
So we needed 2 safeties, 1 DE, at least 1 CB and a center. That is 5 players to make us even remotely a competitive playoff team……so who were the 5 players we should have traded for? And what would you have been willing to give up to get these 5 players….of quality?
This isn’t directed specifically at you Marty but what evidence do we as fans have that Brad didn’t try to make some trades? It takes two to trade and teams could just simple say no to us and yes to another team, but at days end we will never know what went on behind the scenes!
I will again ask, who was the realist trade we could have made that would have made us a playoff team? The answer is we will never know because no two situations are the same and success at one place does not guarantee success at another.
So back to the original point….yeah the '“we’re good” troup is old and played out at this point!
This will end up being a massive mistake. You will be hard pressed to find what Monty brings to the table with a late round pick. I think he is a goner too but it will end up being a big mistake.
You keep moving the goal posts….you said at the trade deadline….now it’s free agency!
So how was Brad or Dan supposed to foresee all the injuries to the OL and CB/S? Or is this Madden and we can have All-Pros with more All-Pros as backup?
Was Brad and Dan wrong about Z? Simple question and you know that the answer is “no”
I agree. A bunch of factory workers, etc. swear they know more football than Brad. No disrespect to factory workers. My dad was one. Anyway, they MAY have played high school football and think they know what it’s like to build a team when money has a limit. The Detroit Lions have never won a SuperBowl. But us fans swear we know what NFL success as an organization looks like, from the outside. It’s ridiculous.
Alim was clearly not fully recovered from the injury, you can’t pin that on Brad. I disagree on Hutch, he had some rough patches earlier in the season in part I bet due to him not trusting his body yet because of the injury but when he’s fully healthy he was playing at an elite level. You’re not wrong about AQM but 10.5 sacks still speaks for itself. The people who are criticizing Brad now were criticizing him for not signing Smith and we saw how that turned out with him. I don’t know which big time edge he could have brought in that would have done better than AQM tbh. I’m with you on this tough, if he brings back Davenport again and does nothing outside of practice squad level guys to address Edge, I’ll be right there with the critics, I might actually lose my mind if he re-signs Davenport again.
It’s hard to judge the last two drafts yet. His 2024 1st rounder was injured a good chunk of the season and was actually showing signs of improvement before that, his 2024 6th rounder was playing very well at guard in some big games down the stretch last season, was playing pretty well this season then got injured and struggled upon return, Rakestraw was a bad miss no doubt about that, Manu looks like a miss but now you’re getting to the rounds where you’re getting to longshot territory so Manu, Vaki, Wingo etc. I guess we’ll see but, yeah, not a fan of giving up draft capital to draft the former two for sure. Still, if Arnold and Mahogany are high level starters, that’s a pretty solid success especially for a team drafting late in every round. Again, to be determined.
In terms of the 2025 draft, too early to tell but all of Williams, Ratledge and Teslaa flashed some really good stuff. Some rough edges but they’re rookies. Frazier also looked pretty good in his brief stint after injury and, again, a team that’s drafting late in every round. I think the draft looks pretty good actually in these early days.
With that quote, he has justified the changing of little karl’s avatar from egg face Brad, to mild skeptism cartoon guy…a little bit of self-reflection and not smelling one’s own hubris farts can go a long way, and beliiieeeeeve me, I know!
No what Brad said was he liked his guys the guys we had, and then sat on 20 million all the way to last place in the division and sitting home for the playoffs.
That said Brad just needs to adjust some, I say he made some misses but making a change there would be crazy. And sounds like he knows what to do. I like the idea of him wanting them positions Brad is good at finding talent.
It can be an overall pass rush issue, but one thing we saw far too often is the QB just casually rolling away from Hutch’s side, and no pressure from the other side. Teams would use a tackle and TE to chip block Hutch and slow down his time to get to the QB, and then after Hutch finally gets past 2 or 3 chip blocks, the QB then rolled away from the pressure. That would often mean 3-5 seconds before pressure got there, and sometimes longer.
. Just KIDDING!