I get it, this time of year with a new staff always brings out the optimism. We are fans after all. And I have faith in the eventual direction this franchise is taking, and it’s results. But right now? This franchise is seriously, seriously devoid of talent.
The crazy part is most fans say “Stafford is a legend, but just couldn’t win because he had nothing around him.” Now we got rid of him, kept everything the same, but we’re going to be better? I think the Lions know they’re going to be awful this year - the fan base hasn’t gotten the memo tho.
It’s hard to imagine it being much worse. But I can admit that right now we have less talent than we did last year. So it’s definitely possible.
I’d like to believe some of these youngsters we have can step up like Okudah and JOkwara. I’d like to believe that this coaching staff can get more out of these players than the prior staff did. If they can’t then we hired the wrong guys in my opinion.
I would also like to believe that Defense will be a priority on draft day. You add one stud to that defense like Parsons and suddenly my outlook looks a lot better.
That’s hyperbole IMO. We have several good defensive players. Yes, we are short two game wreckers or so, but there are quite a few competent defensive pieces.
Don’t assume pessimism to be analogous with reason.
Umm he’s a 2 time pro bowler and he’s only 26.
Only Tom Brady has won more games than him since he entered the league. I think he’s better than mediocre.
Swift hasn’t missed many games in his entire football career. He got a concussion last year and was forced out by concussion protocols. I wouldn’t call him off injured. That’s definitely a stretch.
Define awful. If you think the front office is resigned to being a 3-4 win team then I think you’re way off. If you think they believe that we’re going to have a losing record then I would most certainly agree with that.
I think if we plug remaining holes sufficiently and if the defensive coaching staff is as lights out as I believe it to be then I think we can shave 40 yards and six points per game off our totals. Allowing 380 yards and 26 points per game is hardly going to get you confused with the ‘85 Bears but it would be good enough to finish in the 20-22 range in all likelihood.
Wins are a team stat. Goff has some serious limitations as a player. He struggles to go through progressions. He’s not trusted to make a lot of checks, or protection calls. He’s not a playmaker. If he trusts what he sees and he’s not forced to make complex reads… he does have a nice arm with accurate touch. He can make the throws… but there is a reason the rams gave up on him and even benched him for john Wolford. He’s still young, so he can improve his weaknesses, but imho he should only be a bridge QB.
Was that on Goff or on McVay? Bc folks like @BearlyThere have suggested that McVay was a control freak in that regard.
I hope we use Goff like we used Stafford. Goff was a gunslinger in college. McVay molded him into a different style of QB which worked very well for a time.
We’ve never seen what Goff can do at the NFL level when trusted like he was at Cal. Might be fun to find out.
It’s goff. Goff never made any play calls until he made it to the nfl. He had never made presnap adjustments or even voiced a play. He struggles against the blitz. Once teams realized he couldn’t make checks on his own… teams started moving late into alignment before the snap so Mcvay couldn’t help him. That was ok for a while when the rams could dictate with the run game. when that stopped goff struggled and Mcvay couldn’t figure out how to get it to work.
Having goff sit in the shotgun and sling it would be a disaster. He needs to be in an offense that doesn’t make him sit back and make calls. Run action, rollouts, screens, etc are going to be necessary. He can’t sit back in the shotgun and sling it on 3rd and longs and bail us out like stafford could.
I guess you didn’t watch much of Goff in college. Dude was a gunslinger. More so than Stafford was in college due to their respective offenses.
You’re stating things with certainty that we don’t yet know. You’re basically saying that it’s unwise to let Jared Goff due more of what he did best in his college bc he can’t succeed that way in the NFL. Nobody has yet tried to consistently utilize him that way in the league. I absolutely believe we need to mix it up and have a passable run game but Goff is a pure thrower of the football. Push it down field. Trust him. Give him more freedom, flexibility and responsibility. If we play at to what Goff believes his strengths are then I think we might end up being surprised with what we have. His main issues is a crisis of confidence. Brad Holmes to some extent still believes in him. He has true NFL arm talent, he’s only 26 and he already has two years under his belt that compare favorable with the best ball that Stafford has played during his career. The talent is there. Just need to unearth it once again.
I would counter by saying the same about optimism. You just described our defensive staff as “lights out” despite having a first time defensive coordinator who’s never been a DC before at any level. There’s literally zero reason in that, so it’s a bit kettle and black here.
I respect that you feel the Lions are “a game changer or two” away from being good on defense. We’ll just agree to disagree. Hell, I’ll settle for “a starter or two” in the secondary even lol.
I think Goff has the potential to be in a similar situation to Ryan Tannehill (not comparing the players, just the career situations). They gave Tannehill a running game, a solid defense, and look at the results. I’m hoping similar things can happen with Goff.
Likely a much better scheme and coaching but there aren’t many blue chippers on D. I’d expect to be bottom 10 again while they figure out who else they need to replace. They might surprise but I’d say that’s highly doubtful. On defense I want this season to mostly be an evaluation process. They’ll obviously draft on D this year but I think they’ll draft for immediate need (S and LB) not BPA.
The top of this draft is loaded on O…let’s build up that side first. I think Holmes knows what he has in Goff. Has a couple nice pieces to add onto. If they could go say Pitts, Marshall, RT with 7, 41, 72, then address S and LB at 101 and 112, I’d feel pretty comfortable with the O going forward (assuming Cephus and either Williams or Perriman prove worthy of offering another contract). But to the original question I don’t think the D will be very good until 22 or 23 (again running running on the assumption that we have a competent GM and staff).
The Jets requested to interview Aaron Glenn for HC. He was supposed to have multiple suitors for DC spots. He’s widely considered one of the rising defensive coaching stars in the league. In order to help him with pressure packages we hired one of the guys on Mount Rushmore of the blitz as a consultant.
Our DL coach is a few years removed from being defensive coordinator of one of the great defenses of this decade. Our LB coach was just a part of one of the defensive staffs of one of the other great defenses of the last ten years. He’s credited with Smith’s development into one of the league’s better LBers. He was only available bc he was pissed that he was passed up for the Bears’ vacant DC job. Our Secondary coach may be considered to be the best in the league and will become a DC in the not too distant future.
Stating “there’s literally no reason for that” either suggests an extreme degree of ignorance on the topic matter or disingenuousness in the interest of driving home your point. There really is no other explanation.
Despite your inference, no the kettle is not black. If you want to continue to wear your pessimism as enlightenment then more power to you but let’s not describe the sky as green in your quest to make a point.
I think there is considerable evidence that DC put together a terrific defensive staff which is miles better than the group that preceded it. I think the overwhelming majority of those covering and following the Lions agree with me on that.
We won’t truly know until we see them in a different system.
Some players like Tavai we know aren’t good just due to their physical limitations. In his case, speed.
Most of the other guys on defense look like they belong in the NFL so long as they are put in the right position and asked to play in a reasonable scheme. Like I said, I think we’ll know more about that once we see them in a new scheme.
What we lack is top level, game changing talent. We need to add a few playmakers at each level (DL, LB, secondary). Once we do that, we’d be in a completely different situation. As of today, we’ve got a bunch of dudes that belong in the NFL, with none of them being game changers. Got to have both game changers + dudes that belong to be any kind of strength.
Truly, the answer is… we don’t know. You know how guys train with a drag parachute tied to them doing sprints. That parachute WAS Matt Patricia’s defensive scheme and he made all 11 players wear one on game day.