I for one think our future is Incredibly Bright here

The War Room Detroit Lions — The Den
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  1. This roster Holmes, Campbell and co. inherited was Sooo Terrible. The salary cap situation was horrendous; we couldn’t make any significant signings. There was a reason we got two 1st rd picks to take on our QB’s contract. Anyone who thought this team wasn’t going to be picking in the top-5 again this summer is nuts. That we’ve lost 6 games by 1 score to me is incredible. If there was just a little more talent here, just a little… with the job Campbell and co. have done, we could very easily be 6-5 right now. Imagine how different things would be if we just had a solid QB and OC?

  2. Holmes first draft. Sewell isn’t perfect, but he looks like a very good OL to me. McNeill looks like he’s going to be a solid NFL starter / run-situation rotational player. Levi looks like he’s going to be a solid NFL rotational player, or maybe starter. St. Brown looks like he’s going to be a solid NFL 3rd or 4th WR. Barnes isn’t an NFL coverage-LB, but he looks like a solid run-situation stuffer… or maybe a solid future rush OLB. Jefferson, when he’s gotten opportunities, has looked really good. The only pick of the 21 class who hasn’t impressed is the Cuse corner who’s been injured all yr. Holmes had a really wonderful first draft. Imagine 3 or 4 drafts like that stacked up? Plus a few good FA classes. Holmes and his staff seem to be pretty solid talent evaluators.

  3. The defense. We’ve given up an average of 15pts in our last 3 games. And held two other teams to under 20. Aaron Glenn’s got two UDFA rookies among his top 3 corners. Maybe the worst starting safery in the NFL (Harris). Special teamers at LB. A very mediocre DL. And he’s held 5 NFL offenses to under 20 points!?? This guy is a great coach. And I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do with some talent under him.

  4. John Dorsey. We need a QB. And we’ve got maybe the best QB scout in the league in our front-office. Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Baker Mayfield. He drafted them all. Maybe there’s a franchise QB in this draft. Maybe there’s not. I’m confident that we’ve got the best guy to say when there is one.

Needs. We’ve got a lot. We need an OC (maybe Sean Payton can recommend someone to Dan). We need a QB (Dorsey’s on it). We need a #1 WR. We need a #1 CB. We need an impact pass-rusher. We need a good athletic LB. We need a good safety. We need a good guard… and a lot of other things.

But we’re still a score away from winning 6 games with all these holes.

Campbell’s not perfect. Holmes isn’t perfect. And the situation they inherited was the complete opposite of perfect.

I’m 34. This is by far the best leadership we’ve had in my lifetime. Have some patience. Have some context. Don’t beat these guys down with typical Lions-fan negativity just yet.

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will ferrell old school movie GIF

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I agree. And when I said last week that I thought this team would have 7 wins right now if we had Staffors…it wasnt met with very much agreement.

Defense has been.solid with patchwork…but the good news is the patchwork has played well and some of these guys are gonna stick around.

Crap…John Madden won a Super Bowl and had some guys on his roster that no other teams wanted.

We finally can run the football after 30 years of being horrible at it.

The guys are playing hard. Of course they did have a stinker or two after playing their tails off the previous week…but it’s been way more consistent of late.

Dorsey being on board … we either are gonna take Corral or Sam Howel…if we are in the market for a QB in 2022.

MCDC and Holmes got 6 year contracts for a reason…they were realistic in what it was gonna take to trade the franchise QB and start all over. In my opinion, MCDC and staff have built a solid foundation and a great attitude around the team and locker room

MCDC has maybe made a rookie HC blunder here or there…but hes a rookie. I can bet it wont ever happen again…

Now, when it’s time, we will inject talent where we need to and this team will be competitive. I have no doubts…and I love seeing a strong run game.

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Not sure where you think you are son but optimism is not allowed in these parts. Round up Holmes, DC, the Fords, and their grandchildren and burn them alive.

Actually I like your post. At this point I’m not sure if DC is the right coach but I’m willing to give him some time to get NFL talent. The Lions running game is showing real signs of life. I can’t wait to see it when Ragnow gets back into the fold. I think the best center in the league should have a positive impact on our rushing game. I also agree that our defense is not far off with a few needed additions. Glen has certainly tap into these players. Now we need somebody to do the same on the offensive side. Get a couple wide receivers and better health and I think we can go 9-8 next year. Personally I don’t think Goff is the guy but I’m willing to give him another year with NFL quality wide receivers before I passed final judgment.

Getting Ragnow now and Okudah back next year along with the two first rounders is almost like getting for first round picks, two with experience. Throw in the high second round pick and it’s almost like getting five first rounders. With some money to spend in free agency I could see this thing turning around pretty quickly. I do like DC’s fire and am rooting for him. I think his passion can get players the same here. I think Spielman can be instrumental as well.

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We have to be realistic with Okudah here. He is nothing that can be counted upon. If he heals and becomes a solid player it would be considered a bonus. But he is not something the FO will.hang their hat on going forward. At least I hope not.

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I somewhat agree. But just like I want to make sure that Campbell and Goff are evaluated with NFL talent, I want to give Okudah the opportunity to be coached by real professionals. I think Glen can probably get a hell of a lot more out of him than Patricia ever did. In fact Patricia probably put JO back two years in his development. That’s how shitty he was.

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Great post. Most days I agree with what your saying……but yesterday was just hard to stomach. Our coaching staff looked like a bunch of clowns.

That was our best chance for a win and we blew it. I just want one win. That’s it. I just don’t want to go through another winless season.

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ray charles laugh GIF

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@Blueadams great topic and post brother.

Love your optimism. Sadly I will admit I am fully scarred from years of Lion ineptitude.

At 34 years old, you’ve been through a good share of disappointment yourself.

When I was 34….44…well let’s just stop there lol. I had less scarring and more optimism.

Again, great post and trust me I’ll be a Lions fan forever. Hopefully we’ll get that long awaited satisfaction.

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Fantastic post. Just want to make sure you know that before the negatives start coming in with irrational posts full of emotion and short-sighted takes……great post.

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I agree that it wouldn’t be smart to count on either Okudah or Romeo to be starters next year coming off achilles surgery. Some players never come back from that surgery. They are both very young though, it’s not like they are a 35 year old tearing it, which would likely be career ending. Romeo is 26 and Okudah is still only 22, so they have a better chance at coming back strong. They could potentially be some real wildcards if they are able to recover in the future.

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Happy to hear some optimism. The other side should always be represented!
I pray you are right. And I root for you to be correct!
…
Alas… I’m Lionized. It ain’t gonna work. And the next guy won’t either. Nothing anyone of us can do bout it.
But keep up the good vibes! I need at least 5 of you for every 1 of me!

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I thought Bryant played very well yesterday. He’s also remained pretty healthy this year.

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Someday Moose! Someday!

Someday GIF by EVERYKIND

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Good post, and since I think I’ve cooled off from yesterday, I’ll provide what I think about it.

I’m on the fence about Campbell right now. He is so unbelievably better than Patricia at some things but there are some other things that are just infuriating that he does that we didn’t really have over the past 10 ish years.

We have the best run game we have had in a very long time, along with the best O line. The defense is 100000× better than Patricia, and even with the alignment garbage yesterday, we still held the Bears to 16 points and Aaron Glenn and the defense once again did their job holding a team under 20 for the 5th time this season. They’re also competitive in every game outside of the Bengals and Eagles games.

But then there’s the brain numbing clock management, the inability to have 11 guys on the field and not 12, and the stupidity to take away playcalling from an albeit bad offensive coordinator and give it to yourself who has never called a play before.

Holmes too. There’s some things that are way better and way worse.

The UDFA crop is actually amazing. The fact that we got that many good depth pieces out of UDFA even just in the secondary is something we haven’t done in a while. I think he can evaluate DBs ridiculously well, and I think our ability to evaluate RBs is really good too. TBD on O line, but that doesn’t appear to be bad.

But these receivers are just awful. Absolutely horrible. I bet Ohio State’s number 6, Emeka Egbuka, would be our number 1 here. Maybe the number 2 behind Josh Reynolds since he’s a freshman right now. Also, the quarterbacks are horrible. Goff, yeah whatever, he was part of the trade, and even though it was clear he was garbage I’m not going to talk about him. I want all of you to keep in mind that this staff chose to have Tim Boyle on this roster and let him be the backup QB. They didn’t take 2 1st round picks to make him be on this roster, they chose to hand out a contract to Tim Boyle.

Everything rests in what approach we take to fix this lack of talent problem. We have 2 1sts, the 33rd overall pick which is basically a 1st, and 65 which is basically a 2nd along with our comp 3rd to try and add talent to next year’s team. We also have money, but we don’t need to spend it IMO. Nobody wants to come here right now.

There’s 3 paths I see on strategy…

  1. Fix the defense. We believe Aaron Glenn is a gem, so we’re going to get him as much talent as possible to give us an elite unit on that side of the ball.

We’d take Thibodeaux 1OA.
24OA - Nakobe Dean
33OA - Jaquan Brisker
65OA - WR
Comp 3rd - CB

This strategy gives you a good unit the fastest, but you’re also completely stuck with Goff next year and will still have a pretty awful offense that can’t score 20. The timeliness on a rookie QB is pushed back a year, but to better prospects (Young/Stroud) so it’s an evaluation of how much better you think those guys are than what we could get this year. The QB will be a year behind schedule with his development regardless of how much better he is, so we’re looking at an extra year of development as a team and better picks and more talent. That’s a trade the FO is going to either make or not.

  1. Take a QB later. There isn’t a clear cut 1OA QB, but there’s no way we can think that Jared Goff is good enough to make us competitive as a team next year.

1OA - Thibodeaux
24OA - Malik Willis
33OA - Jameson Williams
65OA - Jordan Battle
Comp 3rd - WR

I think Willis is the perfect pick with the Rams selection if we’re going to do that. He has physical tools out of the building and needs refinement in almost every area of his game. He does provide an injection of athleticism into our offense. I think that if you take a QB, you need yo take a WR at some point early. Goff at least is a veteran that we know what he is, but we need a WR anyway, so get one for Goff until Willis takes over and he’s still there.

  1. QB at 1OA. Dorsey sees a guy that’s worth it at 1OA and everyone else is in agreement that the Goff experiment is a failure. We might be reaching for a guy, but the FO determines that’s a risk they have to take.

1OA - Matt Corral
24OA - Chris Olave
33OA - Jaquan Brisker
65OA - Nolan Smith
Comp 3rd - DE

The OC hire needs to be a college RPO kind of guy that fits Corral. Olave is necessary to give Corral someone to throw to. Everything needs to be centered around getting Matt Corral to be as successful as possible in 2022 and beyond. Goff will still be here and probably start the year, but Corral takes over before week 5 after Brunell determines he’s ready. The defense will still be ok as long as Glenn is here, but it will still be exploitable with how bad our pass rush is. We’ll win a couple of games, hopefully, but we still have a lot to fix. At least we think we have the QB.

I don’t know which option I want to take. I see positives in all 3 and negatives in all 3. It depends on who our OC is honestly.

The option that DC and Holmes choose will define their careers.

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I like option #2! Get a stud defensive player with the first pick that can sack the other teams QB, then grab a QB with the Rams pick and the best WR still on the board @ #33. The only problem with that strategy is the QB they like would still need to be on the board when they pick, it’s risky and they could miss their guy. I just don’t think any of these QB’s are worth the 1st overall pick this year.

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I think it is much easier to change/improve the talent and management issues than it is to change the fighting culture Dan has brought. That is what raises the ceiling for this staff over Patricia.

There is a lot of good here, but it will take more changes to get it right. Question is if those changes will happen.

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Try just turning 69 today and knowing that during so many of my birthdays I was served a shit sandwich.

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Happy Birthday Bugman! It’s certainly more disappointment than joy with our Lions but hope springs eternal bud.

Enjoy your day today Bug.

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Happy Birthday! And based on my quick math calculations you were alive when we won the champion back in 1957!!! You are a lucky man.

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