You ever get a feeling, a hunch, a premonition? Well, I do, and I’m feeling it in a way I haven’t felt perhaps ever.
A 99 Rams feeling. A Cinderella feeling. A holy-crap-here-come-my-Lions feeling. A worst to first feeling.
I’m reading the tea leaves, and here’s the grocery list.
A vulnerable NFC North.
A punishing, clock munching, ground game
Goff has his groove back
Sparkly new WR weaponry
An underrated defense that will be on the right side of the time of possession clock
Call me crazy, but I’m harboring hope. Hope that our window for glory is open just a smidgen. A couple breaks and good health, it’s all we need. Why not us? Why not now?
Holy shit! Goff is getting injured, but we are winning the super bowl with a grocery store employee running the greatest show on turf at QB! Quick, start scouting at your local grocery stores.
At the end of the day you can’t rule anything out. When your expectations are so high though, you set yourself up for disappointment if they don’t acheive those expectations.
I personally am going into the season with what I deem being realistic. Solid roster with a ton of youth. Likely going to be going through some growing pains with these young guys. Im thinking our floor is 7 wins and the ceiling is 10.
The window is often open before the consensus thinks it should be and often closes before most people think it will. Who saw the Bengals going to the Super Bowl last year?
This is the reason why I really hate the idea of not bringing in talent “until we’re ready to compete”. It’s far more common for a team to burst into competitiveness from seemingly nowhere than it is to have a slow, couple game improvement over three or four years.
I’m not saying that’s going to happen with the Lions this year. But it happens all the time, and there’s no reason it couldn’t be the Lions this time around.
I personally think the best outcome for this season is Jared Goff proving to be a top 10 QB. Whether we make the playoffs or not, I don’t see us making any noise this year. A likely one and done team.
I do think we could be serious Super Bowl contenders in 2023 if Goff proves to be a top 10 QB. Our offense would be elite with every starter, but Chark being under contract on 2023.
We would have two firsts and a 2nd to get some serious defensive help I would be fine with pushing some money into future years as well and maybe grabbing a big name free agent.
Add a guy like Marcus Davenport to this defense in FA to pair with building blocks in McNeil, Hutch, Walker, Amani, Rodriguez, and Paschal. Then three high draft picks and that’s a potential top 10 defense.
Combine that with the offense and this coaching staff and that is a Super Bowl Contending roster.
If Goff doesn’t play well and we have to replace him we likely will not be very good come 2023.
Next year guys. We’ll be good next year.
(Next year rolls around)
Who could’ve forseen XXX would injure thier XXX and XXX would go all XXX on the team. Next year, we’re gonna be ready.
(The next year rolls around)
Had to change at the top. Team wasn’t buying in. But this guy, Mr. XXX from the XXX franchise, he’s got this team firing right! Two years, he’ll have us to the Bowl!
(… you get it…)
It’s time. This year. This year.
I’m gonna be the resident killjoy (likely the first of many here), but I’m saying NO.
We are headed in the right direction. We should surprise some teams. We play in a weak division of a weak conference, and we may even have a shot at making the playoffs if things fall right. But even if that happens, we just don’t have the talent (yet!), especially on D, to run the playoff gauntlet or consistently beat the better teams in the league.
My ideal goals, by end of this season we:
Improve significantly on our win total from last year and play meaningful games in December
Discover some under-the-radar studs on our defense
Prove that Goff can be a high-level long-term starter for us
Get a taste of what we can do with our OL, running game, and Jamo/Hock/St. Brown combo firing on all cylinders
Go into next year’s offseason able to focus on adding more studs to the defense and potentially adding some significant FAs
Head into the 23/24 season with a complete team, ready to make serious noise in the NFC
There was a segment on the SiriusXM am show today regarding Philly and their potential for this year, as they are getting a lot of praise. The segment made me think of Philly last year “could” be the Lions this year, if accurate then this year’s Philly is next year’s Lions…follow that?
One of the hosts mentioned that he thinks Philly is heading to an 8-10 win season this year and gave his reasoning for it. He said to look at who they beat last year and who they lost too, they had an easier schedule last year(Lions this year?? my thought not his) and beat the teams they should beat but didn’t win many against other teams. Top OL and some strong adds on defense but issued some caution on how well they may do this year as they may not been as strong as they appeared.
My own Nastradamus take:
In 2030 other teams will be looking at the Dynasty built by Dan, Brad, & Sheila, it all started with the cleansing of 2020 stink left behind by a couple of guys no one remembers.
Then to the playoffs in 2022 and a Super Bowl contender ever since.
The Lions braintrust have been blazing a path that few teams have the guts to try, and if they do, they lack MCDC to implement the process.
Another win for Nastradamus!
Why cant we be the 2021 Bengals? It’s going to happen. Look at all the media attention. The Lions are going to turn into money makers for the NFL. Hard knocks ratings are through the roof. Buckle up Boys and Girls, I think we are heading for quite a ride.
