Our defense may actually have been pretty good if we still had slay and diggs.
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I’m not worried about quarterback next year. We’re stuck with Goff until 23. I’d love to see the lions grab an impact player like thibedeaux (sp?) with the high 1st and Dax hill with the low first. Then go receiver in the second to pair with hopefully an impact free agent signing. Maybe Robinson? Build the defense with the 22 draft and then use your draft capital in 23 to grab a quarterback if you need one.
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Thanks for the kind words folks.
I am starting to see that there is hope. This is a tough season though. Losing Tyrell Williams has been a killer. I liked this guy, I liked the signing and he was the only guy we had I was excited to see in this offense. I was also bullish on Cephus. Whoops.
I am loving the young guys in defense. Barnes is a real find. Levi and Alim is reason to see a future here too. Getting guys back in 2022 and another draft class will help.
I didn’t address free agency but it is clear we will have to land at least one credible starter. Seems like the cap is better in 2022.
Knowing we can get a Blue Chip guy early in rd. 1 helps. That second #1 pick is very interesting.
We don’t know where we will land but it looks like we will have a pick of great pass rushers and secondary guys.
To me in free agency we need to add a credible starting WR and a credible starting level corner. Get that and see if we can add later talent at safety and LBer.
Say we add a DE early. A pass rush guy to pair with Romeo, Charles Harris and Julian. I assume Trey Flowers is gone but damn a renegotiate would be nice to keep Flowers. Say we add a WR and a top Safety with our first three picks. If we keep what we have (no more roster holes!!!) and add a starting CB to pair with AO a add well as a starting WR that could be okay.
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I hope you know Fields was y guy if we decided to pull the trigger on QB. That being said, my thought process hasn’t waivered. The best result of this entire thing is for Goff to “be the guy.” That means building a team around Goff. But a different scenario is if Goff isn’t “the guy.” In that scenario you have to draft or otherwise acquire “the guy.” The same team you build to accomodate Goff is the same team you are going to need to support the kid. So go ahead and invest resources in building around Goff to see if the best case scenario works out. And if it doesn’t…no biggie…you are inserting a young guy into the team you just built to help the QB succeed.
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Boom! Then BPA for non-DL, as well as WR, w/the next 2 picks (late 1st and early 2nd)
DE
WR
BPA between LB and S, preferably, unless there’s a big gap in talent and you have to take the CB or Vaitai’s replacement…whatever. 
Playmakers that cause turnovers.
Home run hitters on O.
Next obstacle will be officials, especially in playoffs.
Obstacle after that is losing the defensive coordinator. Dude is getting it done with a bunch of role players, and no real star…not even flirting with a star, right now on D.
Thank God For FOX!
If Goff is the guy, and he makes huge improvements, then ‘23 is realistic to start hoping for a playoff spot. If it’s not Goff, and I tend to think it’s not, then how fast can you get a rookie QB up to par? Then it may be ‘24. This team is best case a couple years ago, worst case… more.
I think there is. This defense is extremely young and very scrappy. With a few more pieces, and a year of experience they may be decent next year. How does everyone everyone think this roster would fare
Re-sign
JRM, Anzalone, Walker, Raymond, Charles Harris, Hand
Release Trey Flowers and Jared Goff, restructure Vaitai
Sign Marcus Williams, Mike Williams, Mo Alie Cox, Cam Newton, and Kyle Fuller
Draft Thibodeaux, Treylon Burks, best ILBer available, and maybe a QB depending who is available
QB Newton, Blough, rookie
RB Swift, Williams, Jefferson
FB Cabina
WR Mike Williams, Burks, Cephus, Raymond, St Brown
TE Hockenson, Alie Cox
LT Decker
LG Jackson
C Ragnow
RG Vaitai/Evan Brown
RT Sewell, Nelson
DE Brockers, Onwuzurike, Hand
NT McNeil, Penisini
Edge Thibodeaux, Okwara, Okwara, Harris, Bryant
ILBer Anzalone, Barnes, Rookie, JRM
CB Okudah, Fuller, Amani, Parker, Melifonwu, Jacobs
S Marcus Williams, Tracy Walker, CJ Moore
K Seibert
P Fox
Obviously Newton (Or insert Fitzpatrick/Tyrod/Bridgewater) would stand out as the biggest question mark. With a top shelf Oline and running game though I think someone like Cam may fit. There would be weapons on offense in Swift Hockenson, Williams and Burks with plenty of role players. Defense would be young but filled with a lot of talent. That is a deep group of edge rushers and Walker and Williams might be the best safety combo we ever had. I don’t think this is unrealistic. Both the top FAs fill a major need and have a strong connection to this staff.
So all in all if the offseason went like this can the Lions compete on the Aaron Rodgers less (hopefully) NFC North.
I liked the entire post, except for your QB solution. Cam is older, more injured, and also not the type of leader for a Dan Campbell led team, IMO. I don’t see Cam as an upgrade, and he’s 100 years older than Goff too. We are not in “win now” mode. If we’re looking for stop-gap, we already have that (as a floor).
Additionally, Goof’s contract makes him untradable and un-cuttable next season.
To me, it feels like they have given him at least a 2 year commitment.
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Sure they’ll be better next year. It doesn’t take much to improve on 1 win-if they can get lucky and catch either Philly or Atlanta snoozing. Those are the only teams I can see the Lions stealing a win from. Next year they should have 4, 5 maybe even 6 wins. Possibly more if they bench Goff. Goff will hold them back. If they continue to use him next year, be ready for another top 5 draft pick.
Is there any way to trade Goff?
His best chance for success would be to be traded somewhere like New Orleans, Carolina, Denver or Washington where he is an upgrade over what they have there currently.
Then w take a 1 year rental on a journeyman QB like Dalton, Flacco, Fitzpatrick, Bridgewater, Trubisky, Tyrod Taylor and draft a new QB.
I don’t think Goff is a bad QB but it’s clear he won’t have success with the Lions and the longer he stays here the less valuable he is on the trade market.
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You can replace Cam with any vet QB option. I just think with this team built to run the football. Cam or Tyrod would make the most sense as a stop gap. I know Goff does not have weapons, but he has not flashed anything that has made me think he even has the potential to succeed long term. At the end of the day if we cut Goff in 2022 it would only save us 650k against the cap and create 30.5mil in dead money. That is obviously a lot, but I am of the mindset that by the end of this season, we will have seen enough of Goff to know he is not the answer. I would get out of his contract ASAP so we aren’t wasting dead money beyond next season when hopefully we will be competitive. It also saves us having to pay his 11mil base salary for 2022.
Was mostly trying to make the point that this year we have a lot of young players growing and developing and playing a lot of snaps. A lot of those guys should be our depth next year (Jacobs/JRM/Okwara/Bryant/Brown/Cephus/St. Brown/Nelson, etc). We are on our way to building a solid roster with some actual depth.
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A trade would be ideal, but who would take him as his salary? If we could trade him then that would be best as we would get something in compensation as well as free up over 16mil in cap space. If Holmes can pull that off I would be stoked. I think Goff had value last year, but unless something drastically changes, I think he tanked his value this year. Like I said above I get his weapons are terrible, but its not like he is making great throws and his guys are dropping the ball. Time and again he just blatantly missed open receivers and makes the wrong read. There are so many fundamental aspects of playing QB that he is failing miserably at. I think he is starting to show that without McVay he is more like the rookie QB that looked completely lost out there then the pro bowler who made the SB.
February posts in October, it’s gonna be a long wait to next season.
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Thats an annual tradtion for Lions fans. Gonna be weird not thinking about the off-season by week 6 if we ever start winning.
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Yep. I’m already doing mocks and scoped out a 2nd team for the playoffs. Sigh. It is what it is.
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They played meaningful games in December of 2017. It just seems like forever.
I’ve been a Lions fan since the late 90’s early 2000’s. I basically started watching religously right after Barry Retired (I’m, only 30). So my Lion’s glory years are the Scwartz/Caldwell era. I would say out of the past 20 years there may have been 4-5 years where we actually played truly meaningful football in December, and probably only 2 or 3 years where I thought this team could actually make a little noise in the playoffs if they made it. The joys of being a Lions fan. If only we could go back to the Calvin/Stafford/Bush/Suh/Levy/Quinn/Slay days where this team was a lot of fun to watch… Hopefully this staff gets back there and has even more success.
Yes there is hope.
Hope is why we have all come here to the Den.
Well that…and to bitch a wee bit.
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Goff could look better with better WRs and still not be good. I see a better Goff with new WRs as 6-7 win team. Witch isn’t were I wanna be.
I officially withdraw my support for Goff. th down and he throws the ball away again for the second time this season? Once I can somewhat understand. But twice!!!
This team is unwatchable now. Goff looks like a rookie who sucks and I can no longer justify the rookie mistakes he has made time and again. I don’t think we can win with a guy who forgets the down and who leaves yards on the field too often.
I even think it fair to openly question Dan Campbell now too. We all know the odds of a coach winning after being the head coach of a shit show like this.
Is there hope for 2022? My thought now is not if Goff is here. I am beyond frustrated right now. Wow.
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