Really looking forward to that wonderful matchup, haha
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No I’m not arguing that. I’m saying there will be some fantasy players on the Lions that non-Lions fans will want to follow.
So really man. Let’s follow your logic:
You: The lions don’t have any fantasy players worth caring about
Me: I don’t think that’s true. They have some players who will be starters on fantasy teams…
You: Are you trying to argue the Lions have a star studded roster?
Dude, I generally like your posts but ease up on the broad-brushing and straw men
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Honestly, I am in a particularly combative mood today for no good reason, so I should probably step away from the keyboard…
FWIW, I am not trying to claim the Lions have no one that’s rostered on any fantasy teams. I’m claiming that the overall lack of star power on this team holds across the board, and makes the Lions an unattractive pick for a primetime matchup no matter how you look at it.
Like, just as an example, if Carolina is a terrible team with an anonymous QB, no receivers, and no real shot of playoffs, BUT they have the #1 fantasy player in a healthy Christian McCaffrey, that’s at least something TV networks can get behind to sell them in a prime time matchup. There is nobody on the Lions roster, from a fantasy perspective or otherwise, that has that kind juice. Though again, I think and hope that’s about to change.
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It’s also interesting when you go back and look at thanksgiving opponents. The lions are almost always scheduled one of the top teams in the league and the Cowboys usually get a much softer opponent. We get to play the Colts with Manning, the Saints with brees, or this year we get the bills. The Cowboys, at the same time, have gotten teams like the Raiders, redskins, or eagles. One of these days I’m going to look at the winning percentage of lions thanksgiving opponents. We get the best teams in the league and then they complain when we don’t win consistently.
That’s a tough argument to support. Over the years the lions have had high end players and yet we still hear they want to take the game away from Detroit.
I don’t put anything past the league office anymore, but I’m not sure how it benefits anybody to schedule marquis matchups that are likely to be routs. Like, if you’re showcasing your game for non-hardcore football fans, which Thanksgiving is definitely about, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to schedule a massacre.
My guess: for a game that will be seen by a huge number of casual fans, the league wants to make sure it has some star power. Since the Lions don’t have any, that means we’re likely to be facing a star QB. Which means we’re likely to get smoked.
It kinda makes sense? Like, people know nothing about the NFL are probably more interested in watching Tom Brady throw bombs all day than watching evenly matched teams full of guys they’ve never heard of.
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I mean, the Lions are currently on their third total rebuild since 2009. They’ve won one playoff game in 60 years. If I worked for the league office, I’d be advising them to try to get the Lions off everybody’s TV every Thanksgiving too.
well that’s a bit of a backpedal. You literally wrote the lions ‘don’t have any’ fantasy players worth caring about.
I said that’s probably not true and then you accused me of saying they were ‘star-studded’
In the context of generating excitement for prime-time matchups, which is the subject we’re talking about, the Lions do not have any players worth caring about. This is a fact. I’m not backpedaling on that at all.
I don’t actually believe you read my post and interpreted it as me saying “The Lions don’t have a single player on anyone’s fantasy roster, anywhere,” so I’m going to assume you’re doing a bit of straw-manning here yourself.
64 years 
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Fair enough enough. As far as the NFL, they’ve always been shady so nothing new here.
this is exactly what you wrote:
“…it’s not like the Lions have had any fantasy players worth caring about (broad brush) either since Stafford left”
(also noteworthy to point out that Stafford was a middle tier fantasy QB with the Lions)
this is exactly what I replied:
“I don’t think that’s quite true. Swift, Hockenson, and now Amon Ra are going to be on a lot of fantasy teams.”
This is exactly what you then replied to me:
“Are you seriously trying to argue with me that the Lions have a star-studded roster (strawman) that people who aren’t diehard Detroit fans give one second of thought to? Seriously man, I love the optimism, but you need to take off the Honolulu blue goggles.” (ridicule)
Backing up a little, it was a pretty casual conversation and I was agreeing with Peabody about viewing habits. I pointed out that anecdotally, most the younger NFL fans that I know don’t watch to watch teams per se. They watch to follow their FF league. And furthermore seek out Red Zone just to watch scoring across the league
I wasn’t making a broad brush argument that the current FF players from the Lions warrant network prime time matchups
But you came swooping in anyway like the thread crusader waving around your broad brushes
My knee jerk thought was KC. Maybe PIT?
I bet the NFC North is pretty good across the board.
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pretty darn close…
OK, we are officially beating this to death… But I think the “broad brush” thing is a bit of selective reading. Reading the sentence in context should make it clear what I was saying: that the Lions don’t have enough star power, even from a fantasy perspective, to warrant marquee matchups.
Football fans will reliably watch whatever garbage the league puts on TV if there’s nothing else on. But from the league’s perspective, the goal is to use prime time games to capture casual fans. And as you say in another post, even if casual fans care more about their fantasy lineup than any given team, it’s not like the Lions have had any fantasy players worth caring about either since Stafford left.
**> **
> …The Lions are a rebuilding team coming off a 3-win season, with zero established stars, and at least at this point, very little to recommend them to anyone who’s not already invested.
That’s all I’m saying: for a casual fan or even a diehard fantasy player, the Lions have nothing to draw eyeballs for prime time games, so we shouldn’t expect the league and TV networks to schedule them. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible that somebody’s matchup on a given week will come down to whether Hockenson gets a TD. But c’mon, we’re talking about what the Lions have to offer non-Lions fans tuning into marquee games. It’s hard to argue they offer much of anything at all.
Don’t care at all.
- Second easiest schedule in the league.
- Second least amount of distance of travel this year in the league.
- Most consistent week in and week out schedule (minus Thanksgiving) in the league.
I’ll take that 10 out of 10 times. Want a primetime game, make the playoffs.
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Being out of state primetime games meant we were able to watch them live when i was a kid, since I am an adult and get Sunday Ticket…it matters not at all to me now.
It is what it is…winning fixes all of that.
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They’re in one of the most well-known and watched games all year on Thanksgiving. I don’t get how people don’t understand this.
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They’ll want us on prime time next year because of Williams. Williams is going to open it up more for the RBs. Our offense should be amazing. Chark, Reynolds, Swift, Williams (speed), w/our OL…nasty.
That’s interesting and really speaks to maybe a generational difference in how people watch and enjoy sports.
For me, it’s the battle… how does a team start, when do they lull, how do they get it back together to win? Right now with the nba and especially nhl playoffs and all those game 7s, that to me is the most interesting part… the ebb and flow of the game, how certain players perform in those ebbs and flows. I suppose a similar perspective is had with baseball. Just the overall play and how teams play. But then I guess that’s why I like watching games and always liked watching teams first and then appreciating the players second, or on a 1A level. But really interesting observation
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