I was a little confused by your response. Now I saw the post you were talking about… I did not see that the first time around. 
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TBH was curiuos if Mason Miller beat him out for an OL spot.
Really hope the Lions can keep Miller on the PS.
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Dortch and Conklin are likely back after week one. That way their contract is not fully guaranteed.
11 DL screams possible trade incoming
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I’ve been hearing all off season that the Lions want to be more versatile, have more movement and apply more pressure.
The preseason film has also shown Sheppard experimenting with TITE/MINT stunts and varied alignments.
Lots of movement and a heavy rotation is what I’m expecting this season.
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For sure. And with being able to carry 16 guys, including 6 vets on practice squad. GM’s have a lot of options roster wise. It’s really a 69 man roster.
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I would’ve preferred either to Hooker.
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To me, this has been the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in the preseason games. I love what the Lions are doing in terms of their aggressiveness and also it’s very clear there was a big internal push to increase the speed of the defense. I love that we are now beginning to shift towards sending pressure from everywhere. This is one of the things that I liked the most about the 2023 team. That team had a lot of defensive deficiencies, but they covered up for it by sending Iffy, Branch, and others on blitzes to get the QBs clocks moving quicker.
With our new DL type, it looks like our front should be a lot better at getting the QB to move off of the spot and not just waiting for Hutch to fight through two and 3 guys every down.
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Remember last year at this time entire wanted Meeks and not Lovett on the roster.
Well this year we got Meeks and not Lovett.
Definitely different than last year. Shit we had Alim playing defensive end last year some. And Reader and Lopez were both closer to 350 than 300. Definitely got more juice and less girth up front.
The best pressure is up the middle continent surprising. Having a two huge guys in the middle that just clog the lane and not rush the passer wasn’t much of a help for our secondary.
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Looks like a clear transition to pressure qb’s more. Now can we stop the run though?
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This is a cascade I go back to a lot
The what-if game with the NFL draft is impossible, but IF they had drafted RB middle rounds of ‘23 then they probably don’t make the move for Vaki in ‘24 which would have freed up more capital for guards and safeties
That’s my big question as well. When you are changing course, it’s easy to go too far the other way. I don’t think that is going to be an issue, and I think the Lions will have Smith back on the PS as a guy they can bring in against more run heavy teams. Lions have guys who can stop the run, but we ultimately won’t know until the games start for real. I definitely understand everything has a give and take, I am just happy to see that the Lions got serious about their pass rush deficiencies and are trying to address it. I am really excited to see what the rebuilt defense can do. One of my favorite games last year is the Ravens game, and getting to see Kelvin Sheppard scheme up a way to stop Lamar.
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And the starters still have plenty of size. The NASCAR package should be fun. Lots of options. I expect to see a lot of Moore and SGH on 3rd downs
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My bigger gripe, and I’m pretty certain that you agree from prior takes, is more tactical. Evals are hard. You are going to miss. But you can deploy tactics that allow for more shots on goal.
Brad’s evals have overall been quite good but his tactics to both allow for a margin of safety as well as potential further upside via additional picks leaves something to be desired.
I’m hopeful that we are starting to play the comp pick game which will help.
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I’m of the belief that the actual structure of your front and your alignment is as important to stopping the run as anything. It’s also very hard for gap scheme teams to adjust to a team that stunts against the run game.
One of the many lessons to be learned from Indiana’s run in college football last year is that football can be made more schematic that we ever thought previously. Their work using stunts in the run game was something I hadn’t personally seen before, but it gave great running teams fits. Miami had the best OL in college football and they couldn’t figure it out. I’d love for us to be the team that starts using that approach at the NFL level.
Here’s some clips from Cody Alexander of the national championship game:
https://youtube.com/shorts/LRZIsA1K3es?si=EDS1TLB6uHUCof2M
https://youtube.com/shorts/l0g6dDQBE-0?si=WZ5oBwgfK-dg-CpO
Another video about how they attack protections:
https://youtu.be/pjeNHpGR83A?si=yHxvhxEQvgHWLBfd
All that to say…if we’re coached correctly, stopping the run shouldn’t be an issue with our personnel and philosophy on the defensive line.
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Yeah, this describes it perfectly
I didn’t hate the Hooker/Martin picks. They identified their guys then got them. Didn’t work out.
It was the subsequent decison making in ‘24 (especially) and ‘25 that challenged the depth and that they are still digging out of. Holmes is a terrific evaluator of talent, both amateur and under the radar pro, which gives him a lot of latitude. I do wish he would be more humble when it comes to his own limitations. Once you get past the first couple of rounds, if you are running out of guys in buckets then you just didn’t work hard enough.
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Yeah I largely agree with this as well. I’ve had to accept that he just doesn’t value picks, which hurts my drafter’s heart. But that HAS to be the case, given how inflexible he is in every other aspect of GMing. He won’t overpay in player trades. He sets a market contract value in FA and holds tight to it. Stubbornly enough that it infuriates people. And yet he’s so cavalier with picks. The only conclusion that can be drawn is he just doesn’t value them that highly. Especially from the 3rd round on.
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entirely? This would be totally against their stated philosophy of giving everyone an equal chance. They’ve seen both of these guys day in and day out, and for more than one year — certainly for more than just the three pre-season games that we see. They are both still young and have alot of development before them. I doubt they kept Rake only because of his draft position.
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Agree completely. We’re making our judgment calls with like, 30% of the info from the outside looking in. They get to see them in practice, in the building, their work habits, etc… Frankly it’s very presumptuous of us to think we would make a better decision, even though sometimes we end up being right.
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