No pressure, Brad. This is only the most important offseason in modern Lions history

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The Rams made the highly questionable moves of:

  • Dumping the young-ish QB that had taken them to a Super Bowl, had multiple seasons with playoff victories, and who they’d just given a huge second contract to.

  • Paying a king’s ransom for a 33-year-old QB who’d never won much of anything, who had some history of inconsistency and who’d recently had two seasons of back injuries.

  • Taking a general approach of discarding high draft picks in favor of trades, free agents and going all-in to win now.

It was risky as hell, and just entirely paid off for the Rams.

Now, what about the Lions?

I contend that this is the most important off-season since at least 2000, when they over-reacted to Paul Edinger’s last-second, 55-yard-field goal knocking them out of the playoffs, swept house and hired Matt Millen.

Oops.

From a draft compensation standpoint, the Lions just got the worst possible scenario. 32nd. Ugh.

Perhaps the Lions can take heart – it looks like MAYBE this Rams team isn’t built to go on a several-seasons run; it probably can’t resign everybody. So maybe next year’s 1st-rounder will be quite a bit better.

Then again, I was under the impression their offensive line was going to be considerably worse this year, and the way it protected Stafford was a key to this run to a championship.

The whole idea of moving Stafford was predicated on getting a bunch of draft capital that fuels the rebuild. And the Lions did.

Now, Brad Holmes must deliver on bringing the foundation to the Lions’ next successful run with those picks, and their own picks.

If they hit, this team will be in contention for NFC North titles and playoff runs beyond one-and-dones for the rest of the 2020s.

If Holmes fails, we get more of this shit.

I can’t remember a more crucial off-season. Am I wrong?

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I just see it as a stay the course off season.

Yes, he needs to hit on the picks. He needs to hit on every high pick this year and next. He needs to finish clearing the dead weight. Continue to lay the foundation they want.

Must see continued improvement. Record needs to reflect that improvement. Can’t be a 3 win team again without an undeniable reason. Losing 75% of your starters by mid season undeniable.

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Agreed - this team needs to make significant strides in the w/l column next year AND add foundational players in the draft. 4-5 more foundational pieces with 1 -2 game changes should position us nicely going forward. Really need 4 impact players in my opinion. WR,Edge,LB and safety.

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Out of the four picks in the first three rounds of the draft, really want to see three starters and a rotational depth piece at a minimum. That depth piece should be ready to take over once a contract ends if they need or injury requires with little drop off in play from the starter.

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Agreed .Homes is on the clock

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I agree that’s it’s the most important offseason in modern Lions history… because it’s the current offseason. That makes it the most important.

But just last offseason we were tasked with hiring the coach and the GM to lead us into the next decade. If we got those wrong then it won’t matter what we do this offseason.

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Brad was referd by his old boss , so he was helping his old boss questioning nothing .He yelling In front of owner on draft day don’t say much good about him. His chain and suit might be from the first pay check . We will see if he was doing donut meeting or Good very soon . I want in my dual threat quarterback, But he brought a weak arm qb

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Yeah, I think every offseason is critical in the moment.

For Holmes, this season is important but if he blows his picks, next season would be more important.

If he has a great FA and draft season, the Lions will be fighting for WC spot. Then next season is even more critical because the expectations ramp up.

Every year is critical in its own way.

I especially liked the concept that last offseason was critical— choosing your new GM and coach!!

Maybe we could say this offseason could be the most “consequential” in this century— because of the added cap availability and extra Rd1 pick.

Even that would be wrong because last offseason was huge…

:grinning:

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Agree with you generally, but I think they were already paying Goff a king’s ransom.

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Well…
I like the way Campbell has this team playing hard.
All I have to say about Brad is, T. Williams and Perriman.
I’ll give him credit for picking up Josh Reynolds, but, he single handedly wasted the first half of the season.

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He went bargain shopping to try to find something that might be worth bringing back the following year. Missed with Perriman and Williams. Seems to have hit with Reynolds.

The goal was to not invest a ton long term. Goal accomplished.

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To me, anyway, it goes beyond this.

The Lions have three picks in the top 34. If they get starters out of those picks, we’re on our way to being a contender. If they don’t, if they are Bob Quinn-esque, we don’t have another Matthew Stafford to trade. It will be this 2-to-7 wins thing in perpetuity.

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It depends if you hit on it. If so it’s the best spot in round 1 due to the financial value the slot delivers.

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And then all our draft picks blow their respective Achilles’ tendon out in TC and then what?

Simply an over reaction here on the op, but it is just an opinion

Every year, every draft pick, FA UDFA and everything else is critical at its own time….

It’s t he preverbal “it only take one awshit To wipe ten ataboys in a row”!

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I dunno. I don’t see this draft as being any more crucial than any other year. Every draft has its needs, pressures and expectations. They just have more publicity for this one. Mostly due to the expanded coverage. There’s more media, more discussion, more information and especially more people can access much of this information. 20, 30 years ago there wasn’t much media coverage on the draft. Now, not only do ‘we’ have access, we can look up any and all information about all of the players, we can discuss it all. Often to insane lengths. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what ‘we’ think or who we want them to pick. And that’s how it should be. Sometimes more information is too much information. Especially in the wrong minds.
I think they know where they need improvement and will concentrate on those positions/players they think will improve this team. No more pressure than last year and no more than previous years. Next year might be different though, depending on how/if they improve in 2022. Last year and this year are the rebuild beginning. They’ll draft, sign FA’s, play the season, evaluate, repeat. 2023’s when shit needs to happen.

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We will need a Pittsburgh Steelers type draft where they chose 4 Hall of Famers in the same draft, just to get this team to .500 in 2022. LOL

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I’m totally sold on Brad. Sure he made some mistakes in FA but there was some quality dumpster diving as well and I love his first draft. I’m mostly sold on DC. Still would like for him to be a bit more risk averse at times but certainly more good than bad IMO.

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When you’re the lions every off-season is important. Generally you have to build through the draft and make smart FA moves.

If you’re not willing to back up the brinks and hand out bad contracts you aren’t going to get the top shelf FA only those looking to get one last payday or those looking for expanded roles (risky but Preferred route).

You absolutely have to hit on draft picks. Our record of 2nd rd disasters are well documented. If we get solid staters from our 2nd rounders of the past and this is a completely different team.

Just continue to make smart moves like taking advantage of UDFA, handing out prove it deals, and drafting BPA eventually this tanker gets turned around.

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I totally agree that this off season is MASSIVELY important. This is 2010.

Mayhew had a VERY solid draft in 2009. Stafford, Pettigrew, Delmas (yep, injury concerns), LBer Levy (a brilliant pick) and then WR Derrick Williams. Also DT Sammie Lee Hill. We had promise with that draft. FAR from perfect but very solid.

Then came 2010. Suh (brilliant), Best (reaching for a HR when a single would have been nice), Spievey (injuries BUT…we never knew where to play him!) and OT Jason Fox. Just not enough. Best was electric when healthy but we got 15 games out of him total before his career ended.

Injuries are going to play a roll but Holmes needs to avoid the Wammie and he needs to find a productive player to add with the Rams pick AND we need additional value past the early draft picks.

We cannot afford a repeat of 2010. We need to string together two or more positive off-seasons something Detroit has rarely done if we are going to turn this club around.

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Holmes could hit on most of his picks, have a good, active season in free agency and it don’t mean squat if our players KEEP GETTING HURT!!

Yeah I get injuries are a part of football, but every year we seem to get nailed by the injury bug more than almost any other team. Last year was crushing. We had so many injuries to key guys, I’m not sure where this team ends up if MOST of our anticipated starters were available.

According to a stat I saw, Lions were fifth in the league through week 16 in man-games lost due to injury.