Sandman of the old den is now part of a pretty awesome podcast and they were down in Mobile for the Senior Bowl. They did a wrap up podcast last night and addressed a lot of stuff from the national media reaction to the lions practices, MP’s coaching style and his maturation and also overall the teaching going on from all the coaches.
Sandman has been pretty against MP the last two years so this isn’t a fluff piece slappy podcast.
Side note: lions really like KJ Hill. Multiple podcasts raving about him. There have been comparisons to Tate in his ability to change direction.
Warning to my fellow couch potatoes. There is a lot of appreciation for Matt Patricia in here. It may challenge your belief that you’re smarter than the HC, so be warned. Don’t want to ruin your weekends by popping your “smarter than Matt Patricia” bubble.
With re to Matt Patricia, what I heard is that we hired a fairly incompetent guy who didn’t even talk to Stafford or the O but now he seems to be better. For me there was nothing that didn’t say they made a mistake in hiring him. You get rid of a guy with a winning record to bring in a guy who isn’t anywhere close to hitting the ground running. So, they feel better about him now than they did because he’s learning the job. That’s suppose to make me feel good? They talked about how he REALLY wants to win this game. Well, for his sake I hope he does. It was a good listen but excuse me if I don’t jump on a boat that hasn’t had it’s oars in the water. The fans deserve better.
Thinks Okudah has to be the pick so we can stick to MPs scheme… Apparently MP said the coverage makes the pass rushers better opposed to pass rushers helping the coverage. I get it, but not really… Works both ways but MP/Patriots like coverage more.
Thats a big issue IMO… Have to cover for a very long time if we don’t get at least 1 very very good/great pass rusher. If we aren’t getting home in 3-4 seconds on average and have to cover 5+ seconds continuously then it opens our DBs up for greater risk of drawing a flag AND our pass rushers will get fatigued twice as fast as the opponents TOP will continue to be more than ours. Not to mention it gives more time to throw the ball which will make a less than average QB look like a HoFer…
There was so much talk by the coaches and FO in how much they valued versatility in player skill AND scheme to be able to get after an offense every way possible. Could be something different each week, we were lead to believe. But that’s far from what we seen in 2019.
I know we had key injuries on the DL but some might not be back, some may retire and others that were hurt may not return to what they were. Too many question marks there to not address it a couple times either big FA pickup or early in the draft.
A lot will ride on what ends up happening with Slay of course.
What they’ve said (Pasqualoni in particular) is it’s a marriage. We all know that, though. It’s football 101.
What we want are man corners. I’m 100% for that. Despite what you may have heard, Slay is an excellent man corner himself. It’s not just about coverage, it’s about the way the games are officiated. If we’re off-man or zone as much as we used to be, then those games where you play stickier coverage you end up getting called for penalties that a man-first team doesn’t usually get called for.
Also despite what you hear around here, the team does not want a QB to have all day. They want to get pressure on the QB. The apply pressure pre-snap through disguise, then through mixed coverage and collapsing the pocket. We failed at collapsing the pocket. Worst in the league at it, in fact. That’s not a scheme or coaching issue, that was a personnel issue.
And they addressed that in the podcast saying that we should get someone in FA who can pressure the QB. So, what I’m hearing is that we need to invest another $17 million per year because even though we are already paying one guy that much we aren’t getting enough pressure so we need to do it again. Or how’s about bringing pressure from time to time just to let our opponents know that it isn’t totally off the table? It seemed to me that we just went an entire season trying to make guys work in a system that they couldn’t be successful in, why aren’t we making adjustments to the talent instead of the other way around?
The goal was to bring material to the den that some might not have access to. I am glad you enjoyed listening to it.
Personally, I took their insights as showing how the coach has grown and matured over the last two years. His not talking to Stafford or the offense isn’t a good look and that’s why I believe this podcast is an unbiased observer. They will call MP and the staff out when they are wrong and they are also there to acknowledge growth and development. Sandman and Rison have been critical of the regime over the last two years. Mobile was eye opening for some in regards to MP and the staff’s coaching and attention to detail.
I have also heard that Okudah is the guy, for what it is worth. Who knows if it will play out that way with trades and if other teams make a play for him.
I posted the snap counts in another thread. What we had in the way of pressure from the interior was nil. Snacks, when healthy, is a 2-down double-team-absorbing anchor, not a pass-rusher. Even he was not able to compete at full health this year.
Hand, who is legitimately good, posted only a fraction of the snaps that they expected him to.
This isn’t hard to figure out. They lacked horses.
Yes, big time, and even if everyone is re-signed and come back healthy it’s still a huge question mark. Can’t have a repeat of the stable running dry in 2020 too.
You’re right, it isn’t hard to figure out at all. When they lacked the players for their system to work they didn’t alter the plan. Look, I know we had an avalanche of injuries, but does that make up for their neglect of making scheme changes? For their D to work they absolutely need pressure from up the middle for Trey Flowers to be successful. Shouldn’t have to when you pay a guy that kind of money but it is what it is. Hand absolutely can be that guy from time to time but an every down guy in the middle who can collapse the pocket is what we need. Not sure who might be available in FA and not sure Brown can be that guy from the draft. If we don’t alter how we play the game to mask weaknesses we will once again be in for a long season. I’m for bringing Daniels back on the right deal because he has been that guy in the past. If he isn’t up to it, fine, find someone who is. I just have a really hard time understanding how we have this defensive genius who doesn’t seem to be able to play the hand he’s dealt.
I’m not going to defend the amount of money they spent on Flowers. I understand that when you drop that kind of coin on an edge player, he should be a legit pass-rusher. Really, I agree pretty much with most of what you said. Flowers absolutely needs help. The middle absolutely needs to be better. Hand on a rotation is absolutely where I’d like to see him. Daniels on a reduced contract for sure. It’s 2 new healthy 20-somethings that we need in the middle and there will be a good handful of them available in FA. Snacks and Robinson are the odd men out. FA1 and FA2 start, Hand, Daniels and Strong rotate. Hopefully Bryant is an upgrade to Okwara and life becomes a little easier on Kennard and Flowers with the added help.
Maybe is he adjusting and playing the hand he is dealt and it could be far worse? A guy who has built his reputation on being flexible and being able to coach up players does not all of a sudden forget how to do that. This defense is lacking closers and hopefully we get some of those in this draft and FA.
Flowers is a decent pressure guy who gets you 7 sacks per year. More like a 10 million dollar player than an 18 million dollar player. It was a bad contract that will likely only look worse as time goes on.
Flowers is probably a top 15-20 DE in this league. Did they overpay for him? Probably b depending on how the next collective bargaining agreement turn out his contract may not look so bad towards the end of it.
. Quinn and Patricia thought it was and I guess New England did not.