My wife, who not only has no interest in any of this, but even cuts me off if I start telling her about forum conversations, after casually listening in on NFL Live describe LA’s mandate to win: “Seems like the Rams just really want to win. Have the Lions tried that?”
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Sort of.
While they certainly did this to improve their chances of winning it all this year, Stafford still has many years left in the tank.
He’s only 33.
They did it to compete this year and to have a better QB in place for the next 5+ years.
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Plan? what’s a plan? Some random guy: Take Brian Calhoun!
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I met Suh in Portland after his rookie year and he was great. Very polite. Appreciative of me supporting the team. Out of all of the pro athletes that I’ve met he was actually one of the nicest. It does seem that he changed a bit as he went further into his time in Detroit though.
The problem is they are going to be in CAP hell in 2 years, so that supporting cast Stafford has won’t be around for long and now the Rams have no picks to fill the pipeline with quality rookies on rookie contracts. Let’s see how they look in 2024
Because like you said the Lions were so miserable at drafting and signing FA’s and hiring head coaches that they were never in a position to do what the Rams just did. It will be interesting to see if DC and Holmes stay on track with their approach on this rebuild. If they do then in a couple years the Lions just may be in that position to trade some picks for known good to great players.
Which makes me wonder, is it possible that they stick with Goff longer than expected and take the same route as the Rams, get the rest of the team set and then make a trade for a high caliber QB instead of rolling the dice in the draft?
Didn’t he have a broken finger with torn ligaments and was playing with a glove that year.
I know there were two years he hurt his hand because the OL couldn’t give him a clean pocket to stand in.
Wasn’t this one of this years?
I think it was
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I think they’ll hold onto Goff until they can identify and afford a better option. Given his contract next season, it looks like he’ll be under center for at least one more season.
The route of building a team from the ground up, acquiring solid pieces via FA, and then nabbing a proven veteran to pull it altogether looks like an alternative to drafting a QB and crossing your fingers he works out.
Tampa and LA are proof this works. Hell, you can probably include SF in that conversation.
Buffalo, KC, and Cincy suggest otherwise.
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I don’t know about that.
It looks to me like they should be fine.
Especially considering the quality of players they will have signed.
I agree, the Lions plans have always been all over the place. First place to look is at the GM position, most want to blame coaches but ultimately it is the GM that establishes those plans and ensures execution to building a winner. Past GM’s and records for the lions:
Russ Thomas 67-88 1 - 1st, 8- 2nds in division made 3 playoffs (0-3)
Chuck Schmidt 89-2000 2 -1st, 2 - 2nds in division made 6 playoffs (1-6)
Since then well the Millen, Mayhew, and Quinn days. Too depressing to put the records up here but 2 2nds and 3 playoff loses in 20 years.
Here is to hoping Holmes is the right man!
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Who would that be? right now the top 6 players on the roster are taking up over 60% of the Cap.
Most of the contracts expire in 2024, Staffords in 2023. So let’s see what happens when they can’t resign alot of these players.
Yep, 2 different approaches to filling that QB spot. Will be interesting to see which approach they take and I think it really depends on what QB’s will be available via draft, FA, or trade
BTW…I would have a hard time including SF in that, they took a gamble on someone who was barely a starter in NE. It may still payoff but we shall see.
In 2023 they’ll have the following under contract and at least $70 million in cap space.
Ramsey
Donald
Floyd
Kupp
Woods
Higbee
Akers
Jefferson
Looks like a pretty damn good group to me.
After 2 or 3 Super Bowls
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Thanks for making my point, in 2024 they will be in trouble
People tend to focus on that one play to Pettigrew as the reason we lost…but 6 points in 3 quarters is really why we lost.
After the 1st quarter:
Punt
Punt
FG
Interception
FG
Punt
Punt
Downs
Lots of working parts that led to us losing that game, the offense was one of the reasons why we lost.
I don’t think we scored any points since 8:44 left in the 3rd Quarter.
I don’t solely blame Stafford for the loss but I do think he should burden some of that blame.
His passer rating that game was 87.7, his passer ratings the last two playoff games with the Rams, 154.5 and 121.2.
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There’s a thing here we are discovering about ourselves.
It’s not just magic beans.
It’s magic cap, too.
This deserves its own thread.
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Closing this as its way off topic. Continuing latter part of conversation here: Magic beans, magic cap