Don’t disagree at all. I would say though that Rams have a definite spoil of riches above and beyond a normal functioning team
I think Stafford is a very good quarterback who should win on Sunday and is in a better spot now than he ever had with the Lions. My disappointment with Stafford goes to the year before the 2014 playoff loss. We should have won the division. All we had to do was win once against average teams the second half of the year. Stafford had several terrible games in a row. Total meltdown. Inaccurate and interceptions galore
But you are very right in since then, the organization had made bad decisions. Stafford, for his part, became a much better QB after Caldwell worked on his mechanics and even benched him for a game. I would have loved to have kept Caldwell. I was one of the only posters at the time not calling for his head.
We all know what happened then - Good for Stafford that he’s with a better team that can give him more opportunities. I’m glad he got a chance to reinvent himself and we got some draft capital for a rebuild I think we are (so far) doing right
I want to meet you halfway, but have you even watched the second half of the Dallas Wildcard game since it was live? I’ve watched it more times than I would like to admit, longing for a victory that I truly believe should have been ours.
Yes, we scored three points. And you want to blame Stafford for that. Maybe a lot of time that is a reasonable response. But that wasn’t really the tale of the tape. I suggest going back and watching that second half again. Stafford played really really well in that half. That game was lost due to the fortune of the Gods and somewhat due to some very bad play on the part of other Lions.
A very wild and frustrating game that came down to the wire and some bad bounces. A lot of playoff games are like that.
Then you should know he played pretty well. The INT came on the first play of the 2nd half and it was because the Riley Reiff let him man drive him back into Stafford and it went straight up into the air I’m not talking about the specific screenshots of the final drive, and the penalty, I’m talking about the whole half. There wasn’t a ton he could do. Most all of his passes were right on, save for a few crucial key tipped balls and the penalty. I mean you could go back to the third down that led to the FG and Tate fell down before the pass got there. At one point, Aikman called his pass “a perfect throw” and it was beautiful. Few QBs could have made that throw.
I agree with the first sentence but the second is debatable. The Rams gave away 2022 1st, 2nd, and 3rd picks and 2023 1st and 4th to be able to compete this year in the SB. You will be hard pressed to find any other team in the NFL that has done that in the last 10 years as an investment to win the SB. This wasn’t about improving the team to make the playoffs, this was to win the SB, make no mistake about it. They had already been in the playoffs 3 of the last 4 before this year.
I agree that the Rams are taking a bit of an outside the box approach (or at least turning the win through free agency approach up to 11). BUT, the difference between the Rams (and the rest of the NFL) as opposed to the Lions is that they have something resembling a plan and they’ve taken concerted, focused, and active steps to implement it.
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?”
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?
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.
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.
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.