Not sure about that. I thought we played incredibly sloppy. Mostly self destructive rather than forced upon us. We win by two scores if we play decently clean.
Minnesota should tear the thing down but apparently the Wilfs push back on that heavily.
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Lions have young players continuing to develop. If you took the 20 best players in the NFC North who are 3 complete years or less, the Lions probably have half of them. Our young core is better than any team in the North and it isnāt even close.
What that means is the Lions are drafting smarter than the rest.
The Lions have the 2nd most cap space in the North. (barely behind the Bears) to continue to grow. Bears 63 mil, Lions 57 mil, Vikes 34 mil, Packers 6 mil. This is for next year.
So not only do the Lions have the best grouping of young players, the best drafting record, but they also have the far more cap space than the Packers and Vikings that people tend to worry about.
Lions have one of the lowest amounts of dead cap in the league now after being one of the worst under pretty much all previous regimes. We currently own less than a million in dead cap next year.
Lions also have about 11 mil in club option voidable years to free up another 11-12 mil in cap space.
The Lions also can look forward to having CJGJ next year. Houston next year. On top of whatever other moves they make.
We have the best QB in the North.
We have the best coach in the North.
We have the best GM in the North.
Personally I donāt see the concern. Not only are the Lions the best team in the North right now, they have the team that is best set up for the future.
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Packers will be legit competition moving forward.
- I believe youngest team in the NFL
- They are pretty solid in the trenches (Both sides of the ball-which is why I am good with Holmes targeting Oline & Dline in the draft)
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This is a BNL fan attitude. This is how we all need to be thinking. Trust in Brad. This team is going to get better and better every year. Screw the rest of the NFL, who cares. Im sure Brad has a plan to get a legit shut down cornerā¦ DTā¦DE/Edgeā¦OL depth.
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I think he put one in place this year, he just went down early. Moseley I mean.
He also brought in the 2022 NFL leader in INTs (CJGJ) to the team and was lost.
He made moves, that often gets overlooked. Sutton at 2, and Mosely at 1 is very different than Sutton at 1 and Jacobs at 2 with Walker over the middle rather than CJGJ.
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And likely to get a massive DC improvement soon.
But QB
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Love your optimism!!
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I know you all think Iām crazy but if the Bears trade down and end up with something like Fashanu and MHII or even Nabors and then run it back that I will find scary. They are already a brutal matchup for us.
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They are young but those numbers are skewed a bit.
For instance the Packers have 4 rookie TEs on their roster. That is goign to become 4 all pros. they also have 5 rookie WRs. They arenāt keeping them all. It goes on like that.
What I donāt see in their youth is a St. Brown. LaPorta. A Gibbs. ect.
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Love it, bro! DiDnāt want that post to end
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YEp!!!
100%. We see the development of players like AA, Joseph, Branch, Iffy, Barnes, etcā¦but so many overlook that we get better from within.
People act like they expect Bro-Mart to be a bust. I expect him to have a great developmental curve and be a really nice piece for the defense for a long time.
I do too, but I donāt see it as optimism as much as honest to got faith in the staffā¦it is no less prognostication than the most negative of the negative Nanciesā¦
This is our honest take, not just optimism. Real faith. Real prognostication. The way society is programmed to āexpect the worst,ā and that way you arenāt let downā¦thatās garbage way to live your life. Constant fear, instead of celebrating life. You donāt have to be let down when things dont go the way you want either.
You all know my take on the Lions & what I expect.
If that were to not come true, I would be FINEā¦as long as there is progress.
Coach Dan will eventually get us a SB (or 3ā¦4ā¦5?). Watch!
Broā¦we all have neighbors
The Bears have a couple of big calls to make at HC and QB in the off season.
I think Eberflous is a very good defensive coach and the way his defence has played over the last six weeks or so may well be enough to save his job. But is he capable of sorting the offence?
I think the Bears should move on from Fields, I get why they might not want to - he throws a decent deep ball and his legs are a serious weapon. But he is just so flawed as a QB when he has to do the nickel and dime stuff you need your QB to do when he has to stay in the pocket. I donāt see how you can really build a consistent offence around him without gimmicks.
So do you trust Eberflous to develop Caleb Williams into a high level QB in the pros? Do you take Harrison at 1 or trade back and take a different QB and let him sit for a year behind fields?
The Bears have the draft capital and cafor the next decade but is Ryan Poles the guy you want making these calls?
Green Bay probably need another year or two to get out from Rodgers cap hit but if they upgrade their DC are probably a play off team in 2024.
The Vikings are in a weird spot. What do they do at QB? I doubt there is any kind of upgrade to be had in FA over Kirk, do they run it back one more year with him coming off an Achilles injury or make a move for a rookie QB - if the latter then they probably need to do a reset and get their cap in order. Jefferson may well look to leave. I think OāConnell looks a decent coach but a rookie QB will bring uncertainty
check my quick math but the North already has more wins as a division than the other three
I may be full of shit but cap space in the NFL is a joke.
Minny has the next best HC in the NFC North. Iāve grown to respect him more, along with Stefanski in Cleveland and Bowles in TB. I wouldnāt take any of them over Campbell, and Bowlesās conservative nature leans a bit too close to Caldwell on the scale, but itās working.
The other 2 teams have coaches that donāt inspire confidence. Even so, theyāre both sitting on significant draft capital and could see rosters built that even a middling coach can find success with:
The NFCN is already the second-best division based on total number of wins, and itās only going to get better. Thereās no slouch in the division. Losing to the Bears on the road is not really something thatās Super Bowl champions do, but theyāre decent.
Itās going to be very tough to win going forward and even with some improvements on defense next year we could get in a situation where weāre happy to settle for the wild card.
But this has been the story of the NFC North and Central for the past 40 years. I still have to go back and do a more rigorous analysis, but a couple of weeks ago I looked at the number of times that each division was won by a team that only had nine wins. Almost every year thereās a division thatās absolutely putrid, this year itās the NFC South, and all you have to do is win eight or nine games to take the division. That has happened the least number of times in the NFC Central and North. Basically you always have to get to 10 wins. The division is never bad. And it looks like thatās going to be continuing for the next few years.
I like the trajectory of the Lions organization and team. I think we have the real deal and will be able to compete for the division year in and year out for quite a while. I also recognize it may be a dog fight. I think that is a good thing. Iron sharpens iron. If we are competing with the best within our division it only makes us stronger in the playoffs and dare I say it - The Super Bowl.
Yup. Feels like our division is evolving into one of the tougher divisions in football
The Vikes are trending down. Cousins injured and free agent. Hock likely out long term. Jefferson wants about 400 million. They got some real tough decisions.
The Pack and Bears are both improving and young. But so are the Lions. Several of the Lions best players are just scratching the surface.
Most importantly the Lions have the best QB in the division
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