When I look around at players and teams I like to find a player who plays like player X and a team who the Lions might look like in some way. I want to focus on the 11-5 Indy Colts from 2020 and the7-9 Colts from 2019.
The 2019 Colts featured the coach that got away (Josh McDaniels) and the guy who wanted the job (Frank Reich took the job). The 2019 Colts went 7-9 and scored the 16th most points and allowed the 18th most points. Solid with Jacoby Brissett as your QB. No WR had more than 72 targets or 607 yards. Marlon Mack was their lead RB and he had 247 rushing attempts for just over 1,000 yards. By 2020 that club signed Philip Rivers, they drafted a solid young RB and they have a few veteran leaders on both sides of the football like DeForest Buckner, LBer Darius Leonard, TY Hilton and Justin Houston.
Frank is also a great head coach and it is worth noting our new head coach was in the running for that job.
The question is can the Lions skip the 2019 Colts success with a 7-9 season kind of thing or do we have to go through that same process? Is there anyone on this board who thinks Goff is WORSE than Jacoby Brissett? In 2020 Philip Rivers was solid but there were concerns. His play improved over the course of the season to a respectable 4168 passing yards, 24 TDs, 11 INTs with a 7.7 yard per catch average. Honestly…I’ll take 2021 Goff over 2020 Rivers noting each guy was with a new team learning a new system. In 2020 Goff was a 20 TD to 13 INT guy with a 67% comp. rate and a 7.2 average. So yes, I think 2021 Goff and 2020 Rivers is an advantage for us.
Past that they have Jonathan Taylor and we have D. Swift. I’ll take that as a wash overall. Good for both teams. Marlon Mack was injured after 1 game and I like our 2021 backfield better with that in mind. In terms of receiving I have ALWAYS loved TY Hilton but he isn’t what he was. Now he i just solid and I think that is better than any guy we have here but past that they don’t have an impressive group at all. I’ll take our TE and call the WRs a wash overall. They have some GREAT pieces on their OL with Alex Mack, LG Quenton Nelson and LOT veteran Anthony Castonzo but overall I’ll take our OL too with Ragnow, Jonah Jackson, Decker, Vaitai and Sewell.
Call the offense a wash between the 2020 Colts and the 2021 Lions? That Colts team scored the 9th most points in 2020. Fantastic. A synergy there. The running game fueled that attack and Taylor was great in 2020. I think Swift has that talent to though.
On defense they have Buckner, Houston Darius Leonard, Xaxier Rhodes and a collection of role players. I think we match up well with their talent with Trey Flowers, Okwara, Brockers, Jamie Collins (not as good as Darius Leonard) but I’ll take our secondary over theirs though.
To me our talent matches up well with what the Colts have. We need Dan Campbell and his staff to have that kind of impact here in 2021. But looking at the talent here the Colts show us a template of a complete team. Hilton isn’t a top WR anymore. Solid? You bet your ass. But not even top 20 at this point.
If we can run the ball well this offense has the talent to surprise people. On defense this DL is now good. Period. If Jamie Collins shows up to back up this DL and our CBs play well (and Dunbar bounces back like Xavier Rhodes) I can see this club playing well on defense too.
Please share some thoughts about how the Lions might shock some people and play MUCH better ball than expected like the 2019 and 2020 Colts. Frank was amazing in 2019 AND 2020. Can Dan get that kind of buy in? If so I can see this being a hell of a ride this season!