Gibby
I’d say ARSB because the depth a WR is much thinner than at RB.
Ragnow. The whole line, and hence the whole offense, suffers when he’s gone.
Tough one.
They’re already established in certain areas so I’m going to think of someone who can legit take them to the next level.
It’s a toss up between Reader, Arnold, and Jack Campbell for me.
Reader - This team needs to stay among the best at stopping the run. Reader can allow other players to do more. Reader can also elevate the DL players including pass rush.
Arnold - Obviously their biggest weakness is outside CB. Davis looked very average in Tampa which is worlds better than this team had last year, but if Arnold is all that then that’s huge.
Jack Campbell - A top notch MLB elevates an entire defense to another level, and again with the run stopping.
Hutch
One way to look at this is if the player was lost for the year, how bad would it hurt?
I’d have to go with Saint.
Jack Fox obviously
Sewell.
There are a lot of integral players that would cause problems in their absence, but Sewell is the MVP.
Then, I’d have to go with Hutchinson. The Lions defense wouldn’t be anywhere near the same without him.
Easy FRANK RAGNOW!!! It all started with that OL, and Frank is the core of it. He means so much to this team that it is hard to imagine us without him.
Yep Sewell or Hutch. One protects Goff and mauls people in the run game… while the other Hunts QB’s
Most important top 5…
Goff
Sewell
Hutch
St. Brown
Ragnow
Decker would probably be number 6… the oline is the key to our success.
They really need to use him more.
Gotta get your best players on the field
Oooh. Tuff one.
ARSB and Penei of course are good choices. I’ll go with Reader.
Reader’s presence is the single-biggest reason I think the Lions’ D can make the leap at least to average. The ripple effects of a dominant performance from him on the interior of that line might be felt everywhere. And if THAT happens… my goodness.
Honorable mention to JAMO for similar reasons. If he become 80% of what we think he could be, this offense goes from very, very good to stunning. But whereas Reader has shown what we can do, JAMO has only shown promise.
Going w/Reader.
I 3rd this…if we are already referring to him as a future gold jacket player…then it has to be him…bc you don’t just recover from losing a HOF talent to injury. You might make do, and work through it, but your team is significantly hampered. Think about how well he pulls and he gets into the open field and takes on multiple blockers. Gibby is BETTER bc he has 58 leading the way. His mentality and his fire and his ATTITUDE.
And if Sewell was out… the starting right tackle would be someone with 0 career starts at right tackle. Yikes. Sorsdal or Skipper.
Good thing he’s invincible
The good thing is that Goff is really the only one whose absence would lead to total chaos.
That being said, Hutch, Sewell, Ragnow, and Sun God would all be really hard to replace in the lineup. The loss of any of those guys for an extended period would likely lead to some struggles.
I think you can write this exact paragraph for Rags and it applies verbatim. I’m not disagreeing with you, I’m just compounding on what you said.