They have very deliberately invested in the OL for years, and this precedes Mailata. It appears to be a deliberate change in strategy, starting in ‘16. Outside of Johnson in ‘13 they hadn’t put much into the line the prior 5 years.
And despite have a complete and relatively young line they keep investing. I couldn’t possibly disagree more with people over the last few years who claimed that Holmes had to consolidate picks and take big swings because the Lions didn’t have room for good young players. We pretty obviously did.
Holmes has been a wheeler-dealer on draft day too. I sort of wish he would stop
Again, I don’t think it’s functionally that different. Or maybe it’s better to say it’s a byproduct of something else he’s doing (playing the comp pick game) that IS different, as I mentioned in an earlier response, but fundamentally late "shots’ at OL isn’t “addressing” the line, it’s taking shots. But because of the way he plays the comp game, he has more shots to do it. That’s improtant context imo.
Of course as you and I both believe, more shots should mean more opportunity to hit, but again I still believe that falls far more on Howie and his staff’s ability to evaluate. The Vikings, Browns, and others have taken a ton of day 3 shots as well, and they haven’t hit at nearly as great a clip. And evaluation is still one area I really do trust our FO, despite their misses. The profundity of their hits more than counteracts that.
Anyway it’s a good discussion. I just disagree with the idea that we had a lackluster plan for keeping the line a strength. We had a plan that didn’t work, some of it due to missed evaluations, but quite a lot due to circumstance as well. But people don’t want to believe that.
Our starting left tackle and starting center from last year are available to all 32 teams and neither are on a roster.
All 32 NFL teams deemed 40% of our 2025 starting offensive line not worthy of a roster spot.
I don’t know if this years group will be great but so far so good and there’s depth that’s actually started games for other teams instead of the Kingsley Eguakun’s of the world
I suppose I am of the optimistic side of things as well, but I see it more as realist. I just think “slight pessimism” is the norm in here, to the point it feels like being realistic. And in fairness to those people, it often seems like anything that can go wrong does go wrong.
Losing Mays hurts for sure, but Miller + Sewell is a massive upgrade on 2025 Decker + Sewell at tackle. Ratledge is one year improved, and I really, really hope Seth+Scruggs are an improvement over 2025 Glasgow, who was frankly awful. LG is a question but that’s no different that last year, and I hope playing next to Sewell will help them a lot.
I understand they want to cross train Frazier and all that but learning too many positions at once will also slow his development. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to have him learn the left side this season, Get comfortable with that,Then expand to the right side next year?
That’s the point Risdon made on his post game analysis… He thinks they’re stunting his development by trying to play him at both tackle and guard. Also says he should NEVER play center, so that’s something we shouldn’t worry about trying
Not just at tackle and guard both both sides for both positions. It takes years for players to master techniques for one of those. Heck, zeitler could only play on one side and he was a pro bowl level talent.
Is it possible that we may just be overreacting to one shitty game? The guy blew chunks in Cincinatti but virtually everyone has been raving about him in camp for being serviceable all over the line and he has a long history of being solid at multiple positions in college.
Having a jack of all trades OL for 3 first contract years is profoundly valuable. His starter upside is IMO somewhat limited. Pulling the rip cord on the super sub plan bc of one crappy game strikes me as rash. Let the preseason play out along this developmental plan and reevaluate. If I had to guess we’ll see a different guy next game.
Maybe love the optimism… I can’t imagine trying to learn multiple simultaneously at the pro level and I can see how picking one and sticking with it could help him. Definitely hoping for a better performance next game
I’m not basing this off of one game… He’s played all over the line since training camp last season. I’m echoing the sentiments of some in the media who think it’s hurting his development
love the optimism… I can’t imagine trying to learn multiple simultaneously at the pro level and I can see how picking one and sticking with it could help him. Definitely hoping for a better performance next game