We have a 53 man roster now. There are a few surprises.

As of right now we have no kicker. There was an article a couple days ago that suggested they should do this. They have a couple injured players on the 53 right now. If they IR them before cuts, they are out for the year. Now they can IR some of these guys (Da'Shawn Hand in particular) and bring him back mid season. Both kickers suck, so it's not like they are getting picked up on waivers, and if they do it's not like a huge loss.

Some surprises at CB. Both Corn Elder and Nickell Robey-Coleman are out. Bobby Price and Jerry Jacobs are in, although I doubt both these guys make it until gameday, but who knows. They went thin on O-Line. So there may be some roster churn there as well.

Defense still stinks. Okudah is really bad.

Yep. This secondary is all garbage. They got torched all game. The D line was serviceable at least.

they're bad, still enjoyed the game

Okudah is done. Possible achilles injury. He also was a complete bust to begin with. OSUs defense that year pumped up his draft stock. Drafting a technical corner back that wasnt a top tier athletic guy over potential franchise QBs was just so Bob Quinn.

Sewell looked good. Hock is turning into the franchise TE that you expect when you use a top 10 pick on a TE. We've got some pieces still think this team is two years away.

I really dont like what I'm seeing out of next years QB class. I think its going to be a dud one after two good classes. Maybe one player turns out being worth taking if we can get pick 1 then that could work.

meh, people like to rag on Okudah about athleticism but he's an 89th percentile athlete of all corners that've been drafted since 96 according to the relative athletic score. more likely the guy's just Justin Gilbert 2.0

He shouldnt get compared to all corners in the draft. He was a 3 pick that was taken over potential franchise QBs. Corners rarely end up that high in the draft. Compare his athletic profile to the top of the draft corners. This wasnt pick 20 Terry Fair it makes a big difference.

Okudah wasn't even a great technical corner in college. One of the items from his scouting report is he relied on his athleticism to stop the deep ball, usually being late to turn his hips which allowed him to keep plays in front of him longer. That's not going to work against better faster receivers in the NFL. He's not on a great trajectory in the NFL. His athleticism is good but not elite. It's plenty good enough to be a great corner in this league, but not if he can't defend an underthrown deep ball that's floating in the air.

It was nice seeing an effective running game this time. Some good use of motion, creative blocking schemes, and overall power game. Unfortunately they had to go away from it when they got behind, which is going to be a problem for a team whose strength is running offense but has a crap defense.

Overall offense looked OK. Goff was probably the weakness of the unit. Just a weak arm, lots of checkdowns, and some really dumb mistakes like the pick six and WTF was that last play of the game. It's hail mary time and you throw it 7 yards towards the sideline, 20 yards from the nearest receiver. Pass protection was good against a good defense, and the receivers weren't as bad as feared.

Defense was mostly a dumpster fire as expected. I thought the line played OK. They got a decent amount of pressure, and got some good run stuffs. The secondary was godawful though. There were just way too many open receivers and just bad coverage. This could be a really long year. It's time to make some changes. Bring in some free agents or something,

It was nice seeing Campbell being aggressive on 4th down though. Overall it's about what I expected. A bad team that has enough going for it to maybe win a surprise game or two, but a top 5 pick is probably in the cards.

whelp, we don't have to worry about Okudah anymore. Out for season with torn achilles. I bet they are kicking themselves for cutting Mike Ford now. I always like that guy and wanted to see him get a shot.

Don't worry, there are plenty of guys bagging groceries at Walmart that are just waiting for the call to be a starting CB in the NFL.

The lions have more competent corners than my local grocery has baggers atm.

My wife wanted to get in on some online gambling so I got her to sign up for FanDuel and put her 1k risk free bet on the Lions to cover 12.5 tomorrow. I've converted her a Lions fan so she has been experiencing all the anguish I have over the years. Now she gets the ultimate test. Sweating a cover for 1k vs the Packers on the road on MNF.

I have no idea what to think of the pack after week 1. I hope they are still as bad as they looked and that father time really has come for A-a-ron.

line is back down to 11.5 most places. Hopefully the late game energy they showed vs SF translates to a back door cover

I think a lot of that late game energy was a lot of dumb luck, SF squatting on their lead, and a lucky bounce on an onside kick. I'm betting on the Packers being a dumpster fire and Aaron being done. Although aging HoF QBs have had a lot of success in recent years, so that's probably a mistake.

What I'm really hoping for is for Campbell to cut this defense loose a bit. I'm not sure if there's a lot of talent there, but there is some athleticism. Guys like Levi Onwuzurike, Derrick Barnes, AJ Parker, Will Harris and Tracy Walker. They may not be great technicians at their positions, but just let them go out there and play a high variance defense and hopefully learn something.

Her eyes glazed over when I started explaining the concept of a middle. Probably not great value on a 12 point spread though. The +12.5 was at -118 anyways.

How does the vig work for a risk-free bet? Do they just treat it like you wagered $1K, or do you win $1K if right no matter what?

[Actively introducing your wife to sports gambling and encouraging betting on/believing in the lions, wcgw? ]

So you risk $1K. If it wins, that's it, you pay the Vig on your winnings, so if it hits at -118 we win like $847. If it loses, you get your $1K loss back in some sort of site credit. Fan Duel is really good in this regard as the $1K credit you get back is just sports book credit that plays the same as cash, you just can't withrdaw it. But you can make bets with it, and if they win it returns your stake and your winnings back as cash. Technically to maximize the EV of it you are supposed to bet on a longshot with high + odds. But honestly the EV is so good no matter how you do it, and it's more fun to bet on something that has at least a decent chance of winning that you have an otherwise vested interest in.

Some sites return the "risk free" winnings in terms of free bets, which sucks, because with free bets you don't get back the stake in cash. So the value is roughly half of what site credit is.

The good news is I don't think she has any interest in sports betting. She's really just there for the slot & blackjack promos. But the $1K free bet is too good to pass up, so we put it on the Lions tonight.

Oh good.


Something could still possibly go wrong.



GL with the house money bet tonight!

lets flippin go, fellas!

Lions are like NKOTB. Hangin' Tough!

They did OK in the first half. The linebackers got exposed big time. Anzalone and Collins are not good. We need to free Derrick Barnes now. Goff is who we thought he was. Not terrible, but a downgrade from Stafford and not someone who is going to take over and win you a game. At best he's bottom tier starter grade.

I was just hoping for the garbage time backdoor cover TD which never came. That's two weeks in a row now they failed to convert on their final drives to get the cover.

We lost because the defense

3-14
3-12
1st and goal from 20

At least the OLine looks legit

We probably need two more drafts and a real QB to content for the north

Regarding covering

Was happy to see coach pass on a FG from the 25 down 8 in the 2nd half

As a fan

As someone that was +12.5

Need those points coach

The way the NFL is set up just about every team is one good offseason away from competing as long as the team isn't burdened with a lot of bad contracts. The Lions dead cap situation is brutal this year. They can get out of Flowers contract next year and free up 20 million if they want (I suspect they will). They shed an additional 50 million in dead cap they are eating this year, mostly from Stafford, Coleman, Trufant, and James.

They definitely need a WR, and playmakers all across the defense. Goff is a stereotypical game manager who belongs on a team that has other playmakers on offense and a decent defense. He made some pretty nice throws last night. But he's not the guy you build around. I know this is lol Lions when we're talking about the draft during week 2 of the NFL season, but I really like Sam Howell out of UNC. Dude brings some serious deep ball game.

In fairness to the Lions this is about the lowest expectations I have had for this team in 40 years. I am fully prepared for them to suck this year and next year and just want to see building blocks put into place.

But can we please not be the only team to go 0-16 AND 0-17