Johnson has achieved the impossible, he's made the Lions offense fun to watch. With a bunch of good but not great players.

I don't think he'll get HC looks this off season but one more year putting up great numbers and after next season he will.

ESPN mock draft. Surprisingly I don't hate this idea given the comparisons to Saquon and Holmes' apparent ability to pluck quality players in later rounds. Swift only under contract thru 2023 and Williams is a FA that we would probably love to have back but likely comes down to money

6. Detroit Lions (via Los Angeles Rams) — Bryan Bresee, DL, Clemson
18. Detroit Lions — Bijan Robinson, RB, Texas

I'm somewhat OK with drafting a RB in the first round if the talent warrants it. If you get the right playmaker out there it can be a huge offensive boost. It's usually the second contract that's crippling. Holmes seems big on positional value so I'm not sure that's the kind of move he'd make. RB is another position you want to stack talent at given how often injured they are, but not at the expense of leaving holes elsewhere. I just don't want to watch another season with a WOAT secondary.

I think their best bet is to take as many guys in the front 7 with their first few picks and see what sticks.

Getting an interior pass rush threat or a legit playmaker at linebacker can push this defense into "Above Average" territory. Offense will be good enough to be competitive next year.

I know that turnover is inevitable but I’d sure like to see RB1 and RB2 back for next season. Swift is great when he doesn’t have to carry the whole load, pairing him with an effective bruiser is ideal iyam.

I agree with all this but think the Lions may be on the cusp of having enough offensive talent that its time to think about 2-4 years down the road and not just next year.

Swift may be the more talented of the two we have now but he has missed 9 games in 3 years and it feels like he has been ineffective in even more due to injury. I wont cry if they decide not to resign him

Refs managing to **** the lions from 2000 miles away. Impressive

**** the Packers!!!!!

It’s a shame the lions ain’t in the playoffs. They were the best team in the division. 9-8 was probably on the low range of what their record could have been. And the Vikings going 13-4, they could have just as easily been 7-10.

This would be a slam dunk draft.

I get in the modern NFL RBs arent as valuable. The thing is Bijan Robinson is that once a decade special RB that is a true game changer. Goff is never going to be an elite QB but if we can give him this guy the offense will be so deadly with the play action.

Damn that game was fun. F'n amazing turnaround from 1-6. Can't wait 'til the draft, and August can't come fast enough.

Sigh, 100%. Lions +26 point differential is a) best in the NFCN (and only one > 0), and b) 4th in the NFC, ahead of NYG (-6), MIN (-3), TB (-45), and SEA (+6). Aside: I wonder if 3 negative-differential teams have made the playoffs from one conference before? Obv the move to 7 playoff teams makes it more likely - how often did 2 of 6 have negative differential in the past?

I think the lions are clearly the best of the SEA/GB/DET possible 7 seeds right now; I'd bet the SF/DET line would be -6 or -6.5, vs. -10 for SEA. It's a shame the early season hole was so big, and that head-scratching CAR performance that was such an outlier from the rest of the last two months.

A few quick thoughts on the season.

Overall pretty damn good. Jared Goff is our QB now. He's not going to elevate a bad team but we know what he can do with a good team around him. This is another flawed QB class. The only QB I'd take a high pick on is Bryce and he's out of reach. A restructure can free up some cap room and let them actually be serious buyers in free agency. This franchise should look pretty appealing for free agents at the moment.

The offense is fantastic. Jamo didn't do much but every time he touches the ball it goes for 50+. His speed is going to be a problem. The line played well. The biggest risk here I think is some sort of regression. They have one open spot to fill, but plenty of options on how to do it, so I'm not worried. Re-signing Jamal would be nice but not a requirement. Otherwise look for most of the offense to return next year.

The D-Line is solid. Hutch is everything we could have hoped for, and everyone else pretty much over-played their expectations. There's hype about beefing it up even more with the #6 pick and honestly I'm all for it.

Linebackers leave a bit to be desired but overall played decent. I'd be OK with Anzalone coming back, but just as OK with getting a real playmaker in there.

The secondary is where things get interesting. It sounds like Tracy Walker is recovering well and may be ready by camp like Okudah was. With Kerby Joseph balling out, and Deshon Elliot playing the SS really well, maybe you run more 3 safety sets next year? Or just let Kerby and Walker roam around and wreak havoc back there. They've got some playmakers at safety, they just need to figure out how to take full advantage of them.

CB is another story. The rise and fall of Jeff Okudah is quite the storyline. He started off camp fighting for a starting job and won it. Played a few good games in the middle of the season, but by the end of the year he was getting benched and scratched. He's never been great in coverage. It feels like he might be done. Oruwariye didn't play particularly well this season either. Mike Hughes was sort of average grade as expected. Will Harris isn't very good either. Jerry Jacobs seems like an OK CB2, but otherwise this unit is pretty awful. The only reason they looked decent at times is because the pass rush forced early and errant throws. When opposing QBs had time, or good forbid the blitz got picked up and DB's had to cover 1 on 1, it was nasty.

On to free agency and draft time. I don't know much about the free agency class, but if they are going to make a medium to big signing I assume it will be at corner. You never want to go into the draft needing to draft a certain position, and they need a corner right now, so I expect them to at least sign someone expected to compete for a starting job. Otherwise Holmes should just be able to sit back and go after good value players. I'll start following the draft more closely after that, but this one could also be pretty fun.

This was a fun team to watch this year. It sucks to end without making the playoffs, and at some point they have to go from being a loveable scrappy 500 team to actual SB contenders, and hopefully that's next season. It feels like this is a team built to compete for at least a few more years without any major interruptions.

Ben Johnson has interview requests from the Panthers, Texans and Colts, who also asked for Aaron Glenn. It's going to suck if he goes, but overcoming a good coordinator leaving is something good franchises have to deal with. There are some other hot names on the interview list, so maybe we dodge a bullet here, but he's not going to be an offensive coordinator much longer.

Ben Johnson staying!

Holy **** that is huge news! Saw it pop up he was leading for the Panthers job, I put our odds way low that he wouldn't land an offer after that. I'm thrilled he is comfortable coming back for at least one more year, and it shows a ****-ton of confidence in himself he and the team are going to be able to keep building on their success.

Let's ****ing go!

Gutsy move from him assuming he wants to be a HC some day. Which I assume is the goal of every young coach. Being a top young coaching candidate is not something that can be taken for granted and who knows if it will last. He's a shitty Jared Goff season or injury away from being a nobody again. Either he really does believe in this team and wants to be a part of it, or he's being choosy with his first HC position and doesn't want to go to a **** franchise that's going to set him up to fail. Either way it's a huge win for us. It gives Campbell another year to learn from him and hopefully groom a replacement behind him.

Probably waiting for Lions job when Campbell abruptly retires after back to back Super Bowl wins

Slow Lions news month.

In the least surprising move ever Michael Brockers was cut. There's several other potential cap casualties we could see in the coming months. Big V, Romeo, and Charles Harris all underplayed their contracts last year and could be good value cuts.

The Jalen Ramsey to Detroit hype seems to be taking off. I'm intrigued. We need a guy who can cover the deep ball. He wants a big money contract, which I might be OK with if it doesn't have too much long term guarantees. I like how Holmes has built the roster so far, focusing on good value free agents and drafting well, while quickly shedding bad contracts. It's why I think all 3 of the players I mentioned earlier could all be cut. But at some point he's likely to make a big trade or ink a huge deal. I hope he gets it right when he does.

If he doesn't get a deal elsewhere I'd like to see Romeo come back on a prove-it contract. If he can get and stay healthy he's still a useful guy.

At the end of the day I don't think the Lions get Ramsey. He's going to get his, I just don't think Holmes will pay it.

Have to think that this is the most attractive the Lions have been to potential free agent signees in years tho.

I am ambivalent toward Romeo - kinda remember him being good at one time but maybe I was drunk or he was just one of the few bright spots on an otherwise putrid defense?

It looks like his career numbers over SEVEN seasons are roughly double those of Hutchinson's rookie year so he can either re-sign here at a much reduced rate or leave and it wont matter much to me. If he is not interested in a pay cut then get him a cake, a faux gold Rolex and wish him luck in future endeavors.

That's sort of where I'm at with Romeo too. We've got some bodies at that position now with Hutch, Houston, Josh Paschal and hopefully John Cominsky coming back. Romeo had some decent moments here and there but doesn't consistently get pressure and isn't playing up to his contract. I haven't spent a lot of time looking into the draft yet but I'm hearing rumblings that it's a strong edge class and they could go there at 6, which I'm totally here for.

Vaitai is a more interesting case I think. I'm not sure what kind of shape he's in after missing all of last season, and there's some real cap room to be freed up by cutting him, but unlike DE where you can stack talent and have it be an asset, you only need one starting RG, and if it's not him then who? I don't think they have another starter grade guard on the roster, so I think cutting him comes with the highest risk. And I don't think you can get a quality starting RG with the cap savings from cutting him, so I think unless you draft a starter, or think his injury has set him back to where you can improve and save $$, you just let him play out his contract.

I am aware mock drafts are basically Fan-Fiction that gets rewritten weekly with different names just to *publish* a fresh article, but....

My favorite scenario so far is slight trade down from 6 to 10-12 range that nets a 2nd, then take the best CB available. This team still needs talent in many places and every chance we give Holmes to pick an positional upgrade we need to take. If he can replicate his draft success of 2021/22 I'm not sure there will be enough Kool-Aid in the world to satisfy Lions fans.

The Athletic's mock draft was like that and it was an absolute home run imo: trade down 3 spots and get an extra 2nd, then get Witherspoon at 9 and Robinson at 18. Of course I don't know **** but the consensus seems to be there's a lot of very good talent through the 2nd round of this draft in spots we need (all three levels of DEF, interior o-line and TE) - getting a 3rd 2nd round pick + quite possibly our top CB prospect + quite possibly the best offensive player in the draft - sounds just about perfect to me. I mean, I get you don't spend 1st round picks on RBs but I'm 100% ok with Robinson at 18 given how hard it's been to keep Swift on the field.

Boom. 90 minutes into free agency tampering and we've got a new corner. I know very little about Cam Sutton but from what I'm hearing this sounds like a pretty good deal. He's considered a top 20 CB and now has a top 20 salary. This was the one position that IMO if you didn't sign a starter you pretty much HAD to draft in round 1 of the draft. So I like where we're going with this. This frees Holmes up go for long term value in the draft instead of immediate need.

I'm mostly excited about the prospect of getting Jalen Carter or Will Anderson at #6.

If Anderson is there at 6 that would be incredible good fortune.