I'm not even a real Lions fan and that game legit hurt me. That has to be the most devastating loss in Lions history. 85.1% SB equity at halftime. Goddamn I can't believe that game happened. If Michigan were up 24-7 vs Washington at the half and all that crazy **** happened for Michigan to choke it away I would probably have stomach pains for a week and I don't think I would ever really recover from it. My gf is a diehard Lions fan. She was laying in bed afterwards with nausea. That game seriously made her sick.

I thought this would be a good taste of success. Now I just hate the playoffs.

It's Michigan-TCU all over again. You just can't make 5 of the 6 biggest mistakes in the game and expect to win.

Only this team can manage to overwhelmingly exceed my expectation and kick me in the nuts on the same day. The team was going to have to play perfect to win this one, and they almost did for a while, but drops on key downs, a bad fumble, and a 50 yard bomb bouncing off the DBs facemask into the receivers hands. You're just not going to win the NFCCG on the road with those kinds of mistakes.

At the start of the 2021 season this team was at rock bottom. Losing their only good QB. Riddled with cap crippling contracts, and very little young talent. Even a "good" rebuild would probably look like 2 years of mostly suck, then in year 3 meaningful November football, and possibly after that competing for a shot like this. By those metrics this hasn't been a good rebuild, it's been a great one. In just 3 seasons they've managed to:

- Turn Jared Goff from pariah back into top 10 (maybe 5?) QB in the NFL in terms of production.
- Draft no less than 5 players already among the elites at their position (Penei, St. Brown, Hutch, Gibbs, LaPorta). Plus a lot of other promising young talent.
- Win more playoff games than the pervious 17 coaches combined.

Despite what happened this appears to be a competent organization. At worst it feels like we're maybe the Steelers now. Playoff appearances and division wins are the expectation and may get normalized. Sustained success season after season seems achievable, and it's not just a passing fad before a return to mediocrity or worse.

The good
- The cap situation is still in really healthy shape for the time being.
- The core of this team should stick together and likely only gets better from here.
- This organization seems to actually understand how to build and develop a football team.

It's mostly positive from here. There are a few things though.

Areas of concern:
- Goff is good, but not the kind of QB that can seem to magically will his way to the SB like Mahomes and Brady. But those guys are generational. The Lions will have to win as a team.
- The CB position is still problematic, as witnessed yesterday. I expect to see some moves get made here, but it's not clear it will be an easy fix.
- No more top 10 draft picks. Those were fun while they lasted, and they hit dingers on those, but we have to get used to drafting towards the back of round 1, which means finding starters and immediate fixes gets a lot harder.
- Ben Johnson is the best OC this team has ever had by a long shot. If he was here during the prime Stafford era, we might be talking about multiple deep playoff runs. Decent chance he's gone this year, although not as sure of a thing as it felt like 4 weeks a go.

Dan Campbell's post game speech was right. Getting back here is far from guaranteed, and it's only going to get harder. I've always said I just want the Lions to be a good team. Sustained success. Competitive football against the best teams. But now that they were this close to a superbowl I want it. It's going to be tough to accept less than this going forward. I hope this is the right organization that can build on this, and that it's not their peak. I believe it can be.

Ben Johnson like 96% the next Washington Head Coach

That's 100%

He's gone

Great year. We will NFC North title again next year.

Well... I'm seeing reports he's staying, LFG!

Unreal. Team of destiny!

SB equity for next season just took a nice jump.

But will it ever be at 85% again in our lifetimes. Sigh

Their odds to win the 2025 SB are +1200. Their odds to win the 2024 SB at the start of the playoffs were +2200.

It's not hard to see Det/SF being the main NFC rivalry for the next 5 years or so. SF is probably the better team at the moment but they have a fair share of tough contract decisions coming up. Detroit could potentially gain a lot of ground on them with a good offseason.

This Lions team just feels different than other good Lions teams in the past. They're young, the salary cap is in good shape, and the coaching staff seems abnormally competent compared to past teams. A well run organization will consistently compete in the playoffs. Sometimes you can get into QB hell like where Pittsburgh is right now, but I don't see that being a problem. But realistically that's about all you can ask. There's an insane amount of rungood that has to happen to be a perennial SB contender. And as much as I want that, I know I just sort of have to be happy with seasons like this one.

Gonna go ahead and post this here. If you are sensitive at all maybe have a tissue handy

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/po...-detroit-lions

That letter!!

I don't know much about football history, but it feels like the Lions are on the precipice of a real dynasty.

Brad Holmes' post-mortem was ****ing incredible as well. And Sheila is obviously an Angel sent from heaven.

We're heading towards divinity...

I too sort of owe Alex an apology. I just assumed he was some rando they pulled out of a bargain bin in 2021 to fill out a salary cap depleted roster. Now he's a key piece of a Super Bowl contender. He seems to have really embraced the team and city.

It's easy to get emotional about this team. I still feel like the NFL is mostly an RNG when it comes to success, but it's hard to deny that Brad and Dan might be building something real here that can last a while. Just based on the amount of rookie deals and current age/cap space alone this team should be competitive for at least a few more.

Don't ask me why but I went through and read this thread through the Patricia era and into the Campbell hiring. Some funny stuff in there. I had my share of bad takes too, but a couple funny ones stood out to me.

Yep, Penei Sewell. I was also against drafting O-Line going into this draft though. I actually had forgotten how godawful the Patricia defenses were, so wanted to go full on defense, but man we got an elite level tackle here so what a great pick.

Lots of y'all wanted Fields in this draft. Which I get it, he was a pretty solid prospect and is an elite athlete. He might turn it around, but I'm glad we didn't go that way. Just thinking back to how that draft played out it's clear Holmes was much higher on Goff than we were and made the prudent move to stand pat and draft a GOAT OT.

There were a lot of our "this is an old school football guy" takes in here but this one made me laugh. I'm really glad we were wrong about Dan. NFL coaches make a frustrating amount of in game mistakes and Dan isn't immune from them either, but I'm glad he's at least embracing the new school 4th and 1 mentality.

I don't know why I'm doing this on a random Wednesday but couldn't believe I found these two posts in this thread:

this is probably my favorite thing. like, it can't be overstated. based on the small sample size, we currently have like a Mahomes level Tackle! legit already a top 10ish run blocker at the position all time and that might be low balling it. very good pass blocker. the frickin guy is 23, lololol

Absolutely love the Holmes strategy of only drafting 'football players'; not combine warriors, not just uber-productive college players, not guys with a pedigree. Seems so simple but every year you see teams strictly prioritize talent over red flags only to get burnt.

Reminds me of Buddy Ryan drafts and his "I can look in a man's eyes and tell you if he can play football".

I’ll be interested to see how it goes when it comes to upgrading. It’s hard to dislike pretty much anyone on the roster (CB excluded) but there are always going to be changes. I think Holmes isn’t going to have much trouble with sentiment but when you love “football guys” it can be hard to let go of them.

One thing refreshing about this regime is that most of their moves seem to pass the eye test. We don't really have this "we're smart football people and know what we're doing so we're going to draft butt ass slow players in the 2nd round like Teez Tabor and Jahlani Tavai."

I remember back in 21, I think it was week 2 or 3 vs Green Bay, we saw Jamie Collins out there not even trying to make a goal line tackle, basically just letting the guy score uncontested. Yeah, it would've been a tough angle and play to make, but he didn't even try. His contract was a burden. They barely had the cap room to cut him. But they did. Dan Campbell said he didn't want any turds on the team, he played like a turd, he was gone the next day.

Letting guys like Jamaal Williams go in free agency, getting pay cuts out of Big V and Romeo are all tough decisions that you don't want to have to make, but they *need* to be done to field a competitive team. Brad and Dan showed they are willing to let fan favorite and good football guy players go if it means improving the team or not creating a salary cap problem.

Re-sign Glasgow for what looks like below market

Decline to overpay for Jonah Jackson

Trade for Carlton Davis to add a decent CB without giving up a fortune

All this front office does is WIN.

ROAR!

I already got a futures wager on them for 2024.

Glasgow was a home run at that price but I expect them to still add interior OL.

Davis and Davenport are both moderate gambles. The entire CB position is a gamble right now. Not drawing too bad but def counting on these guys to remain healthy and play up to prior ceilings. They'll add to both D line and CB.

Truthfully the offense is loaded. Add a WR plus some G/C depth and you're good. Amazingly enough LB is probably the position I worry least about on defense. Quick tackling machines who can cover a bit are what matters and they have those guys. Are they all pro's? No, but I'm fairly comfy saying that's okay.

Pretty much. Amik Robertson rounds out the CB room now. You've got 4 guys that can play outside CB at a decent level now. Sutton, Moseley, Davis, and Robertson. Sure, there's plenty of health issues there, but for the most part you only need 2. I like those odds.

I think they still look to add a veteran guard, and possibly a DT in free agency. They don't have to, but it would be nice.

Everything I'm hearing about this draft is how insanely deep it is on O-Line. So there's a very real chance they go there in the first round and shore up the O-Line in one swoop. You also can't rule out the famous Brad Holmes double dip. Honestly at this point IDGAF too much about positions in the draft. Make your first 3 picks WR/OG/TE for all I care. Just get some good players in the door and this team can do things.

This team was a fluke collapse from going to the SB last year. There's no need to go crazy now. They are doing a great job upgrading where upgrades are needed, not crippling the future cap with bad deals, and going into the draft with 3 nice top 100 picks to hopefully turn into another starter or two. This should be a fun upcoming season.

Facts! They're damn near ready to roll. I did kinda catch myself dreaming when I saw the Danielle Hunter deal, knowing it could've been swung, but I get it.

P.S. Houston is doing some things down there. A 2025 Detroit vs Houston SB would sure be fun