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Isaiah Hodgins cut by the Giants. Seems weird to say the Lions should look at a Giants WR cut, but he's had some production in a shit offense the last two years and has the size the Lions need.
Terrace Marshall cut by the Panthers which is a bit interesting - he was getting some good reviews for his camp play this year. Another guy for the Lions to look at, but he probably gets scooped up in waivers before the Lions have a chance.
The more content I see from Mina Kimes, the more I like her. She's really one of the best NFL analysts out there. It helps that she definitely likes Dan Campbell.
The guy she's with here is meh. His take on our depth was ill-informed at best. Lions breakdown starts at 22:44
Interesting video breaking down all the top pass rushers and their technique use. at 29:00, he talks about Hutch and has VERY nice things to say about him. Had the highest diversity score, his pass rushing moves are the most complex, etc.
the Ringer publishes an annual NFL Trade Value list. They rank players, taking contracts and positional value into consideration. Positional value eliminates all but two RBs. The web site (Kapedia in particular) hates Goff, so I was surprised he was even Honorable Mention, ranking him 15th at the position.
The Ringer’s Sheil Kapadia is taking a page out of Bill Simmons’s book to create his own NFL Trade Value Player Rankings. Everything will be taken into account: on- and off-field performance, contract value, positional value, etc. Who is the most valuable player in the NFL? Who are the league’s MVPs at every position? Check out the full player rankings as it makes its debut for the 2024 NFL season.
How will Derrick Henry affect the Ravens offense? Which rookie QB will fly highest? How will Tom Brady fare as a broadcaster? That and more in this season preview.
1. Will the Detroit Lions be able to play man coverage?
Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn isn’t known for keeping his vision for the pass defense a secret. He wants to play man coverage, and he wants to do it well. Detroit ran plenty of man in 2023: It ranked 11th in usage of the coverage. But it wasn’t effective in doing so, finishing 26th in yards allowed per play, per TruMedia. Glenn’s ultimate aim is to pressure the quarterback, and having corners he can trust to stick tight to receivers with little or no safety help would help the cause.
“I like to smother the offense,” Glenn said in May. “I like to blitz, and I like to get after the offense. Listen, I’m not sitting here saying we’re going to blitz every time. It’s just a part of what we do, it’s a part of our personality, and then also it’s a part of the guys that we have.”
The 2023 defense did more smothering in the first half of the season, but it buckled under the weight of poor injury luck and the pressure this taxing scheme can put on a team. Emmanuel Moseley tore his ACL in his first game; C.J. Gardner-Johnson missed 14 games after tearing a pec in Week 2. Rookie Brian Branch Jr. filled in admirably for Gardner-Johnson in the slot, but Moseley’s replacement, Jerry Jacobs, was replaced himself after giving up six touchdowns (and he was in man coverage for five of them) in 2023. That brought in Kindle Vildor, who allowed an interceptable pass to doink off his face mask and into the hands of Brandon Aiyuk for a game-changing play in the NFC title game.
All those replacements, except for Branch, are gone after the front office did an offseason reboot of the secondary. General manager Brad Holmes traded a third-round pick to Tampa Bay for Carl Davis—who says he’s in Detroit “to lock shit up”—and used his first two picks in the draft on cover corners Terrion Arnold (Alabama) and Ennis Rakestraw (Missouri). The Lions also signed Amik Robertson to play in the slot so that Branch can get back to playing safety. You can probably guess what all of these guys have in common.
“It’s no surprise that the new guys that we got, they excel in playing man coverage,” Glenn said after Detroit’s busy offseason. It’s “something that we want to do here on defense, something that we’ve always wanted to do.”
It’s something the Lions will need to do at a high level if they’re going to get past the 49ers and Packers in the NFC. Kyle Shanahan and Matt LaFleur go to sleep dreaming of playing defenses that sit in zone coverage. They’ve been drawing up Cover 3 beaters their entire lives. Both teams see a ton of zone, for two main reasons: There aren’t a lot of defenses that have enough dudes in the secondary to match up man-to-man with San Francisco’s and Green Bay’s ludicrously deep receiving groups. And the offenses’ use of condensed formations creates a lot of traffic for man coverage defenders to navigate—whereas zone defenders can just pass those routes off. But if you can play man against offenses that operate like the 49ers and Packers, you stand a chance. The Lions will try to do it. If they can pull it off in January, Detroit’s path to the Super Bowl will be much clearer.
8. Which teams nailed their uniform makeover?
...
The Lions went with a throwback look, too, but these feature an original design:
If you ever wondered what Ohio State would look like in blue, the Lions have provided you with an answer. They’re aggressively fine. It’s nearly impossible to screw up Detroit’s color scheme, so the floor was always high.
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