Lions News

[jaadam4]

If Brad Holmes agrees, ... I'm willing to throw some mac n cheese at the wall.

lol. I’m never going to live that one down

[Futureshock]

Calvin Johnson wants to help Jameson Williams

Posted by Mike Florio on June 10, 2023, 4:47 PM EDT

Gety Images

The Lions might be wishing they’d mended fences with Calvin Johnson a long time ago.

As the ice finally thaws between the Lions and the Hall of Fame receiver, the benefits are emerging. Johnson, for example, is saying he wants to help current Lions receiver Jameson Williams.

“I connected with [Williams] yesterday really for the first time, and I look forward to just being around and being a shoulder for him to lean on,” Johnson said in an appearance on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit, via NFL.com. “Extremely talented kid. We saw him when he touched the field last year for the first time. I look forward to just helping him build the level of consistency and being the pro he wants to be, man. Anything I can to do help him, I’ll do that and I’ll be there.”

Williams won’t touch the field until Week Seven at the earliest this year, due to his six-game suspension for violating the league’s gambling policy. Still, the Lions will need whatever they can get from Williams, whenever they can get it.

They also could use whatever cooperation they could get from Calvin Johnson. The relationship is definitely improving.

“With everything, it’s a process and we’re making progress,” Johnson said. “So, I just look forward to continued efforts to move in the right direction.”

For a long time, Johnson made it clear there was one way to fix the relationship — refund the $1.6 million in signing-bonus money the team collected from him when he retired. The reality was/is that the Lions would have cut Johnson if he hadn’t retired, due to a bloated cap number. If he’d simply held firm, he would have owed nothing.

At one point, the team offered him a job. Johnson didn’t want it.

“It’s the principle,” Johnson said at the time. “It’s the principle of it. You cannot have me back unless you put that money back in my pocket. . . . I’m not working for it.”

Either the Lions quietly have given Johnson his money back, or Johnson has gotten over it. Regardless, as the Lions become a potential contender, a guy who never got to be part of a consistently winning Detroit franchise could be helping this current crop of players take the team to places it hasn’t been in decades.

[jaadam4]

We want you to help as well CJ

[Whitley]

The Lions would have cut Calvin Johnson if he had not retired?

GTFO

There would have been an absolute Lions fan revolt had that happened.

[jaadam4]

The Lions would have cut Calvin Johnson if he had not retired?

GTFO

There would have been an absolute Lions fan revolt had that happened.

Agreed

[Futureshock]

IDK There were some that thought he made too much. Not me, but everyone wasn't n board.

[Futureshock]

Taylor Decker: I’ve been in Detroit 8 years, a lot of times nobody wanted to watch the Lions

Posted by Michael David Smith on June 12, 2023, 10:45 AM EDT

Getty Images

The NFL gave the Lions a marquee schedule in 2023, starting with the Week One opener at Kansas City and continuing with four more prime time games in addition to their traditional Thanksgiving game. Lions offensive lineman Taylor Decker recognizes that the expectations are high in Detroit.

“This will be eight years I’ve been here now, and there were a lot of times when nobody wanted to watch the Lions,” Decker said.

But while Decker noted that the Lions have “a huge opportunity” getting the traditional Thursday night opener against the reigning Super Bowl champions, he also said that the players need to perform regardless of what the expectations are.

“I feel that no matter what your record is going to be, or no matter if you’re in the media or people are jumping on the Lions, I’m a professional, we’re professionals, we’re expected to come out here and perform,” Decker said. “You’re paid to come out here and perform no matter what anybody is saying about you. That’s just the way I take it. I’ve said this in the past, not to be grim, but I’ve been here a lot where we’ve been shit on. We were kind of the butt of jokes. I don’t want that, that’s not fun to be a part of, so I’m going to continue to work and put in everything I can to just try and help the team. Whatever our record ends up being, whatever this team ends up being I don’t know. I just know what I can do.”

Decker noted that Lions fans haven’t had much to celebrate but have supported the team anyway, and they deserve a great season like they’re hoping for in 2023.

“The fans deserve it,” Decker said. “We’ve had a great fan base here.”

[edindetroit]

Taylor Decker: I’ve been in Detroit 8 years, a lot of times nobody wanted to watch the Lions

We watched, we always watch.

[chemiclord]

Yeah, but we didn't always WANT to...

[jaadam4]

The Fatty Patty era was unwatchable. MCDC’s first year was terrible in the W column but I’ll be damned if those games weren’t entertaining.

The Carolina game last year was one of the worst though. That was garbage

[dpatnod]

Even the Caldwell era was better. The fatty Bluto era was just...... I am going to censor myself about politics.....

God Damn that guy was such an aweful cunt.

Starting with the first training camp, right into the first game when he made Sam Darnold a star. He should be buried under that fukkin running hill they made.

[Futureshock]

Jack Campbell won’t walk into rookie season as a Lions starter

Posted by Josh Alper on June 13, 2023, 9:59 AM EDT

USA Today Sports

Many people were surprised when the Lions made linebacker Jack Campbell the 18th overall pick in this year’s draft and their urgency to bring him into the fold suggests that they see him moving right into a big role on their defense.

Campbell’s position coach said on Monday that things are not that simple, however. Linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard used the example of Malcolm Rodriguez going from sixth-round pick to Week One starter last year as an example of how the Lions let the on-field work determine playing time rather than how a player was acquired.

“It’s proven here,” Sheppard said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I know it’s like the right thing to say, but it is proven. We are going to play the best players. We do not care what that looks like, and when that starts top down, it’s easy for me to walk into my linebacker room after we take a guy Pick 18, because in probably 20 other rooms, that player’s starting and there’s nothing you can do about it as a position coach. Well, that’s not the case here. If Jack isn’t the top two or three, Jack will continue to go through the process of rookie development until he’s hit that mark.”

The Lions also have Alex Anzalone and Derrick Barnes back from last season’s linebacking corps, so there are options beyond Campbell available to the team. Those options were available during the first round in April as well, though, and the Lions probably wouldn’t have made Campbell the choice at that spot if they were convinced they were the right guys to handle the job.

[Futureshock]

Lions hopeful they’ll have all five starters healthy on the offensive line, unlike past years

Posted by Michael David Smith on June 13, 2023, 9:45 AM EDT

Getty Images

The Lions’ five listed starters on the offensive line are the same as last year, and the same as the year before: Left tackle Taylor Decker, left guard Jonah Jackson, center Frank Ragnow, right guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai and right tackle Penei Sewell. But unlike the last two years, the Lions are hoping those five linemen will actually play together this season.

In both 2021 and 2022, injuries to at least one and sometimes more than one of those five starters meant that they couldn’t play together. The Lions have actually never had a single snap with those five linemen all on the field, even though they’ve been together atop the Lions’ depth chart for three offseasons in a row.

Decker said it would be big for the Lions to get all five starters on the field together.

“Hope so. We didn’t have our projected starting offensive line for one game last year,” Decker said, via MLive.com. “We had some guys come in and play great and give us some really good games — or even if they had to go in for a series or two. But as we know, that’s the nature of this — seems like for two years we’ve been trying to get this projected offensive line on the field together, and I don’t know if it’s happened yet. I don’t think it has. Preseason maybe.”

The Lions narrowly missed the playoffs last year and are favorites to win the division this year. Continuity on the offensive line could be a key to winning the NFC North, for the first time ever.

[CGVT]

We watched, we always watch.

I watched last year, but the year before, the Lions were not my first choice for NFL football.

The Patricia era broke me.

That is the first time in my life that I truly did not give a fuck

[mason reese]

We watched, we always watch.

I was pretty much checked out during last Patricia year, maybe checked out the scores Sunday night/Monday morning. I had little hope for the Campbell era, but at least I hate watched most of that season…but when I saw them still playing hard after they got their first win, I started to think maybe they were on to something