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Now that I see the full black uniform . . . . I dislike it even more. But whatever.
I think that what bothers me about the black is that every damn team has a black uniform. It is kind of like when my son was playing AAU basketball and every team thought they had to have digitized camo uniforms.
I feel like I am watching the destruction of our democracy while my neighbors and friends cheer it on
The lack of stripes on the blue and white pants is a problem .
The grey striped ants and regular blues are the best combo.
Looks like the grey pajamas are dead.
The blacks are silly
Overall a nice upgrade with the tv numbers and font.
The only way they should wear the black is with blue pants
They apparently aren't ever going to change the logo again so there's really nothing else to do besides put a sticker on the helmet.
Makes sense. I like the Long Lion and love the use of it on the alternate helmet. But I think for the most part a lot of teams are at a point that the imagery of the team is past any major shifts and are pretty iconic (commanders notwithstanding). Even touchups like the outlining on Bubbles wasn't taken very well. Honestly I like that better, didn't like Pepsi changing their logo much, not because the new one looks terrible, but honestly it doesn't accomplish anything other than some marketing guy getting an opportunity to say I did that. So just say here is our logo and it's here to stay.
As for the color scheme this one is hands down better. Doesn't look super old. But also gets rid of a bit of a silly font. Simplifies the look that makes each color change stand out rather the 2-3 outlining colors just so you can have each variation have all the different core colors. It's a change for change sake, new Presidents putting their stamp on the team. But I do think it's the best change since the 90s.
The new uniforms come with a new confidence. For the first time in my actual fuggin LIFE, we're going into the season with actual expectations of winning, and not until we are deep in the playoffs do we think there will be 50-50 games.
"Yeah, we just... we don't want them to go. So that's our motivation."
Dan Campbell at Green Bay, January 8, 2023.
For most of his NFL career, Taylor Decker has watched the Super Bowl start to finish. This year, the Detroit Lions’ veteran left tackle couldn’t bear the thought.
“I think I watched a quarter of it and was just kind of disinterested because, I don’t know, I felt like we matched up well with anybody that we were going to play,” Decker said. “It was a disappointment, especially as special of a year as it was, to end it going home early was a bummer, for sure.”
The Lions exceeded most people’s expectations going into last season, winning 12 games, the NFC North title and two playoff games for the first time in 66 years.
They beat the Los Angeles Rams in a memorable wild card game at Ford Field, then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional round, but fell just short of the Super Bowl, blowing a 17-point first-half lead in a 34-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game.
Nearly three months later, players still are haunted by that defeat and determined to use it as a springboard for the 2024 season.
“We’ve kind of been talking that the motto this next year is, ‘It takes more,’” tight end Brock Wright said. “So I think everybody will have to step up their game.”
Asked to define what “more” it will take to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history, Wright said, “I think it’s everything.”
“A wholistic approach,” he said. “It starts at the top with Brad (Holmes) and Dan (Campbell) all the way down. Going in here, starting OTAs, it takes more in the way we prepare and then getting into training camp and the season, I think just got to go above and beyond in every aspect knowing that we got so close last year but there’s even more that we got to do if we want to win it all this year.”
The Lions got their offseason off to a good start, bolstering their roster with the free agent additions of D.J. Reader, Amik Robertson, Marcus Davenport and Kevin Zeitler, retaining veterans like Wright and Emmanuel Moseley, and keeping coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn despite head coaching interest from other teams.
They’re expected to sign cornerstone players Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown to contract extensions this offseason, and have seven picks in next week’s draft plus ample remaining cap space – about $27 million – to address lingering depth concerns at receiver, offensive line and on the defensive side of the ball.
The Lions opened the offseason program with voluntary workouts Monday, and while Decker said they’ve yet to have a formal team meeting to discuss expectations for 2024, it’s no secret what players are aiming for.
“I think we all know what the goal is and it’s always been the goal,” Goff said. “I don’t think it was not the goal last year. I think we got a chance to kind of taste it last year so you get to see what it feels like, but that’s the goal every year and this year it’s absolutely the goal.”
Campbell cautioned after the playoff loss to the 49ers there was no guarantee the Lions would be able to replicate their success from last season, despite keeping the nucleus of their team largely intact.
The NFL has had at least four new playoff teams in 34 consecutive seasons, and the NFC North should be stronger up top this year with Jordan Love entering his second season as Green Bay Packers starting quarterback and the Chicago Bears surrounding presumptive No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams with a talented roster.
Goff acknowledged outside expectations will rise for Lions this season, and said players will elevate their standards to be better, too.
“I think Dan put it great at the end of last year is how much harder it’s going to be, and we know that,” he said. “It’s going to be harder. People are going to be gunning for us. It’s going to be hard to first defend our division title, that’s No. 1, and then see where we can go from there. But yeah, absolutely, holding that trophy at the end of the year, only one team gets to do it and that’s our goal.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken L
The Detroit Lions are closer to a Super Bowl than they’ve ever been.
They won 12 games last season for the second time in franchise history. They played for the NFC title, and should have beat the San Francisco 49ers in that game. They did beat the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in the regular season.
But while some fans and former NFL general managers believe now is the time for the Lions to go all-in and maximize their window of opportunity, Lions GM Brad Holmes insisted Thursday nothing will change with his approach to roster building and this year’s draft.
“I understand the question because you’re like, ‘OK, all right, the roster’s at a certain point. OK, you guys should be contenders headed into the season, so, OK, how do you operate this way?’” Holmes said. “But again, I just think if we just keep improving every single year through doing it through our process, that’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’ll continue to do. And I think when you start getting into, ‘Well, we’ve got this window, so we’ve got this and we’ve got to pivot,’ that’s when I think you kind of get into a little bit of trouble.”
Holmes has built one of the best, most complete rosters in the NFL in his three years as GM, and he’s done it primarily through the draft.
The Lions traded for quarterback Jared Goff at the start of their rebuild and added projected starters Carlton Davis, D.J. Reader and Kevin Zeitler through trades or free agency this offseason, but otherwise have drafted and develop the nucleus of their roster.
Penei Sewell, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Kerby Joseph, Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta.
The Lions pick 29th in next week’s draft, which is 22 spots lower than the first first-round pick Holmes has started a draft with in Detroit. And while he acknowledged he likely won’t land a blue-chip talent comparable to Sewell (the seventh pick of the 2021 draft), Hutchinson (No. 2 in 22) or Gibbs (No. 12 last year, after a trade down) with his first pick this year, Holmes said it’s important to “stick to the same process" nonetheless.
“You got to just get your head around the players,” he said. “And we’ve been doing this long enough to know like, all right, we’re probably not going to be in on some of those (top) guys.”
Holmes has found gems in the middle rounds of his three drafts, and that’s played a huge part in the Lions’ success.
St. Brown, a fourth-round pick in 2021, is one of the best receivers in the NFL, while McNeill and Joseph are key defensive starters who were third-round picks.
Still, SiriusXM NFL analyst Mark Dominik, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager in 2009-13, said Holmes should consider a bold move up in next week’s draft to acquire another difference-making player.
“I think when you’re at the door and you think you can knock through it, then I think you’ve got to try to swing for it, especially with where they are as a football team,” Dominik said. “I look at them and say be aggressive here. Take your fifths and sixths or take your extra third from Minnesota and go and go get two guys that are going to make a difference for you.
“So if you come out with your first- and second-round pick, but you take Round 3 and move it into your second-round pick or your first-round pick and move it up to pick 23 or 22 or 24, I think you’ve got to go be aggressive because you do have a window that’s wide open and yet you’ve got a Packers team that looks like it’s charging strong and obviously other teams that are still really good in the NFC. So I just don’t think you sit back and play it safe and just let the picks come to you, I think you parlay it up and if you walk out of the draft with five picks instead of seven, I think that’s a good thing for them.”
Holmes has been aggressive in past drafts, making nine draft-day trades, including four moves up specifically for players. In 2022, he jumped 20 spots to take wide receiver Jameson Williams at No. 12 overall without sacrificing a future draft pick.
Last year, Holmes took the opposite approach in Round 1, moving down six spots after the Lions’ top target, Devon Witherspoon, came off the board.
“It’s certainly not a year for them to be trading picks and accumulating picks in 2025,” Dominik said.
Holmes apprenticed under Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Sneed, who famously authored the “F them picks” philosophy that helped the Rams win a Super Bowl. The Rams have a first-round pick this year for the first time since 2016, when they took Goff No. 1 overall.
It’s possible the Lions get to that point one day under Holmes, but the flip side of chasing one championship then rebuilding on the fly, as the Rams did while making the playoffs last year, is trying to construct something more sustainable.
The Lions have significant contractual investments to make in the coming months and years to Goff, St. Brown, Sewell, Hutchinson and others.
Those contracts typically hinder a team’s ability to retain some of its starting-level talent, and in one regard make hitting on draft picks — and having the cost-controlled contracts that come with them — more important.
That’s part of why Holmes subscribes to the talent-over-need philosophy.
“Really, with where the roster’s now, I actually think you even have more flexibility to not be anchored into (drafting) a need,” Holmes said. “We’ve always said best player, but it’s even more emphasized now.”
And that’s why, as badly as he wants to win a Super Bowl, Holmes insists the Lions won't pivot from what made them contenders in 2024.
“I don’t really base it off of windows, really,” he said. “It’s just how much of an impactful player do you want to get?”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken L
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