Lions News

[-Deborah-]

Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell have been named to the the 2023 Pro Bowl Games

327167275_2311926682301749_5046688453630821243_n.jpg

I just noticed the "Games" not "Game" part of that. I forgot they revamped it this year, should be much better.

[Futureshock]

Putting this here...
NFL sets 2023 salary cap at $224.8 million

Posted by Josh Alper on January 30, 2023, 1:15 PM EST

Getty Images

The offseason is underway for 30 of the NFL’s 32 teams and they now know the salary cap they’ll be working with in 2023.

The NFL informed teams that the cap will be set at $224.8 million for next season.

That’s up from $208.2 million for the current season and reflects the uptick in revenue that the league will enjoy from new broadcasting deals that kick in during the 2023 season. It also shows that the league has rebounded well from the drop to a $182.5 million salary cap in 2021 due to the impact of COVID on attendance and other revenues.

With the cap set, teams can now use that figure as they make decisions about contract options, roster bonuses and extensions. Franchise tags can be applied starting on February 21 and the new league year begins on March 15.

[Futureshock]

Soooo we have a new TE... Coach...

Report: Steve Heiden joining Lions as tight ends coach

Posted by Myles Simmons on January 30, 2023, 10:50 AM EST

Getty Images

While the Cardinals are still looking for their next head coach, one of their longtime offensive assistants is moving on.

According to Dan Graziano of ESPN, Arizona tight ends coach Steve Heiden is joining Detroit in the same role.

Heiden had been a part of the Cardinals coaching staff dating back to 2013, when he started out as an assistant special teams and assistant tight ends coach under former head coach Bruce Arians. He was then the assistant offensive line coach under Steve Wilks in 2018 before he was retained as tight ends coach under Kliff Kingsbury in 2019.

A third-round pick in the 1999 draft, Heiden played 11 seasons as a tight end for the Chargers and Browns. He caught 201 passes for 1,689 yards with 14 touchdowns.

The Lions did have Tanner Engstrand as their tight ends coach and passing game coordinator in 2022. Ben Johnson held tight ends coach to start Dan Campbell’s tenure as head coach in 2021 but was promoted to offensive coordinator. There’s been no official word on how the club may move around its staff for 2023, though Johnson is due to return after he was interviewed for some head coaching vacancies this month.

[whatever_gong82]

Detroit Lions reportedly hiring Arizona Cardinals' Steve Heiden as TEs coach

Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press


The Detroit Lions will have a new tight ends coach in 2023.

The Lions are hiring former Arizona Cardinals assistant Steve Heiden to coach tight ends, ESPN reported Monday.

Heiden's addition is one of several changes expected to the Lions' assistant coaching ranks. Heiden spent the past 10 seasons with the Cardinals, including the past four as tight ends coach.

He played 11 NFL seasons at tight end (1999-2009) with the San Diego Chargers and Cleveland Browns and was taken 10 picks before Lions coach Dan Campbell, another ex-NFL tight end, in the 1999 NFL draft. He started his coaching career at Concordia University in 2012, joining the Cardinals as assistant special teams/assistant tight ends coach a year later.

Heiden replaces Tanner Engstrand, who served as tight ends coach/pass game coordinator last season. Engstrand's role for 2023 is not immediately clear.

The Lions set a franchise record with 12 receiving touchdowns by tight ends this season, despite trading top tight end T.J. Hockenson to the Minnesota Vikings at the trade deadline. Brock Wright and Shane Zylstra had four touchdowns each, Hockenson had three in seven games before his trade, and rookie fifth-round pick James Mitchell had one.


The Lions, coming off a 9-8 season, could return all three of their coordinators for 2023.

Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson will return for a second season as play caller after interviewing for head coaching vacancies with the Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts. Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp is expected back for a third season in that role. And defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn remains on staff for now after interviewing with the Cardinals and Colts. Glenn is one of the top candidates for the Arizona job, NFL Network reported.

The Lions have at least one other opening after firing defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant at midseason.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

[froot loops]

Well deserved in my opinion.

[jaadam4]

Agreed. Great year for Goff. His no INT streak has been really impressive

[Nick Pappageorgio]

They just need to can the the whole thing…flag football, what could go wrong?

I’m old enough to remember why they canceled the rookie beach flag-football event…can’t remember the name (Edwards?) Pats rookie RB got his leg bent in the wrong direction. Someone always gets hurt.

[whatever_gong82]

If NFL is a copycat league, Detroit Lions are copying Super Bowl contenders in a vital way

Shawn Windsor

Detroit Free Press

It’s a copycat league, the NFL. So goes the saying, and the saying is going around a lot at the moment, as it always does this time of the year, when the schedule has winnowed the field to two, and the runup to the Super Bowl doesn’t quite ramp up for another week.

So, yeah, it’s a copycat league, as in: How do the Detroit Lions copy the Super Bowl finalists? Or even the semifinalists?

That’s the question, right? To look at who is succeeding and why and try to do something similar. Except there is no copying what Kansas City is doing — reaching five AFC title games and three Super Bowls in the last five seasons — because there is no other Patrick Mahomes. Just as there wasn’t another Tom Brady.



Ask Bill Belichick, who hasn’t sniffed a Super Bowl since Brady left for Tampa three years ago. So, yeah, that copycat plan is out.

It probably is for Cincinnati, too, since Joe Burrow looks like 1 of 1 as well, just one who isn't quite as good as Mahomes. Still, he’s good enough that building a roster around the hope that a younger version of him awaits is probably not a sound strategy.

Unless you fall into the next great quarterback, and even then, it’s not always enough. Talk to Buffalo. That franchise has a superstar quarterback leading its huddle, but as good as Josh Allen is … it’s not enough.

No single player is enough. Except for maybe Mahomes, who played on a bum ankle, who lost three of his starting wideouts, whose best target, Travis Kelce, was hobbled by a sore back, and still made enough plays to get the Chiefs past the Bengals on Sunday.

But then that’s not fair to reality, either. As great as Mahomes is, the Chiefs don’t win without Chris Jones, a 6-foot-6-inch, 313-pound defensive … tackle? End? Lineman?



What we can say for certain is that Jones blew up the Bengals pocket all game long. And when Burrow got the ball with the game tied and a couple minutes to go, he couldn’t find anywhere to go, especially on third down, when Jones lined up on the left edge, flicked aside Bengals right tackle Hakeem Adeniji and met Burrow in the backfield.

It was Jones’ second sack and the Chiefs’ fourth overall. Add in the 10 quarterback hits and countless hurries that forced a handful of dirtballs where Burrow had to throw at his teammate’s feet and well, you get the idea:

Burrow didn’t have time. Mahomes did.

Give Burrow time and pressure Mahomes and the game is different. The score is different. The outcome is different.

Even at that level of quarterbacking, it’s still about who gets more time, who gets more time to get comfortable, who finds a rhythm. Now, it’s true that the great ones make the throws when they get the chance in the games when there aren’t many chances.

Mahomes did that. And while he had more time, he didn’t have more open targets, particularly in the second half. When he did, he made the throws. Or he made enough of them.



Again, he is singularly gifted, and none of the other 31 teams can hope to find another one. Then again, they don’t need to.

The Bengals may have lost Sunday, but they beat the Chiefs a year ago in Arrowhead Stadium and almost beat them again. Because they have Burrow, yes, but also because they have a good defense and great offensive playmakers.

What they don’t have is a great offensive line. It was better this season than last and might have been better Sunday if not for three injured starters. Still, it’s not the Chiefs’ line, which is more than solid, and it’s certainly not the Eagles offensive line, which is arguably the best in the NFL.

In fact, the Eagles might be better at every position group than the Chiefs except for quarterback and tight end. In this way, the Super Bowl represents a nice little petri dish:

Is it the quarterback?

Or the roster around him?



Obviously, that’s an oversimplification. The quarterback is critical. San Francisco had no chance once Brock Purdy went out with a torn ligament in his throwing elbow, and the 49ers have as complete a roster as there is in football.

The only team more complete?

The Eagles.



Which brings us back to the Lions, because it’s always about the Lions, and it always should be about the Lions, because while Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are a nice story, and Mahomes is the story – or at least the player – neither team will be the story the Lions would be if they were to play in a Super Bowl.

But that’s another story, too. For now, the Lions story is related to next week’s Super Bowl story in the way a graduate student is related to a tenured professor: How do I get to where they are?

Well, as established, it’s not by cloning Mahomes. Or Burrow. Or even Hurts. San Francisco showed that Brock Purdy, before he was hurt, was good enough to play for a spot in the Super Bowl when the roster is right.

So, yeah, talent wins. And talent in the right spot wins more.



Kansas City may have the best quarterback, but against Cincinnati, the Chiefs had the better offensive and defensive lines. And though Purdy got hurt and we’ll never know what might have happened otherwise, the Eagles still looked better at the point of attack. That was partly why Purdy got hurt.

All of which is to say: the Lions are fundamentally copying the last two teams standing, which is hardly a revelation. For this game, at this level, is almost always about the same thing:

Who has more time?

And who doesn’t.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@shawnwindsor.

[ghandi]

Cinci just happened to be picking first in the draft at the right time....Luckily it wasn't like last year with 0 franchise QBs in sight.

[Futureshock]

If NFL is a copycat league, Detroit Lions are copying Super Bowl contenders in a vital way

Shawn Windsor....

He must be getting paid by the word.

[Futureshock]

First Swagg Kazekage is right:


Jamaal Williams: NFL is trying to take my personality away with celebration fines

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 1, 2023, 4:34 AM EST

Getty Images

Lions running back Jamaal Williams led the NFL with 17 rushing touchdowns in 2022, but some of those touchdowns were costly, as the NFL repeatedly fined him for his favorite touchdown celebration dance. Williams isn’t happy about that.

Williams said on the podcast hosted by his teammate Amon-Ra St. Brown and Bears receiver Equanimeous St. Brown that he simply likes to express his personality and emotion on the field, and the NFL is cracking down on him.

“Now I get fined for this stuff. I just feel like they’re trying to take my personality away, my joy,” Williams said. “Because now, I literally have to stop doing it. So now, when I score, I’m literally just gonna sit down and pout like a little baby or something.”

Williams said he was fined for touchdown dances twice during the season even though he did his dance more than twice, and he was particularly disappointed that the NFL fined him and then used his touchdown celebrations in highlight videos.

“I’m doing nothing wrong. They’re just being weenies,” Williams said. “They want to fine me, yet put all that stuff up there, brand it and put me up there and use it. They want to take my money, though.”

[The King]

He should watch Barry Sanders.

[chemiclord]

He can, but he should be under no obligation to emulate Sanders. No one should.

Sanders was the way he was; he didn't do his thing because the league mandated it. He was just a relatively quiet dude who didn't like public displays of emotion.

Jamaal Williams does. He likes to have his heart on his sleeve, and unless he's being obviously obscene (like flipping fans the middle finger as part of his celebration), he should be allowed to do so. I suppose there is room for an argument that pelvic gyrations are an obscene display, but then I'd have to reply that you should go back to bed and relax, grandpa.

[AKLionsfan]

In reference to the article, the old saying that games are won and lost in the trenches continues to prove true. Detroit has built an elite Oline and while the Dline needs work, they’re finding pieces like Hutch and Houston that can do some damage.

[Futureshock]

He can, but he should be under no obligation to emulate Sanders. No one should.

Sanders was the way he was; he didn't do his thing because the league mandated it. He was just a relatively quiet dude who didn't like public displays of emotion.

Jamaal Williams does. He likes to have his heart on his sleeve, and unless he's being obviously obscene (like flipping fans the middle finger as part of his celebration), he should be allowed to do so. I suppose there is room for an argument that pelvic gyrations are an obscene display, but then I'd have to reply that you should go back to bed and relax, grandpa.

I can be pretty old man fogie, but, I don't have any problems with it. As he stated, they fine him and then show the celebration for a week (at least). Makes no sense.