Lions News

[whatever_gong82]

7. Improved secondary

The Lions had a horrible pass defense last year, that’s been well documented. But they have revamped their secondary.

“They're just better,” Lions QB coach Mark Brunell said. “They're just better which is exciting. And sticky would be the word.”


8. Lions added explosive weapons


Here’s my prediction: the Lions are gonna line rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs up all over the field and have him streak down the field — using his speed and stretching the field.


“I think (deep passing threats) can come from a number of different positions,” Johnson told reporters. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be the receiver spot, but I feel comfortable with what we’ve done here in training camp that we’ve got plenty of guys that can stretch the field vertically, so I’m not really concerned about that early in the season here.”

9. Goff is better


Listen, if the Lions turns the ball over, they have no chance on Thursday. But if Goff can play smart, which is how he played at the end of last season, they have a shot.

“He's more comfortable,” Brunell said. “He's very confident. He knows what we're trying to do, who we're trying to get the ball to. Not just the X's and O's, but the intent of why we're calling this play. Why we are approaching the Kansas City Chiefs with this type of game plan. What are we trying to attack, just a bigger picture and a greater understanding of what we're trying to accomplish."

The last time Goff and Mahomes played, it turned into the third-highest scoring game of all time. Goff and the Rams beat Mahomes, 54-51. So, Goff won't freak out in this setting.


10. One hand helps the other


So, the Lions' defense is better. That seems evident. But there is a side benefit.

That has actually made the offense better in practice.

“They made training camp very challenging,” Brunell said. “The ball has to be on time, and it has to be accurate — this training camp. If it wasn't, then it wasn't going to be a completed pass. They were always around the ball.”


11. Hutch a year older


Aidan Hutchinson is entering his second season, a year wiser. And an improved secondary could help him get more sacks.


12. Lions have ball hawks


NFL games usually come down to a few plays.

And the easiest way to flip a game is a turnover.

The Lions' improved secondary has a couple of ball hawks in Kerby Joseph, who had four interceptions in 2022, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who had six.

“I do believe that we’ve got some playmakers back there on the backend," Campbell said. "So I think we’re much better suited than we’ve been here to come up with some — man, you get some tipped balls, overthrows, get a hand on a ball that we’re going to come down with those, and not only there on the backend, but I think we’ll have the ability to squeeze the pocket on these guys and just really all year I believe we’ll be able to do that with our front. And so, that bodes well to getting some takeaways, those two things.”


13. Detroit vs. the universe


My final reason isn’t really a reason. Maybe, it’s more of a plea to the universe.

Can’t Detroit get this, just one time?

Can’t Detroit have a magical season, right from the start?

Can’t everything align?

After all the suffering and losing, can't we have nice things, just once?

Yes, sir.

Lions 38, Chiefs 35.

Contact Jeff Seidel at jseidel@freepress.com or follow him @seideljeff.


For openers: Chiefs


Matchup: Lions (9-8 in 2022) vs. Kansas City (14-3 in 2022), season opener.

Kickoff: 8:15 p.m. Thursday; Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri.

TV/radio: NBC; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Chiefs by 6½.

[-Deborah-]

[whatever_gong82]

Emmanuel Moseley limited, but Detroit Lions new-look secondary ready for 'gold jacket' QB


Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Lions are a healthy bunch heading into Thursday’s season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Lions listed four players on their first injury report of the season Monday, but cornerback Emmanuel Moseley was the only player who missed practice reps.

Moseley, officially a limited participant in practice, is returning from a summer clean-up procedure on his surgically repaired knee. He missed all of training camp, and his availability for Thursday is uncertain given the limited work he will have gotten — the Lions practice Tuesday for the fourth time since activating Moseley off the physically unable to perform list — before the game.

“My early assessment (of Moseley is) I’ve been impressed with his knowledge as a football player,” Lions defensive backs coach Brian Duker said. “I thought he was a really smart football player so far. And then as far as just working him back (in the playing rotation), obviously just try to do it the right way. I’m probably not the right guy to answer that question.”



Cam Sutton and Jerry Jacobs took first-team reps at cornerback all summer and are expected to start against the Chiefs, with rookie Brian Branch as the slot cornerback in sub packages. Moseley will begin his Lions career as a backup after starting most of the past four seasons, when healthy, for the San Francisco 49ers.

Duker said he is excited to see how the Lions’ new-look secondary stacks up against a Kansas City Chiefs team led by MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes that has one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL.

“I think I know what the group is at this point,” he said. “I guess you never really, really know your team until a couple weeks into the season so I’m excited to see the fruition of what I think we are come to life.”


Along with Moseley, Sutton and Branch, the Lions added safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson this offseason, giving them four new starters to pair with Jacobs. Backup safety Tracy Walker also is returning from a torn Achilles tendon that cost him 14 games last year.

Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said Mahomes’ ability to extend plays with his feet, and his connection with top target Travis Kelce, will be especially challenging for his defense.



“The tough thing about that is they make a 2-second play end up being a 4- or 5-second play and for any defensive back, that’s hard to do, to cover for that long,” Glenn said. “So our guys just have to be ready for that, and it is what it is. But it also goes into our defensive line to make sure we corral this quarterback and keep him in the pocket and don’t let him get out. Now, is he going to get out and do it? Yes, I mean he’s a special player. He’s going to wear a gold jacket at some point. I think we all know that. But we just got to do the best that we can of making sure we corral him and don’t allow those 2-second plays to end up being 4- or 5-second plays.”


Frank Ragnow (toe), Isaiah Buggs (illness) and Ifeatu Melifonwu (hamstring) also were listed on the Lions' injury reports as full participants in practice.


Sudfeld still extra eyes for Goff


Lions quarterbacks coach Mark Brunell said he still wants injured backup Nate Sudfeld to be a part of the quarterback room during his rehab from a torn ACL.

“I asked Coach (Dan Campbell), as soon as he goes through his process, I want him back in our room as fast as possible,” Brunell said. “He’s that type of guy. He’s great in the room, hard-working and it just helps everyone in there.”


Sudfeld tore his ACL in the Lions’ preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers and will miss the season.

The Lions have four other quarterbacks currently in house, with Teddy Bridgewater serving as Jared Goff’s primary backup, David Blough on practice squad and Hendon Hooker on the nonfootball injury list and expected back somewhere around midseason.

“It’s the worst part of the game,” Brunell said of Sudfeld’s injury. “You see a young man that has worked so hard and put so much time into it and wants it so bad, and for him to have the type of injury that he had, just end of a preseason game and just kind of a freak type thing. Nate is a very strong individual, and while it’s very difficult for him, I’m pretty confident that he’s going to come back better than ever. He’s going to work hard, he’s going to have a good attitude about it, but boy, right when something happens like that it can be really tough.”


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

[-Deborah-]

[whatever_gong82]

Here's some more info for you Deb:

Detroit Lions name 6 captains; Jared Goff, Alex Anzalone voted for 3rd straight year

Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press


Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell announced his team captains Tuesday, and Jared Goff and Alex Anzalone have earned the honor for a third straight year.

Goff and Anzalone were two of the Lions' first acquisitions in 2021, when Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes embarked on their rebuild. Goff joined the Lions via trade from the Los Angeles Rams; Anzalone signed as a free agent.

Receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and right tackle Penei Sewell are offensive captains along with Goff, and outside linebacker Charles Harris joins Anzalone on the defensive side of the ball.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin, a captain in 2021 who played for the Houston Texans last season, is the Lions' special teams captain.

Campbell said Lions players voted for captains and "everyone of those guys are worthy of that position."

"That’s an honor," he said. "We’re fortunate to have a lot of guys that are really I would call leaders on this team. So we’re in a good spot, but congratulations to those guys."



St. Brown, Sewell and Harris are first-time captains with the Lions. All three joined the team in 2021. Sewell was the Lions' first draft pick under Campbell and Holmes, St. Brown was a fourth-round pick that year, and Harris led the team in sacks that season but missed most of last year with a groin injury.


Sewell is the third different offensive lineman to be elected a captain since 2021, joining Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow (2022).


"We have a ton of those guys, particularly on the offensive line," Campbell said. "I mean, Frank, Deck, Jonah (Jackson). V (Halapoulivaati Vaitai), who’s been here. And so I think it's an outstanding core group of guys that do it the right way and they all pretty much lean on each other, and so it says a lot. I feel like we’re in a really good place with our leadership here, I really do."


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

[whatever_gong82]

I'm about to post a nice article from yesterday's Athletic. It's going to take me awhile to copy it properly so in the meantime, here's a YouTube link from the Athletic talking and previewing about the 2023 Detroit Lions.

Enjoy!!

[edindetroit]

14. Detroit Lions




If you’re ready for playoff football in Detroit, give me a hell yeah. Stone Cold Dan Campbell and his pack of ferocious kneecap nibblers are my pick to win the NFC North this season. I love the way they attacked the offseason, adding several high-caliber free agent defensive backs after having one of the worst secondaries in the league. I know they were clowned for their selection of Jahmyr Gibbs so early on, but I think he is going to have a great rookie season behind one of the best offensive lines in football. Detroit is fun, they are America’s sweetheart team, but it’s not enough for fans to just be the lovable underdog- they have expectations now.

https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/lists/nfl-power-rankings-patrick-mahomes-josh-allen-joe-burrow/

[CGVT]

Haha! I watched the Manningcast a few times last year. It is a fun watch.

[whatever_gong82]

A very good article from the Athletic yesterday. Enjoy it, everyone!!


Baumgardner: These are not the Same Old Lions. Their owner made sure of it

By Nick Baumgardner

Sep 4, 2023


In the summer of 1999, Dan Campbell climbed into a beat-up truck and drove it more than 1,500 miles to New York for his first NFL job. He was madly in love with football.

In the summer of 1988, Chris Spielman packed all the laundry he could carry into a beat-up truck that was filled with old fast-food wrappers, per legendary Detroit News sports writer Jerry Green, and drove to metro Detroit for his first NFL job. And he was madly in love with football.

In the summer of 1973, Sheila Ford Hamp — who has likely never owned a bad-looking truck — graduated from Yale, just five years after the school began accepting women. She wanted nothing more than to work in the NFL, only to be told females needn’t apply. She, too, was madly in love with football.

What, exactly, does it take to fix the unfixable?


For the first time in modern history, the principal owner of the Detroit Lions — this city’s most beloved sports asset (apologies to the Red Wings) — is building the franchise around the only thing that has ever mattered: honesty. In football, honesty equals trust and trust equals love. The unconditional kind.

Detroit is second only to the Arizona Cardinals for the most losses in NFL history, with 702. Yet in August, the Lions announced they had sold out their Ford Field season-ticket allotment for the first time in the building’s 21-year existence. Detroit is a popular bet to win its first division title in 30 years. Fans locally have fallen for the club in ways not seen by an entire generation.

There are many reasons for that. None, however, is bigger than the promise that Hamp, the second-oldest daughter of William Clay Ford Sr., made to her hometown three summers ago.


In August 1957, the greatest head football coach in Detroit Lions history told a room of wealthy supporters expecting a pep talk that he was done with them.

“Tonight, I’m getting out of the Detroit Lions organization,” coach Buddy Parker announced, per the Detroit News. “I’ve had enough.”

Parker’s decision was stunning. He’d guided the Lions within one game of an NFL championship three-peat in 1954, and after a down year in 1955, Parker rebuilt his defense around Joe Schmidt and had Detroit looking like a contender again. Then, just like that, he was gone. Not from football, though. Later in the month, Parker signed a five-year contract to coach the Pittsburgh Steelers. To this day, he is one of only two former Lions head coaches to get another head coaching job in the NFL (his ex-assistant George Wilson being the other).

If anyone brought a curse on the Lions, it’s not Bobby Layne — it’s Buddy Parker, the Hall of Famer who couldn’t take another minute.

Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson may find that familiar.


William Clay Ford Sr. — the 31-year-old grandson of the Henry Ford — joined the Lions’ board of directors in 1956. By January 1961, he found himself in position to take control of the now aimless franchise by way of an American staple: a proxy war. It was a fight he won with ease.

By 1963, with the franchise still struggling to do anything (including sign its top three picks the year prior), Ford bought out the board for a reported $6 million and became sole owner of the Lions. Ford was a self-admitted crazed football fan, but he also never claimed to be an expert. Those he’d need to hire. One of his first moves was to name Russ Thomas, a former Lions lineman who played less than three years before working as a team scout/radio commentator, as de facto general manager.

Thomas would keep that spot for 25 years until he retired in 1989 and was replaced by Chuck Schmidt, who had no actual football experience.


The Lions lost roughly 55 percent of the 338 games presided over by Thomas. Perhaps no one outside of Ford (who died in 2014) has had a larger historical impact on the fortunes of the Lions, during and after their tenure, than Thomas. His reputation as a football negotiator more interested in financial savings than wins and losses followed him, and the Lions, like a shadow.


For years, Thomas was allowed to handle the team’s draft and contract negotiations more or less unchecked, leading to constant squabbles with coaches and personnel. Even after Ford removed draft responsibilities from Thomas’ job (handing them to the head coach instead), the GM — who once lost eventual Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff on a draft contract after trying to force him to work an offseason job as part of his deal — was still allowed to negotiate every contract. And that’s where the true control lived.

The Matt Millen era, from 2001 to 2008, is also notable. Millen — who was not unlike Thomas in terms of work ethic and style — had the title of president/CEO, but he was also the de facto GM. The Lions went 31-84 under his watch, the worst eight-year record in the modern NFL.

Since 1967, the Lions have employed just two general managers with both real football playing and scouting experience. Ford picked the first two: Thomas and Martin Mayhew.

His daughter picked No. 3:

Brad Holmes.


On June 23, 2020, nearly a lifetime after being told “no” by the game she loved, Sheila Hamp became principal owner of the Lions, taking over for her 94-year-old mother, Martha.

Then, she made a promise.

“I don’t plan to meddle,” she said that day, before getting to the truly important matter. “But I plan to be informed.”

continued..

[whatever_gong82]

When Ford bought the team, the NFL and AFL were still three years away from their historic merger. The NFL was hardly a mom-and-pop shop, but it was not the global behemoth it is now. Back then, Ford was also leading Ford Motor Company’s design team while serving on its board of directors, not fully retiring from the auto business until 1995. For most of Ford’s run, the Lions were an expensive side hustle.

His personal investment was more or less in ceremony, until a decision needed to be made. That resulted in frantic, reactionary moves that only served to keep the cycle of heartbreak spinning. If an owner has more investment in the business of a team than its competitive health, everything’s doomed.

The Lions are not a hobby or a side project for Hamp, who became one of the team’s vice chairs when her mother took ownership in 2014. Based solely on her actions since becoming principal owner, it’s fair to suggest that, for Hamp, the Lions are closer to family.


When the Lions hired ex-GM Bob Quinn (who personally hired coach Matt Patricia) in 2016, the process was a mess. Martha Ford, approaching 90, had been team owner less than two years, and the lack of a concrete plan was obvious. That led to the NFL appointing a third party, Ernie Accorsi, to help. The vision for Detroit’s future wasn’t really concocted in Detroit, but in a sterile office someplace else.

The result was a disaster. And by the time she fired both on Nov. 28, 2020, Hamp told team president Rod Wood the new search had to be different. This search, they felt, had to transcend usual business. Hamp wanted it to stay in the family. But not the Ford family. The Lions family.

A short time later, Wood called Chris Spielman, one of the greatest Lions to ever wear a helmet. One of the family’s proudest members.

Spielman was a young star on the 1991 Lions team that went 12-4 and beat Jimmy Johnson’s Cowboys in the playoffs. A year later, Spielman’s Lions watched the playoffs at home as Dallas — which took care of its young talent — took its first step toward becoming the team of the ’90s.


Detroit’s ’91 team followed an inspired run to the NFC Championship Game with heartache. Eight months after Mike Utley was paralyzed during a game, fellow starting guard Eric Andolsek died after being hit by a truck in Louisiana. A month earlier, ace defensive backs coach Len Fontes, brother of Lions head coach Wayne Fontes, died of a heart attack.

And there was also resentment. A data dump in 1992 stemming from an NFL antitrust lawsuit revealed Wayne Fontes was one of the lowest-paid head coaches in the NFL. Nearly every key player from the 1991 team eventually left because the Lions wouldn’t pay them.

Thus, the 1991 Lions are known as a singular entity in Detroit, rather than the start of something bigger. The last Lions team to win a playoff game.


Spielman himself, a fan favorite who epitomized literally everything the area stood for during that run, was eventually allowed to leave for the Buffalo Bills after the 1995 season for a deal worth $2 million annually. The Lions replaced him with an older player for less money. Ford raised ticket prices in 1996, and the Lions went 5-11. For the 1997 regular-season finale at the Pontiac Silverdome, the Lions still managed to sell more than 80,000 tickets — 18,000 in three days to avoid a local TV blackout — to see Barry Sanders break the 2,000-yard season rushing mark.

If you’ve ever asked yourself why Detroit Lions fans still exist after all this, why anyone bothers to scrounge an ounce of hope after being kicked in the teeth more times than they can count — the answer is simple: This place and the people that make it are just tougher than you.

“Don’t be surprised if you see me back here someday in some capacity or other,” Spielman told the Free Press the day he left in 1996.


A week after Wood’s initial call to Spielman, the two spoke again. Spielman was in Cincinnati set to call a Cowboys-Bengals game for Fox. At some point, Wood asked if Spielman would talk with Hamp. Already excited about the possibility of rejoining his favorite franchise, Spielman said absolutely. Along the way, Hamp and Wood told Spielman things would be different this time. They talked of their plan to listen, to collaborate and to be invested. Hamp told Spielman this mission — the fixing of the unfixable — had become personal for her. She asked him for help and told him that, with trust and communication, they could give Detroit its football team back for the first time in 75 years.

When Spielman hung up the phone inside his Cincinnati hotel room that Saturday, he had enough energy to run through a padlocked door. His first move after the call was to find his Fox producer.


“Hey,” Spielman said. “This is my last game. I’m going to the Lions.”

Four days later, just as he had more than 30 years ago, Spielman put some stuff in a car and drove it to Detroit without so much as a blink.

“I have zero regrets,” Spielman told The Athletic’s Colton Pouncy. “It’s been an amazing journey and it’s been amazing because we’re at a point where we’re, I believe, legitimate contenders.”


However, Spielman did not hire Campbell or Holmes. Hamp did, bringing both on board in January 2021. She insisted she wanted to “do right by” the Lions and set the franchise up for an honest shot at success for the first time in forever. That was enough for Spielman, who worked his contacts and assisted Hamp and Wood throughout both searches. The culture they’ve created revolves around simple things: collaboration, telling the truth, being yourself and loving football. Detroit things.


In 2021, after being saddled with a salary cap in hell, a quarterback (Matthew Stafford) who wanted out, another (Jared Goff) nobody else wanted and a roster gutted to the studs, the new group Hamp assembled started its first season 0-10-1. At 1-5 in year two, a frustrated Hamp called an impromptu news conference only to let reporters know — in case they were wondering — she was still all-in on Campbell, Holmes and every person in her building.


The Lions went on to win eight of their final 11 games, beating Aaron Rodgers in his Lambeau Field swan song and missing the playoffs by a hair. In the visiting locker room after the finale, Campbell — nose red from the cold, snow cap still atop his 6-foot-6 frame — told a young locker room suddenly oozing confidence that “this is just the beginning.” Standing to his right, more than a foot shorter with an even bigger grin, was Hamp.


“I’m just telling you, I’m just freakin’ telling you — I’ve been around as a player and a coach in this league,” Campbell shouted as he pulled Hamp in for a hug. “We’ve got the best owner. Everything you could possibly need, every resource — she thinks about you guys all the time, man, she knows everything about you, she’s rock solid and as good as they come.


“She’s competitive. And, boy, she loves to win.”

What does it take to fix the unfixable? Tough people. True believers.


A coach who eats kneecaps. A general manager who lives to scout talent. A selfless assistant who just wants to help. And an owner who wants nothing more than to make her family and city proud as she gets to live a dream.

Win or lose in 2023, these are not the Same Old Lions. And that’s pretty easy to fall in love with.


Nick Baumgardner is a senior writer/columnist based in Michigan. He co-hosts “The Beat” Michigan-Michigan State podcast with Brendan Quinn and “One of These Years” Detroit Lions podcast with Chris Burke. He joined The Athletic after stops at the Detroit Free Press, MLive Media Group and other newspapers in Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. Follow Nick on Twitter @nickbaumgardner

[-Deborah-]

A very good article from the Athletic yesterday. Enjoy it, everyone!!


Baumgardner: These are not the Same Old Lions. Their owner made sure of it

Great read! A lot of history there that I was oblivious to. And a great way to get all fired up again about this season! LFG!!!

[whatever_gong82]

Great read! A lot of history there that I was oblivious to. And a great way to get all fired up again about this season! LFG!!!

A lot of that history pre-dates me by a few years, and I didn't get into the NFL until around 1979, when Gary Danielson got hurt in a meaningless exhibition game vs. the Baltimore Colts, I believe, and Jeff Komlo (who became infamous after football - he even has an Sports Illustrated article about him) became the starting Quarterback for the Detroit Lions, who promptly went 2-14 in the late Monte Clark's 2nd season as Head Coach of the team.

Along with the tragedies and bad luck, most of the bad luck was the fault of Sheila Ford Hamp's father. He was cheap and an ineffectual owner.

Hopefully, Mrs. Hamp will be a million times better as an Owner than her father ever was.

[Mainevent]

Here’s a good one. Lions hype train discussion 25:17 to 27:50.
- U on Lions O/U 9.5. It’s so obvious
- SOL!
- Lions defense garbage again.
- Overhyped team because last season was meaningless.
- Can’t cover anyone.
- Will probably give up 38 points to the Chiefs.
- No room for improvement.
- Didn’t need a RB because Jamaal Williams’ TD stats from last season.
- Good offense though! 🙄

Yeah, listened to that this morning at the gym, it was some dumbassery. It's fair to have doubts about the Lions hype train, but they just didn't know much about the team - the fact that they have 3/4 new starters in the secondary didn't even get a mention other than an afterthought about CGJ. Talked about losing Williams but didn't mention adding Montgomery.

[Nick Pappageorgio]

all of the puff pieces are starting to give me anxiety

[froot loops]

My first memory of a Lion quarterback was Jeff Komlo.