Lions News

[jaadam4]

That person is on crack. A 2nd, 3rd and Houston for a pending free agent? Hunter is awesome but that’s way too much for a 1 year rental.

[chemiclord]

I'd say the Lions more need skill in the secondary, rather than the D-Line.

[ghandi]

Thats alot of key players...im guessing several of those will play Sunday?

[jaadam4]

I'd say the Lions more need skill in the secondary, rather than the D-Line.

I completely agree but I’m going to camp out in NeverGonnaHappen Land and hope for Maxx Crosby

That dude was custom made for this team

[Mainevent]

That person is on crack. A 2nd, 3rd and Houston for a pending free agent? Hunter is awesome but that’s way too much for a 1 year rental.

Yeah, I would assume if they pulled off a deal like this that Holmes would have to have a wink-wink deal to sign him to an extension.

[foxhopper]

Thats alot of key players...im guessing several of those will play Sunday?

Hope so because I think it will be a loss without them.

[whatever_gong82]

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2023/10/12/23914075/detroit-lions-news-bobby-layne-curse-payton-manning-exorcism-worked

[edindetroit]

You’re a sicko! That’s fantastic

Don't be dissing the Deb!

[jaadam4]

lol

[whatever_gong82]

[whatever_gong82]

Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff drawing Tom Brady, Peyton Manning comparisons for this skill



Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press


Jared Goff's strong play this season has earned him comparisons to two of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, at least in one aspect of their games.

"I’d put him in that group with (Tom) Brady and (Peyton) Manning as far as the play-action," Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive pass game coordinator Larry Foote told reporters this week. "They sell it, they do a good job selling it and as a linebacker that can be tricky cause it looks the same."

The Detroit Lions have one of the best, most diverse rushing attacks in the NFL, and Goff has used the camouflage the run game provides to fashion his own passing success.


Goff is tied for fourth in the NFL with 385 passing yards off play-action throws this season, behind only Josh Allen (472), Ryan Tannehill (430) and Geno Smith (400), according to Pro Football Reference.


He's completing a career-high 69.8% of his passes and the Lions (4-1) lead the league with 23 pass plays of 20-plus yards, many off run fakes.

"I’m very aware of it," Goff said. "I don’t know that it’s something that I’m doing more than anything else, but it’s a part of my game that I am very aware of and me and the running backs are constantly trying to do our best to make it look exactly like the run."


Goff has thrived in the play-action game since early in his days with the Los Angeles Rams, and his success throwing after run fakes in L.A. helped shape the Lions offense under second-year coordinator Ben Johnson.

Goff, who played virtually his entire high school and college career out of the shotgun formation — he estimates he ran five plays total from under center during those years, all in goal line situations — said he had to learn to play under center with the Rams and get comfortable turning his back to defenses in play-action situations.


This year, the Lions have run the second-highest percentage of plays from under center on first downs, according to NFELO analytics.


"(Defenses are) going to move around, they’re going to be in a different place when you probably turn your head around, so have an idea of what they’re going to be in pre-snap and what coverage they’re going to be in, and then when you turn your head around either confirming that or understanding that you’re wrong and finding out what it is very quickly," Goff said. "That part of the processing of it was probably the main challenge early on in my career, and as I've gone on, I've got a better grasp of the game and it’s become a little bit more practical every day that’s something that I do to recognize the coverage."


Goff said successful play-action passes require three parts: The offensive line firing off the snap to mimic a run play, the quarterback and running back optimizing their mesh point on the fake handoff, and the quarterback carrying out the entirety of the fake.

" 'Show, snap, shrink' is kind of the coaching point for it," he said. "But I think more than anything is making it look exactly like it does when you do hand it off, whatever that is, whether it’s 'show, snap, shrink' or a similar version of your mechanics. But yeah, making it look exactly as if you were handing the ball off is the best way to describe it."


While the Lions' play-action game is piggybacked by a strong ground game — the Lions rank seventh in the NFL at 141 rushing yards per game — linebacker Derrick Barnes said the play-action passing games that present the hardest challenge are the ones who sell the entirety of the fake the best.


That's why Goff said the Lions' success in the play-action game, and comparisons such as the one he drew from Foote this week, are a tribute to the entire offense.


In huddles, offensive linemen occasionally remind themselves to "think of it as a run" before play-action passes. Center Frank Ragnow said he's conscious of making the same line calls for play-action pass plays that he would for running plays. And having a detailed lead back like David Montgomery in the backfield helps.

"I think it’s just discipline," Goff said. "It’s just focusing on it, making it matter and putting an emphasis on it and putting detail on it."


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

[whatever_gong82]

Losing coordinators is NFL's cost of winning. It's a foreign concept for the Detroit Lions



Shawn Windsor
Detroit Free Press


If the Detroit Lions keep winning and winning and even win a playoff game, Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn will likely be gone. They might be gone even if the Lions don’t win a playoff game.

This is how it goes in the NFL. A team starts winning. General managers notice. The coordinators who helped make winning possible get the chance to lead their own team. Rinse. Repeat.

It's a novel concept around here, though, as Lions’ coordinators don’t get plucked to lead other teams. In fact, it hasn’t happened since before the 1973 season, when offensive line coach Chuck Knox left for the Rams.

That’s 50 years, by my math. Fifty!


Almost too hard to fathom, if we’re being honest. Which makes it surreal that two Lions assistant coaches — TWO!! — will surely get interviews at the end of the season, if the current season stays on track.


What’s important to know in this situation, since you haven’t experienced it in half a century — which means many of you haven’t experienced it at all — is that this is how the better NFL teams operate: They replace coaches who have left for promotions.


Strange, right?

Not to Dan Campbell. And why would it be? The Lions head coach is himself a product of this system. He worked under one of the best coaches in the league — Sean Payton (this year notwithstanding) — and got his chance.

Now, a couple of his guys might get their chance. Though Campbell isn’t thinking about that just yet.


“Honestly, I haven't gone there yet with that in this moment,” he said.

But?

“I’ve thought about that before. I've thought I was gonna lose A.G. (Aaron Glenn) twice. And Ben (Johnson) last year once. But that was certainly at the end of the year.”


It’s hard to blame him for not wanting to think about it at the moment. His team is rolling. He has a plan to oversee for the Lions' visit to Tampa, Florida, on Sunday. Yet this doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ideas about who could replace his coordinators.

Of course he has. There is no choice. Any head coach who starts to win has to think about the possibility. It’s part of being a head coach.


You know what else is part of being a head coach?

Managing the loss of valuable and talented assistants. The best head coaches do this. It’s where we get the phrase “coaching tree.”


Every long-tenured coach has one. Some more fruitful than others.

The most famous coaching tree in recent days is Bill Belichick’s. His is also the least successful, as Lions’ fans know well. (Hello, Matt Patricia!)


Patricia washed out here in Detroit. Just as almost every other touted assistant of Belichick’s has, wherever they’ve taken over: Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel, Josh McDaniels — though he’s getting a second chance in Las Vegas — even Nick Saban, who struggled in the pro ranks with Miami before jumping back to college. We could go on. But we won’t, because all of these coaches did stellar work for Belichick.

And all of them were replaced. Yet the Patriots kept winning.


That's the point. Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking offensive coach in San Franciso replaced coordinators and kept winning, building the deepest coaching tree in modern football history. It was a run that included, among others, Mike Holmgren, George Seifert, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Dennis Green, Brian Billick and Andy Reid.

Reid, of course, has his own branches, both from his days in Philadelphia and Kansas City. John Harbaugh — who is part of Reid’s coaching tree, via the Eagles — has replaced coordinators in Baltimore (drawing from his own and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh's tree). Just as Mike Tomlin has done in Pittsburgh.


The most famous coaching tree may well be Bill Parcells', in part because he launched Belichick, but also because he developed two other Super Bowl-winning coaches: Payton and Tom Coughlin. That's a lot of trophies.

But, again, the success of coaches after they’ve left their mentors isn’t what matters here. That makes for fun watercooler arguments over résumés and influence. What’s critical is that all of these coaches had to replace talented assistants.


And did.

And Campbell will, too. At least if he is to become the coach we think he can be.

Obviously, it won’t be easy. Johnson is smart, clever and perfectly in tune with not only Campbell’s offensive vision, but with Jared Goff and the entire offense. Listen to the players — and to the assistants under him — and they describe a budding communicator and visionary who understands everyone’s strengths and how to use them.


Glenn hasn’t generated quite the buzz Johnson has this season, but his defense is starting to turn heads, mostly because of its improvement. If it keeps getting better, Glenn will get more interviews — he already has interviews with the Colts and Saints in previous offseasons — and someone will hire him.

General managers like a good turnaround story. They also like the hire-the-next-wizard story. Both are compelling. Just as both Glenn and Johnson are promising coaches.


Just ask Campbell:

“All I can tell you is they’re both vital to us and our success. And everything … we’ve built. Everybody's got a piece, everybody’s got a job to do, and you want them to be the very best at what they what they’re asked to do. And I feel like we have that. And when you don’t have that, you have to find the right guy that you put in those places when the time comes.”


The time hasn’t come. Not yet. But it will be here faster than anyone thinks, and Campbell understands that. Though he isn’t about to admit his mind might occasionally wander to what life will be like without them, you can bet it has. He’s human.

He’s also showing he has the tools to be the next great program-builder, despite his reluctance to admit that either.



“We’ve got a good program here,” he acknowledged.

Yet?

“I’m not putting that on me. … Everybody’s got a hand in it.”

True, but no one more than Campbell, and to keep this franchise rolling, he’ll likely have to replace at least one critical piece to his program this winter. Because this is what winning NFL franchises do.


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

[Lionsfan123]

Looking at how well the Lions are doing now, if the Lions win the division and get that long sought elusive playoff win, I think Ben Johnson may be out the door unless Sheila is going to make it rain on the guy, but if he leaves we go need to find a suitable replacement quickly. I would get Matt LaFleur since he can put together good offenses and is a Michigan native from good old Kyle Shannon’s coaching staff, but he’s probably not getting fired next season, even though there are some whispers in Green Bay of people growing weary of him since the folks in Lambeau are starting to think that he may not be as good of an HC as once thought.

The idea sounds nice but it’s most likely won’t happen.

[whatever_gong82]

Both cast aside, former No. 1 picks set to lead Lions, Buccaneers into first-place battle



Justin Rogers
The Detroit News


Allen Park — For quarterbacks Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield, this Sunday's matchup is what it was always supposed to look like — two No. 1 overall draft picks, selected two years apart, leading first-place teams into an important, early-season battle.

Then again, it also looks completely different than we expected. Goff was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 2016, was named to a pair of Pro Bowls and led the franchise to a Super Bowl before they abruptly dumped him in favor of Matthew Stafford ahead of the 2021 season.

The parallels with Mayfield are remarkably similar. While he didn't have Goff's level of individual success, Mayfield managed to lead a long-downtrodden Cleveland Browns team, which had won a single game the previous two seasons, to immediate respectably. And in his third season, he helped the franchise to its first playoff victory in 26 years.


A little more than a year later, after a season where he fought through a shoulder injury, the Browns swung a controversial deal for Deshaun Watson, eventually shipping out Mayfield to Carolina a few months later.

Cast aside by the teams that drafted and developed them, both quarterbacks have needed to forge new paths, but have come out the other side as good as ever. It came a little easier for Goff, landing in Detroit, where he had immediately, unwavering support of team leadership, providing an environment that has allowed him to return to the Pro Bowl level he played at for Los Angeles in 2017 and 2018.


Mayfield's journey has been more on an odyssey. It didn't work out in Carolina, resulting in him being granted his release five months after his arrival. He finished last year as an injury fill-in with the Rams, even leading them to some surprising late-season victories, prior to signing a low-cost, prove-it deal for a chance to compete for Tampa Bay's starting job this offseason.


"He was targeting us, I mean, maybe more than we were targeting him," Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht described in a recent podcast appearance. "He saw this as an awesome opportunity for him. And we told him from the beginning that you're going to be in a competition here because we really like Kyle Trask. He didn't, as you know Baker, he didn't flinch. He accepted that and just ran with it."

Mayfield won the job in the offseason and hasn't looked back. And he's playing as well as ever. After posting a modest 86.5 passer rating his first five seasons, he's been a top-10 quarterback through the team's first four games, with a 101.5 rating.


The fit, particularly the pairing with first-year offensive coordinator Dave Canales, has proved perfect. A Pete Carroll disciple, Canales spent the past 13 years with the Seattle Seahawks, working with the team's receivers and quarterbacks. His recent work revitalizing the career of Geno Smith is a big reason he earned the opportunity in Tampa Bay, and it only makes sense he's had similar success with Mayfield, given the overlapping skill sets of the two veteran quarterbacks.


"I think what they’re asking him to do and the scheme really suits him well," Lions coach Dan Campbell said. "They’re making a true commitment to the run. There are a lot of boots that are involved, play-action pass and when you’re playing good defense too, man that’s right in his wheelhouse. He’s very competitive, like he’s always been, and he’s finding ways to make plays if it’s not there."


And like Goff has experienced in Detroit, Mayfield has found found a team that's embraced him on a personal level, facilitating a career rebound.

"They've always said, from the beginning, just be myself and be the best version (of me)," Mayfield said this week. "When you allow people to be confident in that and believe that's more than enough to have success, good things will happen. They've obviously been really welcome since the beginning."


Goff and Mayfield are more than parallel stories; they're friends. They share a mutual connection in Ryan Lindley, who helped Goff prepare for the draft coming out of Cal and later served as Mayfield's quarterbacks coach in Cleveland. The two regularly communicate during the offseason and their bond has only been strengthened through shared tribulations. Not surprisingly, they are both reveling in the other's success.

"Coming from somebody that needed a fresh start, as well, Jared is a stud," Mayfield said. "I think he's playing really well. I think you can tell his leadership and all the things why he got chosen that high. He's truly showing that now. Not every fit is perfect, and for him, I think his confidence continues to grow and he's got all the tools you want."


Goff already had reestablished himself in Detroit when Mayfield unceremoniously exited Cleveland last year. And while he needed to bounce around a bit to re-secure his footing, he's currently playing the best football of his career in Tampa Bay. That redemption arc has resonated with his counterpart in Detroit.

"It's always good to see guys fight through adversity and seemingly come out the other side," Goff said. "Obviously it's a long season for all of us, but he's playing as well as anyone. You just have so much respect for a guy who has been through it, and been to the bottom in some ways, having your career in flux and having to to dig deep inside yourself and fight for it. He clearly has and has been playing extremely well."


jdrogers@detroitnews.com

Twitter/X: @Justin_Rogers

[whatever_gong82]

Looking at how well the Lions are doing now, if the Lions win the division and get that long sought elusive playoff win, I think Ben Johnson may be out the door unless Sheila is going to make it rain on the guy, but if he leaves we go need to find a suitable replacement quickly. I would get Matt LaFleur since he can put together good offenses and is a Michigan native from good old Kyle Shannon’s coaching staff, but he’s probably not getting fired next season, even though there are some whispers in Green Bay of people growing weary of him since the folks in Lambeau are starting to think that he may not be as good of an HC as once thought.

The idea sounds nice but it’s most likely won’t happen.

I don't want LaFleur within 100 miles of the Detroit Lions, unless he's with the opposition. His offense with Green Bay is meh, and we've beaten his teams 4 straight times, and handled his offense each time.

Dan Campbell has already got someone that's working with Ben Johnson right now, and if Mr. Johnson leaves, that person will take over the OC position.