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Today (Jan 6th) is the first day the Lions can extend 2022 draftees (e.g., Hutch, Jamo, Paschal, Kerby, Rodriguez). Also the first day to pick up the fifth-year option on Hutch or Jamo.
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Evil Parallel Universe Lions fans: You will believe in NOW! Comply or suffer the consequences.
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Start picking.GO LIONS "24" !!Comment
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Arnold was at the Pistons game last night wearing a walking boot.Comment
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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Jahmyr is a top 3 back in the league right now. Such a special player. Common great pick by Brad.Originally posted by El Axe View PostComment
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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Nice breakdown on why Anzalone made such a big difference. Yes, the thumbnail put the winter soldier arm on him :-)
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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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"Yeah, we just... we don't want them to go. So that's our motivation."
Dan Campbell at Green Bay, January 8, 2023.Comment
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Taking a deeper look at the NFL's six coaching vacancies as Detroit Lions' coordinators draw heavy interest
Justin Rogers
Jan 8
Allen Park — For the third consecutive offseason, Detroit Lions coordinators Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn are drawing heavy interest for the league's head coaching vacancies.
After the initial wave of interviews each of the past two years, Johnson has withdrawn his name from consideration. His meteoric rise arguably left him unprepared to make the leap in 2023, but his decision to return to the Lions this season was a genuine surprise. And while fans wish he would stick around forever, he admitted last month he has a lingering desire to be a head coach.
“Yeah, I'd say this, I think there's a burning desire in every man to find what he's made out of and push the limits to see if he's got what it takes,” Johnson said. “Yeah, there's a fire there. When that time is, I don't know when that would be, but there's certainly a fire there.”
After last year, it’s difficult to predict whether this will be the right time. It’s conceivable a Super Bowl victory could be a tipping point. Regardless, after engineering potent offenses the past three seasons, he’s earned the right to be selective. Given many coaches only get one shot to get it right, it’s a wise approach.
As for Glenn, there have been minimal concerns about his ability to lead, rather, he's previously been anchored by his unit's limited production. Heading an overhaul of Detroit’s defense upon his arrival in 2021, the unit’s turnaround took longer than the rest of the rebuild, finishing 31st, 28th and 23rd in scoring the past three seasons. That’s tough to sell to a fan base when hiring a head coach.
But Glenn’s ability to navigate the loss of several starters this season — including potential Defensive Player of the Year Aidan Hutchinson — while leading the Lions to a top-10 finish in points and several statistical categories, has solidified his candidacy.
“He’s as good a coach as you’re going to find, “ Lions coach Campbell said on Tuesday. “He’s an even better human being. Look, if nobody wants him, I’ll take him again. I can tell you that right now. The thought of going through another cycle and he’s not somebody’s head coach is ridiculous. I mean, this guy is as good as they come, and he can do it all. He understands how to manage a game, he understands offense, defense, special teams. He knows how to communicate. He understands discipline of players and he’s motivating, he’s inspiring.”
Currently, four of six teams looking for a new coach have requested to talk to Johnson. Meanwhile, five — all but the New England Patriots — have asked to talk to Glenn.
Avoiding arbitrary rankings of those six vacancies, let’s look at what each job offers their next potential coach.
Chicago Bears
Projected cap space: $80.1M
2025 draft assets: No. 10 pick, extra second-rounder, no fourth-rounder
Quarterback: Caleb Williams
GM: Ryan Poles
Ownership: Virginia McCaskey
The Bears missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year, and the franchise's drought without a postseason victory extends to 2010. They’ve had five coaches during that stretch, or six if you’d like to include current interim Thomas Brown for effect.
With the roster, the Bears unquestionably have some intriguing talent, led by their quarterback, Williams, the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft. There’s needed development, but anyone who got eyes on him during his rookie year could see his lofty potential. Add that to some quality pass catchers, a handful of young and talented offensive linemen, and some high-caliber defensive backs, and you have a strong foundation for an incoming coach to work with.
Plus, with a healthy cap situation and three draft picks in the top 50 this April, the Bears are in a good position to further strengthen its personnel.
Remember, Chicago was more competitive than their 5-12 record suggests. They lost on a Hail Mary to Washington, had a potential game-winning field goal blocked against Green Bay, took Minnesota to overtime, and were undone by clock management issues on multiple occasions. With the right coach, who can tighten up the operation and move toward maximizing Williams’ potential, there’s good reason to believe the Bears could push for a postseason spot in 2025, mirroring the Commanders' turnaround under Dan Quinn this season.
The biggest question for Chicago’s next coach will be the franchise's leadership structure. General manager Ryan Poles is returning, and leading the search for the next head coach. Still, team president Kevin Warren has enough sway with ownership to be a constant threat to having a unified front.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Projected cap space: $42.9M
2025 draft assets: No. 5 pick, extra third- and fourth-round pick
Quarterback: Trevor Lawrence
GM: Trent Baalke
Ownership: Shad Khan
Throughout the franchise’s history, Jacksonville has struggled to maintain success beyond brief stretches. Qualifying for the playoffs four consecutive years shortly after being added as an expansion team in 1995, the Jaguars haven’t experienced back-to-back postseason berths since.
The Jaguars looked poised to take off under Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson, winning their division in 2022, and jumping out to an 8-3 start the following year. But a 5-18 slide in the past 23 games has led to another change in leadership. This will be the team’s sixth coaching hire since parting with Jack Del Rio in 2011.
Like the Bears, the Jaguars have a quarterback in place. It’s easy to forget, but Lawrence was viewed by many analysts as the best QB prospect since Andrew Luck when the Jaguars selected their current signal-caller No. 1 overall out of Clemson in 2021.
And it’s not just Lawrence. Jacksonville offers a budding star at wide receiver in Brian Thomas, a high-ceiling backfield tandem in Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby, promising blindside blocker Walker Little, and a pair of talented edge rushers with Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker.
The biggest issues might be a somewhat apathetic fan base — demonstrated by the team’s annual trips overseas — and a GM in Baalke who doesn’t have a stellar reputation around the league. Of course, Khan openly said this week — with Baalke on the call — that ownership could be swayed if their next coaching hire offered a compelling reason to make a change.
Las Vegas Raiders
Projected cap space: $107.3 M
Draft assets: No. 6 pick, extra third-rounder
Quarterback: Aidan O'Connell
GM: Tom Telesco
Ownership: Mark Davis
One of the league’s iconic franchises, the Raiders haven’t tasted postseason success since 2002, nearly a decade before longtime owner Al Davis passed away.
Now in Las Vegas, with legendary quarterback Tom Brady part of the ownership group, the Raiders are looking for a coach capable of elevating them back among the league’s elite franchises.
The cupboards aren’t bare, but there’s more roster-building required here than with some of the other vacancies. At the very least, the team has one of the league’s best defensive players in edge rusher Maxx Crosby, as well as Brock Bowers, the record-setting rookie tight end. Offensive tackle Kolton Miller and center/guard Jackson Powers-Johnson also offer a solid foundation along the offensive line.
Of course, there can be a lot of appeal to a near-total rebuild. Generally, a new coach will get a longer leash as the roster is reshaped in their vision.
Telesco has had a lot of success finding value at the top of the draft during his time with the Chargers. More than anything, he needs to find a quarterback similar to his selection of Justin Herbert in 2020. The Raiders aren’t going anywhere without finding a solution at that position.
With the third-round pick the team picked up by shipping receiver Davante Adams to the Jets, the Raiders are poised to select four times in the top 75 this offseason.
New England Patriots
Projected cap space: $131.7M
2025 draft assets: No. 4 pick, extra third-rounder
Quarterback: Drake Maye
GM: Eliot Wolf
Ownership: Robert Kraft
Speaking of near-total rebuilds.
After a long run at the top, the post-Brady/Belichick Patriots are a lump of clay ready to be molded by new leadership. And the assets are there to do it. They have more projected cap space than any team to go with a top-five draft pick.
And while not every new coach loves the idea of inheriting a quarterback, few will shy away from working with one as promising as Maye, the No. 3 in last year’s draft who showed plenty of potential as a 12-game starter in 2024.
Beyond Maye, there admittedly isn’t much on the roster to generate excitement. Cornerbacks Christian Gonzalez and Marcus Jones are nice chips on defense. Otherwise, the team could stand to upgrade just about everywhere else. They should probably put an emphasis on getting Maye some help this offseason, whether his protection or his pass-catching options. Preferably both, if we’re being honest.
Obviously, the next coach in New England will be well-supported by one of the league’s best owners. And Wolf, despite his relative inexperience in the GM chair, has been long groomed for this position as a talent evaluator in both New England and Green Bay.
Yes, there's a long shadow cast by Belichick’s legacy, but Jarod Mayo’s one-year stint provides a buffer for the next hire, showing the road back to the top of the mountain won’t be easy.
New Orleans Saints
Projected cap space: -($66.8M)
2025 draft assets: No. 9 pick, extra third- and fourth-rounder
Quarterback: Derek Carr/Spencer Rattler
GM: Micky Loomis
Ownership: Gayle Benson
The Saints had quite a run of success with the coach/QB combination of Sean Payton and Drew Brees. That tandem netted seven division titles, nine playoff appearances and a Super Bowl championship.
Brees retired after the 2020 season and Payton followed his QB out the door a year later, likely seeing the writing on the wall. The coach would later come out of retirement to be traded to the Denver Broncos, leading his new team to the playoffs in his second season.
New Orleans, meanwhile, hovered around .500 until the wheels fell off this season. Getting the franchise on track won’t be easy. The team’s cap situation continues to be the league’s worst. After years of kicking the can down the road to remain competitive, the Saints are more than $60 million over the projected cap entering the offseason and desperately need to pull the Band-Aid and reboot their books.
That should start with finding another quarterback. Carr was long underrated, and he put up decent numbers when healthy last season, but the Saints will struggle to move forward paying the soon-to-be 34-year-old $50 million in 2025.
It’s difficult to suggest Rattler is the solution. Regardless, with the No. 9 pick in a draft that’s considered light on potential franchise passers, it might be best to embrace sinking to the bottom in 2025 to set up long-term success.
If the Saints do it right and strip things down to the studs, they’ll need a patient teacher and culture-builder for the rebound to come. Beyond his ties to the organization as both a player and assistant coach, it's why many, including Brees, have eyed Glenn as the man for the job.
New York Jets
Projected cap space: $29.4M
2025 draft assets: No. 7 pick
Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers
GM: Vacant
Ownership: Woody Johnson
The Jets vacancy is another daunting job with plenty working against the next coach.
It starts with the quarterback position. The situation with Rodgers has to be considered untenable for many prospective candidates. The future Hall of Famer’s play has sharply declined and doesn’t match the perceived control he’s wielded with the roster’s construction since his arrival.
On top of that, you have a meddling owner who reportedly nixed a potential trade because of the player’s rating in the Madden video game series. Even if there’s some hyperbole to that report, it’s rarely a positive when ownership is involved in the football decisions. You’ve got to let your GM do their thing.
Beyond the QB situation, the Jets have some promising young talent. Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson are ultra-talented offensive weapons, and the same can be said for Will McDonald IV, Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams on the defensive side of things. That softens the blow of not having significant cap space, which worsens if you have to eat a significant dead-money hit to dump Rodgers.
As noted with the Raiders, this probably isn’t the draft to find the long-term answer at QB, at least not picking No. 7 overall. But will all that young talent, many nearing second contracts, tolerate another dismal season in hopes of finding a quarterback in 2026? It will likely take a strong coach to keep that locker room together, particularly in that market.
Email: jrogers@detroitfootball.net
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Bluesky: Justin-Rogers
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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Pride of Detroit Direct
By Ty Schalter, exclusively for Pride of Detroit
It’s a two-horse race for the NFLs Most Valuable Player award, and Jared Goff isn’t even Horse No. 3.
According to Fanduel, Goff’s MVP odds are fourth-shortest, behind not just frontrunners Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, but fellow longshot Saquon Barkley. Goff’s name has completely disappeared from the national conversation, especially since Allen’s Buffalo Bills beat Goff’s Detroit Lions head-to-head. But even most Lions fans–who love chanting his name, no matter where or when–don’t seem to realize just how strong Goff’s MVP case remains.
The definition of the award, handed out by The Associated Press’s panel of roughly 50 respected analysts and broadcasters, is a little slippery; there are no clear public criteria. Though it’s similar to other sports’ “Player of the Year” or “Most Outstanding Player” awards, The AP cycled through both of those names before landing on “Most Valuable Player” in 1961.
Voters, like fans, seem to take a cue from the name itself: Who’s been the most valuable to their team? Which player is most responsible for their team’s success? Which team would be the most screwed without this one single player?
But as any Lions fan who was alive to see Brett Favre undeservedly split the 1997 award with Barry Sanders knows, sometimes it just goes to the best player on the best team.
As a kid, it irked me that the players’ team seemed to need to at least qualify for the playoffs to win a regular-season award; why shouldn’t Barry get consideration for lifting a potential 1-15 team to a 5-11 record? But even if there were a stat equivalent to baseball’s WAR that we could sort by, there’s still some unspoken “Player of the Year” energy left in the AP’s NFL MVP award. It seems you can’t be the league’s most valuable player if your team didn’t accomplish anything meaningful.
This is why Burrow’s only fifth in the MVP odds despite leading the league in all the big counting stats (attempts, completions, yards and touchdowns); the Bengals truly would have nothing going on without him. But since the Bengals went 9-8 against the league’s sixth-weakest schedule (by both DVOA and SRS), they didn’t have that much going on with him, either.
So if we use the team-would-be-screwed-without-him method, the award should go to Allen. By the eye test the Bills have been a wildly uneven team, both from unit to unit and game to game. They’re ranked just 18th in PFF’s overall team grades, which take into account their top-five units (pass blocking, running the ball) as well as their bottom-five marks (defense, run defense, pass coverage). Though they’ve got the fourth-highest DVOA, they’ve got the 12th-most variance.
ESPN’s Total QBR is a great metric to use here, as it’s built to describe a quarterback’s “contributions to winning.” Allen’s performance has been good for a whopping 77.2 Total QBR, 26th-best all-time. If you read the above paragraph and wondered how PFF graded Buffalo’s running in the top five (3rd, 92.7) with not-top-five run blocking (17th, 64.5), well, that’s because of Allen and his position-best 94.4 running grade.
But even though Allen led in QBR for much of the season, he was clipped by Jackson at the end. Jackson’s 77.5 tQBR ranks 24th all-time–and his performance this year has been truly incredible.
He threw a touchdown on a stunning 8.6 percent of his passes, the eighth-highest rate ever recorded, per StatHead. Jackson led the league in every kind of yards-per-attempt there is, plus EPA, EPA per dropback, NFL passer rating…you name it. Oh, and running? Yeah, he led all quarterbacks with 915 rushing yards this season, on his way to claim the all-time quarterback rushing yardage crown.
But Lamar’s tQBR and touchdown rate were both higher in 2019, the first time he won the MVP. He also won the MVP last season–and in all three MVP-caliber years, his Baltimore Ravens weren’t just the highest-DVOA team in the league, but put up a top-12 all-time DVOA season.
And yet, what do they have to show for it?
The Ravens went one-and-done in 2019, and put up a measly 10 points against Kansas City in their AFC Championship Game loss last year. Though the MVP is a regular-season award, with ballots cast before the playoffs even start, Jackson’s unprecedented regular-season success paired with underwhelming team results is starting to echo another multiple-MVP winner: Aaron Rodgers.
As a kid, I hated the idea of the “most valuable” player award simply going to the quarterback of the year’s best team–especially when it was clear that quarterback benefitted from a great run game, receivers and/or defense. And adult me has stumped for Jackson his entire career; he’s as much of a statistical freak as he is an athletic one.
But all the freaky numbers and highlight plays in the world ultimately aren’t worth much if you don’t close out games when it counts. Goff’s not just been a stone-cold closer this season, he’s also put up a lot more freaky numbers and highlight plays than people seem to realize.
Goff’s No. 2 to Burrow in yards, despite throwing 113 fewer passes. He’s No. 2 in completion rate behind Tua Tagovailoa, yet averaged more yards per attempt than anyone but Jackson. Goff’s also behind only Jackson in passing EPA, EPA per dropback and NFL passer rating, per NFL Pro. His completion rate over expected is +4.3 percent, third behind Jalen Hurts and Burrow. He led the NFL in success rate–and, oh yeah, Detroit led the NFL in points per drive, per-drive scoring rate, and points.
Goff didn’t run for almost a thousand yards, or go sideline-to-sideline avoiding pass-rushers before chucking opposite-field bombs. But from leading the NFL in 3rd- and 4th-down EPA, per Ben Baldwin, to pulling off never-before-seen plays like the “stumble bum,” Goff has delivered plenty of clutch, iconic, and indelible moments.
Even his one truly bad game of the year, a five-interception Murphy’s Law game against the Houston Texans that kept his season-long stats from looking even better, still ended with three straight scoring drives and a win.
Everyone who’s read my work for any amount of time knows I’m as far from a QBWINZ guy as you can get. I’ve always been far more likely to stump for players that get me up off my couch and cheering, like Allen and Jackson, than ones who simply execute in the framework of great teams, like Goff.
But Goff is part of the framework of this great team. The players and scheme have been built to maximize the elite traits he does have, and his execution of them reveals those traits. Maybe Goff doesn’t lead the league in completion rate if his No. 1 receiver didn’t have the second-highest single-season catch rate since at least 1992–but Amon-Ra St. Brown wouldn’t have caught 81.6 percent of his 115 targets, per StatHead, if Goff’s CPOE were as bad as Allen’s (-0.3 percent, 23rd) or Jackson’s (-0.1 percent, 22nd).
Allen was more valuable to the Bills than Jackson or Goff were to their teams, and Jackson had the most outstanding season in a vacuum. One of the two of them will win, and perhaps they should. But Goff, I think, was the player of the year–the best player, in the best offense, on the best team–and that shouldn’t be ignored.
"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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"I hope to see the Lions in the Super Bowl before I die"
My friend Ken LComment
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