Tracking former Lions

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Jamal Agnew right on track in his return from hip injury

Posted by Charean Williams on June 20, 2022, 5:31 PM EDT

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Jaguars returner Jamal Agnew‘s first season with the team ended after 10 games because of a hip injury. He didn’t dislocate the hip but did damage ligaments.

Agnew, 27, received clearance to return to football activities before the offseason program ended.

“I’m pretty much right on track, way ahead of time,” Agnew said last week, via John Oehser of the team website.

Before he went on injured reserve, Agnew had a 109-yard return of a missed field goal against the Cardinals and a 101-yard kickoff return against the Broncos. But Agnew was a bigger part of the offense than anticipated with a 66-yard touchdown run against the Colts, the Jaguars’ longest running play of the season, and 24 receptions for 229 yards.

He played a career-high 260 offensive snaps and 99 on special teams.

“He gave us a lot of explosive plays last year, gave us a burst,” quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. “He was great. He made a lot more plays on offense than we all probably would’ve seen going into the season just because he’s mostly a special teams guy. But having that extra guy that you can plug in at receiver, in the slot, whatever you need for speed, it just helps a lot. It gives you an extra element.”

Agnew has had no setbacks in his return, he said, and he felt no anxiety despite hip injuries being rarer than some other injuries in the NFL. Agnew calls himself a “glass half-full person.”

“I wasn’t too nervous,” Agnew said. “I feel like God always has a plan and things happen for a reason. It was just a matter or staying positive. No one wants to be out for the season. Obviously, you’re going to have bad thoughts, negative thoughts, but it was just a matter of staying positive and drowning those negative thoughts out with positivity.”

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Replacement for Penis?

Ndamukong Suh wants to keep playing

Posted by Charean Williams on June 20, 2022, 4:37 PM EDT

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The Buccaneers signing of defensive tackle Akiem Hicks on June 1 signaled the end of the line for Ndamukong Suh in Tampa. Indeed, that was Suh’s impression when he saw the news.

“It looks like the Bucs are out of the picture,” Suh said on ESPN on Monday, via Adam Schefter.

Suh, 35, made clear he hopes to continue playing.

Suh signed one-year deals with the Bucs on May 21, 2019, March 25, 2020, and March 24, 2021. The deals were for $9.25 million, $8 million and $9 million respectively. He should draw plenty of interest before training camps open, depending on his asking price.

The second overall selection in the 2010 draft also has played for the Lions, Dolphins and Rams.

He appeared in Super Bowl LIII with the Rams, and he won Super Bowl LV with the Bucs and has played 191 of a possible 193 career games, starting all 191. His two missed games were in his second season of 2011.

Suh’s last Pro Bowl came in 2016.

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Bob Quinn's 10 worst decisions as the Lions GM

10. Drafting a long snapper

Sixth-round picks are crapshoots, no doubt. But among the players drafted after Landes in that sixth round of 2016: OL Ted Karras, LB Elandon Roberts, S Kavon Frazier and S Will Parks. All are still starting in the NFL today.

9. Cutting Eric Ebron with no Plan B

Again, getting rid of Ebron wasn’t a bad choice in and of itself. But cutting him outright months after you picked up the option on his contract just screams, “I have no plan!”

Ebron would make the Pro Bowl with the Colts, catching 66 passes for 750 yards and 13 TDs. Lions tight ends caught 45 passes for 461 yards and 4 TDs combined. None remained on the team after 2018.

8. The Jesse James signing

James was a decent No. 2 tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers, a try-hard but athletically limited role player. He parlayed a 30-catch season in 2018 into a four-year, $22.6 million deal with Quinn and the Lions. At the time, that was a top-15 contract for a tight end.

Yet Quinn doubled down right away by drafting T.J. Hockenson in the first round in the draft six weeks later. He also brought in another free agent, Logan Thomas.

It was painfully obvious from the first two days of Lions training camp in 2019 that James was incapable of living up to the contract. Thomas emphatically outshined him as an athlete. It never got better for James his entire first season in Detroit. He caught 16 passes for 143 yards and was not nearly as good at blocking as advertised.

7. Drafting Teez Tabor in the 2nd round

Among the five players drafted after Quinn tagged Tabor at No. 53 overall: New York Giants DT Dalvin Tomlinson and Houston Texans LB Zach Cunningham. Each of those players would top the Lions current depth chart at their respective positions.

6. Failing to draft pass rushers

Here’s the list of pass rushers/EDGEs that Quinn selected in his five draft classes:

2016 – Anthony Zettel, 6th round

2017 – Jeremiah Ledbetter, 6th round

2018 – Da’Shawn Hand, 4th round

2019 – Austin Bryant, 4th round

2020 – Julian Okwara, 3rd round; Jashon Cornell, 7th round

Byrant and Okwara were both injured at the time they were drafted and (surprise!) remain injured. Cornell tore his Achilles in his first training camp. Hand has missed 18 games in his two-plus seasons, though when healthy he’s been a solid value pick.

Ledbetter has played 18 games with 0.5 sacks. The best pass rusher Quinn ever drafted was Zettel, a late-round afterthought who needed a stellar Shrine Game week to even get drafted. He had a magical second season (2017) with 6.5 sacks and 43 tackles. Since then he’s played 20 total games while on five different NFL teams without recording another sack.

I think Bryant gets cut this year

5. The wasted resources at running back

He never committed to one direction or the other. The 2020 situation is a perfect example. Quinn drafted two RBs (Swift and Jason Huntley) while already having recent draft picks in Kerryon and Ty Johnson still around. Scarbrough was too. But then he saw Peterson was available and pounced.

Huntley never made the team as a rookie fifth-round pick. Ty Johnson is a lost sixth-round pick. Those are minor in the grand scheme of things, but the grand scheme of things in Detroit also shows a roster with exactly one wide receiver on the roster–Quintez Cephus–when the 2020 season ends. Technically Geronimo Allison will be back if he chooses, but the important ones (Golladay, Marvin Jones, Amendola, Marvin Hall) are all pending free agents.

Maybe one of those picks burned on RBs he absolutely didn’t need could have become a keeper of a developmental project wide receiver, God forbid one with a little speed. Maybe he could have tried a pass rusher. Or a developmental quarterback. Or a linebacker with some speed. Because Quinn never chose a course of action with his running backs, he (in part) neglected other positions that could sorely use the help.

IDK if I would have this at 5. A lot of GMs shuffle RBs. Cutting Ty was bad. Showed no patience or vision going forward.

4. The draft aversion to speed at the skill positions

There’s a common denominator with all those players, aside from them all being good Quinn draft picks overall. None are faster than average for their positions. It doesn’t mean they’re bad players or bad picks, it means the team focus isn’t on speed. Many of the free agent acquisitions, guys like Marvin Jones, Danny Amendola, Anquan Boldin, Desmond Trufant, Trey Flowers at EDGE, LeGarrette Blount and Adrian Peterson at RB —none are blessed with speed. And that is a problem for a league trending towards speed on both offense and defense.

The Lions simply can’t match the speed with any other team at the skill positions. It limits the playmaking and explosiveness on both sides of the ball, and it’s a problem that will carry over to a new regime. That’s on Quinn for not prioritizing speed where speed matters.

This would be my #1b issue with Quinn. They are still attempting to erase the speed deficit on the team to be even competitive.

3. The great guard snafu of 2020

Quinn decided to let one of his draft success stories, right guard Graham Glasgow, depart in free agency. It was a justifiable choice based on the contract Glasgow, a slightly above-average, dependable but unspectacular guard, earned from the Denver Broncos. The four-year, $44 million deal with $26 million is a bad overpay by the Broncos. Good on Quinn for not putting that slop in his trough.

However…

The Lions went out and signed Halapoulivaati Vaitai in free agency. The move was made, and compensated, for “Big V” to play right tackle and replace Rick Wagner, a declining player Quinn also (smartly) let walk in free agency. Except the plan was flawed from the beginning.

Vaitai was a backup for the Philadelphia Eagles, one they didn’t feel good enough about at tackle that they drafted three other tackles in his final two years there. Playing left tackle in the Eagles matchup with the Lions in 2019, Vaitai was objectively terrible; it was plainly obvious he lacked the footwork and athleticism to play on the edge without TE help against speed pass rushers. He had some solid game tape and experience but floundered any time he was relied upon as a regular starter.

Quinn paid him $45 million over five years anyway. Vaitai injured his foot before the season even started. In the process, Tyrell Crosby–a smart Quinn draft pick in the fifth round in 2018–turned out to be a very capable starting right tackle when (finally) given the chance. That kicked Vaitai inside to right guard…

Except Quinn had already filled that hole with not one but two draft picks. Third-rounder Jonah Jackson was playing great early on. Veteran Joe Dahl was capable, too. The team also kept veteran Kenny Wiggins, a fan whipping boy but one who makes a perfectly serviceable No. 3 guard. Fourth-round pick Logan Stenberg was lucky to make the team because of the logjam.

Vaitai took over at right guard and the entire line declined. He wasn’t better than lightly-regarded journeyman backup Oday Aboushi; their Pro Football Focus scores are almost identical in close to the same number of snaps. Now Vaitai is hurt again and on I.R.

Quinn didn’t trust his prior decisions and considerable investment in the line. He didn’t trust new offensive line coach Hank Fraley, who has been a home run hire that needs to stick no matter who the new head coach might be. It cost Quinn $45 million for a backup offensive lineman the team doesn’t even need on a team where depth is embarrassingly thin on the defensive front.

This is a cautionary tale. On a lot of points, but I want to point at over-saturating a position. This almost always squeezes rookie and younger players out. Especially since most coaches are under the gun and need to be winning games, they usually lean on vets and such. Rookies have to learn to be professional and all the things that come with that. So unless the rookie is a 1st-3rd rd pick, he can easily get buried and forgotten.

I do not believe Logan has had his shot yet. Unfortunately for him he also has had an issue staying healthy. Although that may have kept him from getting cut too at some points.

THIS is why the current regime didn't add to the CB room until the end of the draft and the OL room only added UDFAs. Both groups have guys we need to find out if they can play or develop. If you add too many, guys just naturally get squeezed out.

2. The Damon Harrison/Golden Tate trade timing

The reaction in the Lions locker room to the Tate trade right after getting “Snacks” was akin to a glorious pinata at a kid’s birthday party, but when it broke open rotten broccoli dropped out instead of candy. It was a completely tone-deaf move by Quinn. The team’s morale, already shaky with an overbearing Matt Patricia as the rookie coach, never got out of the tailspin trading the popular Tate sent them into.

Quinn tried to explain it in his postseason press conference as an offer too good to refuse for a player in Tate who he had already determined wasn’t coming back with his pending free agency salary demands. The third-round pick wound up being No. 88, or 50 spots higher than the comp pick the Eagles received when Tate signed with the Giants. The players selected with both of those picks (the Lions traded the 88th pick) are already out of the NFL.

For that, Quinn scuttled any hope from a budding playoff team. His locker room never recovered.

DAM! DAM! DAM!

1. Having blinders for Matt Patricia

There were several strong coaching candidates available in that 2018 offseason. Chief among them was Mike Vrabel, a player with some Patriots-era ties to Quinn who was thriving in Houston as a rising defensive coaching star. Frank Reich and Matt Nagy were prominent offensive minds who offered the ability to maximize QB Matthew Stafford.

Yeah this is the worst

Others:

• Not trading Darius Slay before the 2019 season when it was clear Slay would not be back in 2020, especially given the frosty relationship between the team’s best defensive player and the defensive-minded coach.
• Jahlani Tavai in the second round and Will Harris in the third in the 2019 draft.
• The Quandre Diggs trade/situation.
• * Drafting Jarrad Davis in the first round, a pick that the Lions locked in on very early (relatively speaking) in the 2017 draft; a Lions staffer told me after a Shrine Game practice in mid-January that Davis was “the top priority”. I can’t speak to how seriously they considered other options, but zeroing in on one specific player for the 20th pick three months ahead of time is reckless. And it would be if Davis was a good pick too. He’s not.
• Failing to anticipate the old Matt Patricia spring break situation would ever be discovered.
• Not realizing he needed a Director of Football Operations...
• Employing backup quarterbacks, primarily Matt Cassel and Chase Daniel, who do not have the physical tools (read: arm strength) to run the same offense Matthew Stafford does.
• Drafting Brad Kaaya in 2017, a move I know he made over the advice of his scouting department. It’s a sixth-round pick so it’s not a critical error, but Kaaya barely made it through training camp before being cut and some in the Lions scouting department told him that would be the case.
• Handling injured reserve in 2019. Keeping Stafford and others who were hurt and extremely unlikely to return on the active roster instead of adding much-needed depth by putting them on I.R. meant a lot of other guys played hurt too much. A director of football ops would’ve likely told Quinn that…

* Falling in love with players will always lead you here. As good as the current GM has seemingly been, if he continues to draft "guys we like" it will eventually lead to drafting someone higher then they should because the player's value gets skewed. It does not take into account a more talented player falling to you.

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And he STILL draws a check in the NFL from the Browns. Good ol boys will be good ol boys.

[whatever_gong82]

And he STILL draws a check in the NFL from the Browns. Good ol boys will be good ol boys.

Quinn should never be a GM anywhere again, even in Fantasy League.

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Quinn should never be a GM anywhere again, even in Fantasy League.

IDK if he'll ever get that call, but, he is a Senior Exec with CLE right now.

What a freakin racket. Be absolutely terrible at your job. For the world to see. And when you get fired you just roll into another team. Just like his favorite pet project, Teez Tabor

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Small sample size, but he had a good record as a Lions coach. I so wanted them to give him a shot, but, Millen...

RIP Coach Moeller

RIP Gary Moeller

https://www.espn.com/college-footbal...er-dies-age-81

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Sorry for posting in 2 threads but there's people that don't frequent both and he was a good coach for UM and the Lions.

Former Lions, Michigan, Illinois head coach Gary Moeller dies at 81

Posted by Michael David Smith on July 11, 2022, 6:02 PM EDT

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Gary Moeller, a football lifer who had a brief stint as head coach of the Detroit Lions, has died at the age of 81.

Moeller is best remembered for his five-year stint as head coach at Michigan in the 1990s, with his teams finishing in the Top 10 in each of his first three seasons. He also spent three years as head coach at Illinois in the 1970s.

A protege of the legendary Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler, Moeller played his college football at Ohio State, where Schembechler was an assistant coach. When Schembechler became head coach at Miami of Ohio in 1967, Moeller became one of his assistants, and when Schembechler moved to Michigan in 1969, Moeller followed him again. Moeller’s three seasons at Illinois were not successful, but after he returned to Michigan in 1980 he was identified as Schembechler’s heir apparent, and when Schembechler retired, Moeller became Michigan’s head coach in 1990.

After he was fired by Michigan, Moeller moved to the NFL, first as tight ends coach of the Bengals in 1995, and then as linebackers coach of the Lions in 1997. During the 2000 season, Lions head coach Bobby Ross abruptly resigned, and Moeller was promoted to head coach. The Lions narrowly missed the playoffs that season, and the Lions initially said Moeller would remain head coach the following year, but when Matt Millen was hired as Lions team president, he fired Moeller.

In 2001, Tom Coughlin hired Moeller as the Jaguars’ defensive coordinator, and a year later Moeller took a job on the Bears’ staff. He retired from coaching after the 2003 season.

[edindetroit]

I still say he was Millen's first mistake.

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Ah, yeah as Ewing once said, "We need a lot of money because we spend a lot of money."

Adrian Peterson still hopes to play in 2022

Posted by Charean Williams on July 12, 2022, 6:42 PM EDT

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Adrian Peterson has played 15 seasons, and he’s 37 years old. He’s played as many years as Emmitt Smith and is almost two years older than when Smith called it quits.

Peterson isn’t ready to give it up, though the game might be ready to end it for him.

The running back didn’t get his first chance in 2021 until the Titans signed him to their practice squad Nov. 1, and he finished the season on the Seahawks’ practice squad injured reserve list. He had 42 touches in 72 snaps with those two teams last season.

Peterson will fight Le’Veon Bell on July 30 at Crypto.com Arena, but unlike Bell, Peterson wants to leave the door open to playing football in 2022.

“This is something that I definitely can see myself doing going forward as well, just depending on how things kind of play out for me,” Peterson said Tuesday during a promotional event for the fight. “But since I’ve started, this is something that I’ll continue to do. I’ll continue to stay in the ring, continue to practice, get my skills right because it’s a different ball game when you step in that square. Fortunately for me, I have some great guys around me that are experienced. My gym in Houston, we have a ring in there. We have a lot of guys sparring all the time, and I’ve had the opportunity in the past to get in there with those guys a couple times and here recently, obviously, getting ready for the fight. I just been kind of grinding, so I might see this continue to do something going forward.

“So, even after this fight, I will still be on my same routine, waiting for that next opportunity to present itself.”

Peterson ranks fifth all time in rushing yards with 14,918, 3,437 behind all-time leading rusher Smith.

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Report: Browns are interested in signing Ndamukong Suh

Posted by Myles Simmons on July 13, 2022, 1:17 PM EDT

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Last month, free agent Ndamukong Suh confirmed he was interested in signing with the Raiders.

Then reporting emerged that Suh, 35, had also had some conversations with the Vikings.

Now there’s a third team in the mix.

According to Tyler Dragon of USA TODAY, the Browns are interested in signing Suh.

Cleveland has All-Pro Myles Garrett to lead their defensive front and re-signed Jadeveon Clowney for the unit this spring. But the presumptive starting defensive tackles, Taven Bryan and Jordan Elliott, have a combined 21 starts between them.

Suh has 191 — including all 17 games last year. He played 63 percent of Tampa Bay’s defensive snaps, recording 6.0 sacks, seven tackles for loss, and 13 quarterback hits. He also had a fumble recovery.

Since entering the league, Suh has 70.5 sacks, 130 tackles for loss, and 212 quarterback hits. He’s a three-time, first-team All-Pro, and a five-time Pro Bowler, though his last All-Star selection was in 2016.

Signing Suh would give Cleveland three top-two draft picks along their defensive line. Suh was selected at No. 2 overall in 2010. Clowney was the top pick in 2014. And Garrett was No. 1 overall in 2017.

Dragon added that Suh is likely to sign with a team closer to the start of training camp.

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Notes: Lions historian shares hilarious anecdotes, insight into team history

By Kellie Rowe

The year was 1993 and the Lions traveled to London for a preseason game. Apparently, the big thing at that time was visiting the Hard Rock Cafe. The restaurant would attract long lines, so the Lions arranged for anyone who had traveled to the UK for the game to receive a lapel pin that allowed them to skip to the front of the line.

The Friday before their Sunday game, a couple of beat writers — sporting their magic ticket lapel pins — were proudly walking to the front of the very long line that evening. Halfway down the line, which often took two or three hours to get through, who do you think they saw standing there waiting in this incredible long queue?

“Barry Sanders. All by himself,” Keenist said. “They see him and it’s like, ‘Barry! Hey! What are you doing?’ He goes, ‘I’m going to the Hard Rock.’ And Barry, as he always was, he always followed protocol, had his pin on. They go, ‘Barry, you’ve got your pin. You don’t have to wait. Come on with us, we’re going in — we’re going to the front of the line.”

And what did Keenist say Sanders to them?

“‘Nah, you know what. I’ll just wait like everybody else.’ An ultimate conviction on these guys. Did they stay with him? No, they went to the front of the line,” Keenist laughed. “You talk about humility... He was arguably the most popular NFL player at that time. I mean, he was a giant when he came to popularity. Nope, he’s going to stay right where he was. That’s one story I think exudes humility, decency, I’m no better than anyone else.”

The episode is two hours long and drew my attention because I saw so many tweets from listeners who wished it was even longer.

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Matthew Stafford starts throwing at camp, with a “fluid process” for managing his elbow

Posted by Mike Florio on July 25, 2022, 12:47 AM EDT

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The defending Super Bowl champions returned to work on Sunday with one significant question mark regarding their franchise quarterback’s most important appendage — his throwing arm.

An elbow issue lingered in the offseason, at one point requiring an anti-inflammatory shot.

Now that camp has started, Stafford has started throwing.

“Definitely knocking some rust off and feeling it again,” Stafford told reporters on Sunday. “It’s good to get out there and stress it a little bit and see how it reacts.”

As to whether there’s a specific formula he’ll follow when it comes to throwing, Stafford acknowledged that “there’s a little bit of something that we have down on paper, but it’ll be fluid I’m sure.”

“It’s an interesting thing trying to have a little bit of governor on there, and at the same time, just trying to be as smart as I can,” Stafford added. “It’s a process. Just going to have to sit there and work through it, trust it. We’ll figure it out as we go.”

Coach Sean McVay told reporters that there’s a “pitch count” for Stafford, but that “it didn’t restrict him from being able to do anything [on Sunday].”

There’s no reason to think that the elbow will be a problem, other than the fact that it has been a problem in the not-too-distant past. The elbow is a critical part of the throwing apparatus, obviously. Irritation, if it returns, will require further treatment and management. It’s a long season. Stafford has made a career out of finding a way to play through anything and everything.

Still, it would be better for him and the Rams if the elbow ends up being nothing, for as long as possible.

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Giants signing Nick Williams

Posted by Myles Simmons on July 26, 2022, 8:46 AM EDT

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With training camp getting underway this week, the Giants are making a move to bolster some depth.

Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, New York is signing veteran defensive lineman Nick Williams.

Williams started all 17 games for the Lions in 2021, playing 55 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. He recorded 27 tackles, four tackles for loss, a half-sack, and two quarterback hits.

It was the second of two seasons Williams spent with Detroit. In 14 games in 2020, he had a sack and 23 total tackles.

But Williams’ career year came in 2019 with the Bears when he registered 6.0 sacks, a pair of fumble recoveries, and a pair of passes defensed.

As a corresponding roster move, Garafolo reports the Giants are waiving rookie defensive lineman Jabari Ellis. He joined the club as an undrafted free agent.