Notes: Lions listed among most exciting NFL teams to watch

Coming out of the Bye week, the Detroit Lions are hoping to improve on their 1-4 record to start the season. While the most recent loss was an ugly one on the road to the Patriots, for the most part the Lions are playing competitive football this year; the other three losses were by four points or less. Again, other than the sickening road loss to the Patriots, the Lions have at least been playing an exciting brand of football. It reminds me a lot of when I was growing up a college football fan in Hawaii watching WAC shootouts every weekend, where nobody played defense and the last team with the ball ended up winning by crazy scores like 49-45.

While it’s not an easily evaluated metric of any kind, it appears Pro Football Focus considers the 2022 Lions a pretty exciting team to watch. When asking fans about who they think is the most exciting to watch, the Lions actually make it into the conversation:

While a few more wins would obviously be nice, at least the Lions are not simply getting rolled every week. The offense has been able to move the ball and put points on the board, which is... something. The decision making has been very aggressive and, well, it doesn’t always work out the way you hope it will.

Lots of points and aggressiveness! Boy, if the team can get the defense fixed, maybe we’ve got something. Now, on to the rest of your weekend Notes:

• Subscription required to view this story on rookie tight end James Mitchell and his mother by The Detroit News’ Nolan Bianchi:

• Future pro wrestling play-by-play man Ben Raven wrote on MLive about how the Lions are “exercising patience with developing second-year LB Derrick Barnes.”

• Our own Erik Schlitt put a spotlight on a pair of Oregon defensive players as potential targets for the Lions in his college football draft watch article for this week. Looks like the team agreed the Oregon vs. UCLA game was of interest:

• Justin Rogers from The Detroit News analyzed several statistical measures that explain the Lions’ 1-4 start to the season.

• You may have noticed in the practice reports that Taylor Decker was out for personal reasons up to Wednesday and then returned to practice on Thursday. Here’s why:

• Frank Ragnow was a guest on this week’s episode of Twentyman in the Huddle.

• Big ups to Kroger, Campbell Soup, and Milk Means More:

• Justin Rogers from The Detroit News spotted this update on former Lions kicker Austin Seibert’s Instagram account. Nothing but love for Seibert. We wish him the best and a full recovery: