FanPost

The Dust Has Yet To Settle-What To Expect Next?

Here comes the next round of cuts and players taking a restructured contracts. Many will refuse to take the pay cuts and become free agents. These free agents are not subject to teams getting any compensation because they got released. Additionally, there’s a deadline for current non cut free agents to be signed that will factor into any type of team compensation. It doesn’t appear that the Lion’s will be in line for any compensation for the 2023 draft.

What does this mean for the Lion’s? The Lion’s never traded back into the 4th round even though Baltimore had 6 4th round picks and I thought if they did, they would have addressed the LB or RB position. Yes, they did finally address LB late in the draft but as we all know, any draft pick after the 4th round is usually a developmental player for that position and his first year is going to be mainly special teams.

Two positions not addressed in the draft were RB and QB. The draft had some high quality RB’s late in the draft but the Lion’s must feel that last years draft pick, Jermar Jefferson was sufficient depth and then they signed an UDFA Greg Bell and gave him a nice signing bonus. The QB position was given a one year deferment even though when Carson Strong was falling so hard the Lion’s could have drafted him in the 7th round. Are you telling me that David Blough is a better 3rd string QB than Carson Strong? I know his knee has been mangled twice but we are talking a 7th round pick to let him sit, learn and get that knee strong. Philly gave him 300k signing bonus so they must feel he has potential to be at least a back up. I am pulling for Jared Goff but my gut says he performs okay but nothing spectacular and the Lion’s end up with 6 to 8 wins. Brad Holmes still has draft capital for 2023 and even though there will be a bunch of teams still in need of a QB in 2023, the Lion’s still could be the worst of the bunch so they might not have to move up too much to get the QB.

Teams that might draft a QB in 2023 that are not going to be very good

1) Seattle 2) Houston 3) Giants 4) Carolina and of course, your Detroit Lions

6 teams that will be vying for the top 3 QB’s but there could be 5 or 6 that end up emerging as round 1 picks

Best Case Scenario

Lions find out that if they surround Jeff Goff with talented WR’s, the RB’s stay healthy, Hockenson stays healthy and the doesn’t get doubled team because Chark and St Brown are playing well and getting open. Jameson will most likely get put on the PUP which means he will be out for the first 6 weeks. The final 11 games Jameson should be able to produce with no pressure and since even the great Calvin Johnson only had 756 yards and 4 touchdowns his rookie year, only started 10 of the 15 games he played in, I feel confident that Jameson Williams could put up similar numbers in less games. I think he can easily get the 4 TD’s and 750 yards in 11 games is roughly 68 yards a game. In today’s game and his history of 70 yard TD’s, he has a shot to eclipse CJ rookie season numbers.

The offensive line should be able to protect Jared Goff and open up holes for the RB’s. Jared should be able to do more play action pass than last year if Swift stays healthy. This is why I was hoping for the Lion’s to trade back into the 4th round because look at the RB’s that were available at the start of round 4: Dameon Pierce, Zamir White (that was my guy), Isaiah Spiller, Pierce Strong Jr, Hassan Haskins,. The 5th round RB’s were Tyler Allgeier, Snoop Conner, Jerome Ford, Kyren Williams, Ty Chandler,

My favorites were Zamir White, Isaiah Spiller, Pierce Strong Jr, Tyler Allegeier, Hassan Haskins in that order

Hard Knocks I think will be exciting and based on the personality of Dan Campbell, there should be some good quotes coming our way and the Lion’s culture will be on full display.

Notable injuries:

Jeff Okudah, Jameson Willams, James Mitchell, Jerry Jacobs, Romeo Okwara, Quntez Cephus, Austin Seibert

Let the Hard Knocks Begin!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.