Completing my homage to "Coupling", here’s my reading between the lines of what Dan said and didn’t say at the Annual meetings earlier this week. Again, it’s 100% my speculation.

The Lions couldn’t be big spenders on any one player. At least for what we wanted them to spend as fans.

Early on in the interview, Justin Rogers asked Dan about Jalen Carter and if there were character intangibles that talent could offset. Justin suggested "football character" to which Dan agreed in his reply. For me at this point, I "think" Dan is okay with Jalen because his football character is so high. Also, in Justin’s follow-up, he asked if the foundation was there in the Lions’ locker room to help someone that needed it. Dan said it was possible.

Later, Dan was coming off a question with a little humor when he was semi-surprised asked about Big V and Brad saying he was ready. Dan was smart and asked for it to be repeated. It’s easy to wonder why and read into it. For myself, I do think Halapoulivaati Vaitai will be competing with Graham Glasgow for the starting right guard job. I’d lean Graham starting with Vaitai as the backup and 6th OL but we’ll know how his back is doing later in the off-season.

Dave Birkett revisit’s Jalen Carter, trying to gauge one way or the other if he’s still on the Lions’ board. Dan’s answer definitely felt as though there was a redemptive path for him. They spoke with his position coach and head coach in addition to a teammate. At least. I think Jalen is on their board.

Answering about Lamar, Dan shows the Lions aren’t interested. They’ve got their QB1. For this year.

When asked about Romeo’s pay cut, I feel Dan dodged answering it by saying that the Lions were glad he was back. After his basically 2-year injury.

Brad and Dan are more pragmatic than I realized. Or Brandon Sosna is. The Lions set processes for how much they wanted to spend and where. They stuck to them. They couldn’t keep everyone and wish those players well.

I have no idea who they’ll draft and credit to them for that.

Enjoy your weekend. Go Lions!