MichiganCardinal

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the NFL salary cap is a figment of our collective imagination used only as a talking point to help move the off-season along.

Maybe. Even so I think this is something I wouldn’t want to pull the trigger on until Draft Night. See how the board starts to fall.

I don't get New Orleans' angle if they're done with what they did today. The consensus is that the draft class this year is weaker than usual, so why do you trade away future assets for mid-first talent? Particularly when this far out it's difficult to say exactly who will be there? And when you are lacking a franchise QB and are clearly not in "win-now" mode. I think the only way this really makes sense for them is if it is a set-up for another move to go up and get one of Willis or Pickett.

Where are my six runs?

As others already mentioned, I’ve seen Tyreek Hill comparisons for Robinson. The height will scare people off, but a guy like Hill could be 5’6” with the separation he creates. And once you have the ball in his hands, height doesn’t matter. His game is not “just” speed, it’s agility and get-off that allows him to nearly instantly have a step and a half on his corner, and then make multiple defenders miss. You don’t put up numbers like Robinson did at Kentucky without being good. He was the only NFL caliber offensive weapon on that roster and was still getting open against SEC defenses. I think he is similar to Raymond in that he would quickly put Raymond out of a job, but the comparisons stop there.

I don’t think Robinson makes it out of the second round. I would take him with the 2nd pick of the 3rd round if we haven’t yet taken a WR. He’s got a WR1 ceiling if his speed can translate to separation at the NFL level.

I think there is a decent chance he doesn’t make the team. Likely depends on who is drafted.

Reading the tea leaves, this likely points the Lions away from Willis and towards WRs, Hamilton, or the field of edge rushers. I think most team moving up would be doing so for Willis, so I wouldn’t expect a deal to be done until after Jacksonville picks. (Otherwise leaving the door open to being jumped themselves).

I think this could be a real opportunity for MCDC to sell Detroit to the greater NFL players community before we start really looking to compete in 2023.

This. Don’t play into the Giants’ hand. They know that teams who want a QB next year will need to pay a fortune to move up to 1 or 2. They will very possibly be in that boat, as will the Lions. It’s smart of them to try to gain more assets in preparation of doing so. If the Lions can do the same with #32, they should.

Then he won't make the team out of camp. I'm sure they're not signing him to some mega-deal.

I don’t think Mayfield is that bad. I even think he’s slightly better than Goff on any given Sunday, though not by much. Certainly not enough to overcome the baggage that would come with him. And certainly worse than whatever QB I would hope the Lions take to be the next face of the franchise. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do well somewhere though. He’s only a year removed from putting up 48 points on Pittsburgh in the wildcard round and nearly beating the Chiefs to go to the AFC Championship.

For all that was made about Thibs, it shouldn’t be overlooked that he was the consensus #1 overall prospect coming into this for a reason.

That's the nature of the NFL anyway. If you don't make the playoffs in three straight years, you're on the hot seat if you aren't fired outright. If these teams can't manage some success now, those 2024 and 2025 draft picks won't matter to those front offices anyway. Becomes a problem of the replacement regime.

I’m not remotely interested in Malik Willis. In a “normal” year, I think he’s a late 1st or early 2nd round prospect. He’s risen because people drool over QBs every year. I could be wrong, and if we take him I’ll hope like hell that I am. It’s not impossible a mid-1st prospect turns into a good NFL QB. I just think taking Willis at #2 would be making the move we are “expected” to, just because we are drafting #2. If we envision ourselves as building how the Chiefs did, then patience is a-okay.

It was nice to see Ford Field matter at the tail end of 2021. Riding a three game home win streak into 2022. Don’t do that very often.

With the Panthers at 6, Falcons at 8, and Seahawks at 9, this Matt Ryan trade definitely helps the Lions trade prospects.

I think I am about to contradict my previous points some, but I think a lengthy suspension at this point is a little ridiculous. What was the entire last year? Anything now might as well be 17 games plus what they suspend him.

It was reported that he was accused by two of the women of forcing them to give him oral sex. Without knowing Texas law, that would be a form of Criminal Sexual Conduct, which certainly could result in jail or prison time, depending on the circumstances. I don’t think he’s a serial rapist. I do think that he’s not been told no often in his adult lifetime, and may not taken resistance appropriately when he was getting a massage. Maybe not 22 times, but I do believe that some of those encounters were not with two totally willing partners.

Just because a grand jury doesn't indict someone doesn’t mean that their actions are morally acceptable. Things the everyday American would go to prison for can be swept away with piles of money by the NFL quarterback. It doesn’t mean the latter’s actions are any better or worse than the former’s.

In fairness, I don’t think any fan base is exempt from this. If the Lions had gone and picked up Watson, the fan base would have rallied around him (as long as he was winning and performing well). Certain fans would have had moral objections to the addition, but they would have been a quiet minority, so long as he was winning. The majority would have eaten up the storyline pushed by Watson and his agent, that these were consensual encounters and that these massage therapists were just out for a pay day (otherwise he would have been indicted!). Despite knowledge that that’s not how this works. Locally, we saw this with Adrian Peterson. He pretty brutally abused his very young son with a switch, and to this day has not even admitted that what he did was wrong. He even went so far as to admit in the years after he was charged with felony child abuse (and pled to a lesser charge) that he still uses a belt to physically discipline his child. Yet when the Lions added him, few had a problem with him doing well on our team’s dime. Some even went as far as to use the excuses pushed by AP and his people, that this was just cultural and how AP himself had grown up. Balancing wanting your team to do well and being morally opposed to individuals on that team isn’t easy, and can certainly lead to back-bending hypocritical beliefs and actions.

I agree. I wouldn’t take him until at least 66, but I would definitely consider him there as a second edge rusher. Redshirt him a year and when you’re ready to compete for the playoffs in 2023, he’s a practical third 1st round addition in that draft.

Will get to see a rematch of The Game in the Sweet 16 if Ohio State can knock off Villanova. Otherwise we will see a rematch of the 18 National Championship.

For context Dayo Odeyingbo tore his Achilles last year in the lead-up to the 2021 draft. He was more of a hand in the ground 3-4 DE than Ojabo is. He was projected as a borderline 1st round pick and only fell to #54 where the Colts picked him up. Ojabo may fall out of the 1st round but I doubt he's still there at 66.