MichiganCardinal

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.

If it’s a top five pick I like Travon Walker, even at #2. If it’s outside the top five, I like whoever we have rated highest at WR.

I don't think he will fall further than the 3rd or 4th round. The Lions are becoming Achilles experts, I would definitely consider him at 66. We can afford a redshirt season.

I'm sure it is. If this is as bad as it looks for him though, the damage is likely done. Recovery will likely take him out for at least the first half of the coming season, and he is not likely to have as strong a season coming off of injury and not being across from Hutchinson. He could fall even further if he suffers a setback and misses the entire season. He is likely better off taking his tumble in the draft. A team that can afford to redshirt him will take him, it's not like he'll go undrafted. He could have gone top five though.

Depending on how serious it is, he could lose millions in his rookie deal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see projected first round picks be healthy scratches from the Combine and Pro Days in the future. Why risk it?

I will participate in bracket challenges and fantasy football with friends, but I think the mass commercialization and availability of sports betting and online gambling will be looked on extremely poorly in the next 10-20+ years. Potentially the next global health crisis. Too many people are too easily influenced and hooked. As opposed to making a conscious choice to enter a casino, to go to an ATM, to interact with a cashier, it's just too easy to just keep using that credit card in the dark bedroom or office without any realization for the real impacts you're having. Until you can't afford gas or groceries the next day, or are paying $100s in interest fees. Then the occasional win becomes an opioid-like high, and there is a constant chase, while your thousands of dollars line the pockets of billionaires. It's the wild west right now. The free bets and credits for things that happen every game are just capitalizing on the chase of the high. The radio reads on 97.1 make me sick sometimes, with the books paying to push certain lines.

Heard it here first

Happy now? Not a word about Kentucky. 😂

I don’t think the Raiders are playing this very smart. Carr is decent but he’s the worst QB in that division. They will struggle to finish 3rd in that division next year. They may have been better off launching something of a rebuild in an effort to get a top tier QB who could compete with Mahomes and Herbert over the next decade.

LOL. It could be me. It could be that a bunch of 5’ kids can only compete with 7’ future NBA professionals for so long. Which is true the world may never know.

Gonzaga and *checks notes* Georgia State are tied midway through the 2nd half.

Likewise. Even removing Williams from the equation, I'd be lying if I didn't wince a little at seeing Myles Jack sign with the Steelers for 2/16 and Jordan Whitehead sign with the Jets for 2/14.5. Those are two pretty good players at positions of need that signed for value deals. I appreciate them sticking with the plan though, because at the end of the day, if we pick up Nakobe Dean at 32, or even a sleeper safety at 97 that Glenn and Pleasant see potential in, we could get a starter on a rookie deal way cheaper than Williams or Campbell (or Jack or Whitehead for that matter), for just as long or longer... That money saved can then go towards picking up a playmaker in an offseason when we are preparing to overtake the Packers for the division in 2023 or 2024.

Preparing myself for Murray State to lose tonight.

I think Baker is marginally better than Goff, but any sense to the move stops there.

Say hello to Remi. Not sure I was fully ready, but one of the boys brought him home from a friend the other day without asking, and then did the thing where they just waited until I inevitably became emotionally attached and couldn't say no. LOL.

I much prefer what the Lions are doing in terms of a rebuild compared to like the Jaguars. Not even just in terms of the Jags vastly overpaying for these players, but in terms of having a sort of vision for the future. The Lions are accumulating draft picks, and (though a small sample size) are hitting on those picks. They're keeping the players that can fill a role moving forward, but not over-committing to them (financially or in length). It seems like the Jaguars are just saying "eh, we have the money, f it" and going out and just trying to plug holes in their roster with whatever they can afford, as if it will instantly make them a contender. As Hongbit said, this is a larger than two year rebuild. A year or two from now, I think we might be able to say that we are only one or two pieces from really competing. At that point, I think it's more reasonable to say "let's go out and spend $70M on a guy who can come in here and instantly put us over the top", rather than spending $70M this year on a guy to fill a hole that for all we know could be filled in the draft, at a much cheaper price for just as long. As opposed to the Jaguars, who seem to just be throwing s*** at the wall and seeing if it will stick long enough to win a few games.

I learned my lesson with Reynolds and will wait for the smoke to clear before I comment.

An additional aspect of the Chark signing I like is that it gives us a real chance to better and more fully evaluate Goff. Goff wasn't good for a lot of last season, but in his defense, he really had no one to throw to. As St. Brown developed and we picked up Reynolds, we saw Goff improve by quite a bit. Can he fully utilize a deep threat like Chark? Or will Chark be handicapped in the routes he can run?

I think one thing to bear in mind is that we aren’t necessarily trying to turn the 31st defense into a top 10 defense, and we don’t necessarily have to be a top 10 defense to be successful. Recent playoff teams have demonstrated clearly that an average defense can win a Super Bowl with a good offense.