Training Camp and Preseason Games

[Hongbit]

Every Nate pass is to his first option.  There’s no following progressions to find an open receiver.  It’s lock in where it’s going pre play and throw.  If that guy is open, he gets it there about 60% of the time.  

[MichiganCardinal]

Sudfeld has played better than Teddy today.

[Hongbit]

Just now, MichiganCardinal said:

Sudfeld has played better than Teddy today.

No, he really hasn’t.   He’s been fortunate that Johnson has called the right plays against the 3rd string defense.   

[TP_Fan]

10 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Sudfeld has played better than Teddy today.

I didn’t see that. Teddy made some nice throws that went incomplete because of the receiver.  The pressure was ridiculous.  Sudfield is a bum. 

[MichiganCardinal]

8 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

No, he really hasn’t.   He’s been fortunate that Johnson has called the right plays against the 3rd string defense.   

Neither looked good. And obviously my statement is harsh against Teddy when he was getting hit before he could turn around.

But Teddy was 5/11 for 34 yards and Sudfeld is 6/10 for 65 yards 1TD and 1 pick.

If Sudfeld is kept as QB3, he won’t be asked to do much in the unfortunate case he needs to come in. Hand the ball off to Monty and Gibbs, make short passes Ben Johnson designs to ASB and Jamo, take care of the ball. I think he’s done those things this fall. All three of his picks have come on deep passes.

[Hongbit]

I get he’s the #3 QB but he’s thrown every pass today to his first option less two that he was super late checking down to the flat and couldn’t complete either.  I’d honestly rather see him go through progressions and throw incompletions to an open man rather than do what he’s doing now and locking in on 1 guy and throwing it regardless.  That’s not a pro QB.   He’s not a viable option in any way.   Ben called two great PA passes that he was able to make easy completions but you can’t have a QB that’s unable to adjust if the perfect play call isn’t made every time.  

Edited August 19, 2023 by Hongbit

[Motor City Sonics]

Lions fans will freak out over this loss.............the second/third string, with a QB  who barely knows the playbook and an extremely vanilla playbook to begin with.  They ain't showin' nothin'    How many spots do you think are really locked up on this team out of the 53?   About 48 or 49?      Plus who will be the emergency QB?     I would like to see Martinez get some time to see how he handles it because I am not comfortable with Sudfeld.     Hopefully it never comes down to a QB3 being used.   Could you keep Sudfeld as QB3 with Martinez on the Practice Squad - or is that wasting a Practice Squad spot?   

Hopefully it's a problem that never needs addressing.    Teddy had NO TIME today.   I am not worried about Teddy.    Seeing #50 on a QB sure is weird.  

[MichiganCardinal]

42 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

I get he’s the #3 QB but he’s thrown every pass today to his first option less two that he was super late checking down to the flat and couldn’t complete either.  I’d honestly rather see him go through progressions and throw incompletions to an open man rather than do what he’s doing now and locking in on 1 guy and throwing it regardless.  That’s not a pro QB.   He’s not a viable option in any way.   Ben called two great PA passes that he was able to make easy completions but you can’t have a QB that’s unable to adjust if the perfect play call isn’t made every time.  

I think I just have extremely low expectations for a QB3. I think he’s looked better than either Blough or Boyle did last year and has looked better than Josh Johnson did on the 9ers last year. I won’t lose sleep if he’s cut.

[Motor City Sonics]

1 hour ago, TP_Fan said:

Drummond has to catch that. Another quick 3 and out. The back up offense has done nothing.  Drummonds story is going the wrong way.  That was a relatively easy catch and he just dropped it.  

Practice Squad written all over him.  

[Tigeraholic1]

Offense stunk. 2-3 string defense looked ok inside, terrible in man to man.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Tigeraholic1

[MichiganCardinal]

2 hours ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

Offense stunk. 2-3 string defense looked ok inside, terrible in man to man.

Chase Lucas had some flashes. The one long catch he gave up was great coverage, the ball was just dropped in there.

[buddha]

8 hours ago, Toddwert said:

You mean like chad Henne?

or josh johnson.

oh wait, he's black so hongbit thinks he doesnt count.

[buddha]

1 hour ago, MichiganCardinal said:

Chase Lucas had some flashes. The one long catch he gave up was great coverage, the ball was just dropped in there.

the defense was ok, but were playing against jax second string so they should look good.  still, ghe secondary got dusted a number of times.  the dline was ok but its not like they set the world on fire.

no one on offense looked good.  not one single player.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

I thought the offense looked lifeless and really talentless yesterday. Our second and third string offensive players don't seem very good, at least with Nate Sudfeld or Teddy Bridgewater at the helm. Our offensive line depth doesn't look good either. In fact, they look terrible. I'd say I have mild concern over all of this but I'm not panicking by any means.

[MichiganCardinal]

I really don’t have any concern over what we saw yesterday. If we sustain the number of injuries it would take for our starting lineup to look even remotely like it did yesterday, of course we will suck. That’s not breaking news.

 

[buddha]

5 hours ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I really don’t have any concern over what we saw yesterday. If we sustain the number of injuries it would take for our starting lineup to look even remotely like it did yesterday, of course we will suck. That’s not breaking news.

 

levi was invisible against jax second and third string.  not much from julian okwara either.  made one play.  but that's one more play than levi made.

contrast that with cominskey who dominated.

[MichiganCardinal]

5 hours ago, buddha said:

levi was invisible against jax second and third string.  not much from julian okwara either.  made one play.  but that's one more play than levi made.

contrast that with cominskey who dominated.

I’m not sure either of those examples make the team. Levi probably has a better shot just due to weakness at that position group overall.

[buddha]

16 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

I’m not sure either of those examples make the team. Levi probably has a better shot just due to weakness at that position group overall.

those are the only examples that matter, almost everyone else is either on the team or off it.  those guys are one of the few battles.  especially if melifonwu is hurt.  he's on the chopping block too.  injury might save him one more season of nfl playchecks.

[MichiganCardinal]

8 minutes ago, buddha said:

those are the only examples that matter, almost everyone else is either on the team or off it.  those guys are one of the few battles.  especially if melifonwu is hurt.  he's on the chopping block too.  injury might save him one more season of nfl playchecks.

Fair enough. I guess relevant is relative when you’re talking about guys who might make the 53-man but won’t make the game day roster.

[NYLion]

On 8/19/2023 at 6:40 PM, Tigeraholic1 said:

Offense stunk. 2-3 string defense looked ok inside, terrible in man to man.

Glenn might be the biggest weakness on the team. The defense has always been better in zone yet he keeps resorting back to man to man. 

As for this game, I didn't watch it but it doesn't mean anything outside of end of the roster spots being won or lost. Just looking at stats, it seems like none of the bubble receivers stood out, Julian Okwara putting up bagels probably sealed his fate and as if we didn't know already, Sudfeld is getting cut. Other than that, I'm already bored of preseason, time to play some real games.

One other note, I do think Campbell needs to play the starters for at least a quarter if not a half of the final preseason game. They need to get some live game reps under their belt, not sure if joint practices qualifies. Need to get on the same page for KC.

Edited August 21, 2023 by NYLion

[RedRamage]

On 8/19/2023 at 1:49 PM, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Our depth on the offensive line looks terrible. Hopefully we can remain healthy all season, because I have zero confidence in our depth along the line.

I feel a bit better in that this is a 5-man unit vs. 1 or 2 guys... I mean, if one of the 5 goes down with an injury hopefully the other 4 starters + 1 backup will still be decent. Obviously if we start losing a 2nd or 3rd OLmen then we're in trouble.

[RedRamage]

On 8/19/2023 at 3:26 PM, Hongbit said:

I get he’s the #3 QB but he’s thrown every pass today to his first option less two that he was super late checking down to the flat and couldn’t complete either.  I’d honestly rather see him go through progressions and throw incompletions to an open man rather than do what he’s doing now and locking in on 1 guy and throwing it regardless.  That’s not a pro QB.   He’s not a viable option in any way.   Ben called two great PA passes that he was able to make easy completions but you can’t have a QB that’s unable to adjust if the perfect play call isn’t made every time.  

While I think it's kinda hard to just a QB when they're: 1.) Slated to be 3rd String at best and 2.) They're playing with the 3rd and 4th string players... I agree that it seemed very much that Sudfeld was locking on to a target and not doing anything else.

Such clear "locking on" read 1 is not a product of playing with 3rd and 4th string guys. That's a QB failure right there. Now, I suppose it's possible that the coaching staff was telling Sudfeld to throw to this guy or that guy because they wanted specifically to see how that player handled the in game situation. That seems unlikely to me, but I suppose it's possible.

I'm not going to get too bent out of shape if the Lions retain Sudfeld as 3rd string QB. The fact of the matter is that NO 3rd string QB is going to be very good at the NFL level. If the Lions find a way to upgrade over Sudfeld I would expect that QB to still be pretty bad. Don't misunderstand: I think the Lions should try. I'm just not holding my breathe that we'll find a quality 3rd string guy.

[RedRamage]

21 minutes ago, NYLion said:

Glenn might be the biggest weakness on the team. The defense has always been better in zone yet he keeps resorting back to man to man. 

I'm not worried about Glenn based on the preseason. You're not scheme for the team, you're not playing your best guys, you're not using your best plays AND you're trying to specifically see how some people handle specific situations.

Obviously this does NOT mean Glenn will be good in the regular season. He doesn't have the track record that Johnson does, so I'm not saying that it's a non-issue. But I'm also not going to look at defense schemes in the pre-season and form an opinion of the DC based on that.

[NYLion]

1 hour ago, RedRamage said:

I'm not worried about Glenn based on the preseason. You're not scheme for the team, you're not playing your best guys, you're not using your best plays AND you're trying to specifically see how some people handle specific situations.

Obviously this does NOT mean Glenn will be good in the regular season. He doesn't have the track record that Johnson does, so I'm not saying that it's a non-issue. But I'm also not going to look at defense schemes in the pre-season and form an opinion of the DC based on that.

Glenn did the same in the regular season resorting to man to man when the defense clearly was better in zone so I'm not basing it on just preseason.

With that said, the personnel is quite a bit different now than it was last season especially in the secondary so maybe that'll play more into their strengths. 

[MichiganCardinal]

If the ideal eventual starting lineup in the defensive backfield is Sutton-Moseley-CJGJ-Branch-Joseph, I’m not sure it’s fair to criticize current (preseason) scheme based on what has or has not worked in the past. Even with Jerry Jacobs at CB2 to start the season, that’s only one returning corner and one returning safety.