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Speaker 2: Hey, everyone. Jeff Rissom here with your daily DLP. We are one week past the twenty twenty six NFL draft. It is Thursday, April 30. Welcome. Thanks for joining me today. Those of you on YouTube, thank you for liking and subscribing to the channel. We appreciate that. Numbers keep going up every day. Love seeing that. Welcome. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. I don't judge. It's all good. Still have a lot to talk about with the lions. I know it feels like this is sort of entering the dip, but the lions are they're active. There's a lot going on in the Allen Park right now. They're doing their off season workout program. Like, that's where I wanna start today's show. Because there's been a lot of questions on on social media and in our Patreon Slack here on the, Detroit Lions podcast. That's $5 a month you can spend. You don't have to do social media. That's freaking worth it, baby. Yeah. About what's exactly going on? Because you're seeing pictures of guys working out in Allen Park, you know, players who Gibbs is there, Branch is there, Terryon. A lot of a lot of guys are there. It is all voluntary right now, and it's the beginning of the off season workout program. And what happens with that, they're not out on the field, like, working offense against defense. They're in meetings. They're in strength and conditioning. Guys who are rehabbing from injuries are there, getting professional treatment. Coaches are sitting in on meetings, but they're not actually, like, directly coaching, you know, on on field actions. That comes later. That's what the OTAs are. They did release the the dates for the OTAs. They start later in May. There are three three day periods. And then there's also the mandatory mini camp. And that mandatory mini camp, which I believe is Father's Day weekend, which is probably poorly timed, but it's set by the NFL, so there's not a lot the lines could do about it. That's the first time that the entire team will be required to be there. Obviously, there might be a a holdout or two or whatever. Alex Anzalone missed it last year because he wanted more money. Actually, I take that back. He missed later time. The lions canceled the mandatory mini camp last year, which is their prerogative to do because they were playing the hall of fame game, and they wanted to get preparation ready for that game. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the best idea, and they are they've made no inclination that they're gonna cancel it this year. Now they did cancel the rookie mini camp, and a couple of people have asked me what they're going to do instead. And, basically, the answers I've gotten, and this is not directly from the Lions, so take that for what it's worth. It sounds like the player the rookie draft class and signed undrafted free agents, and that's that official signing list will probably come out today, of guys who they have, you know, officially inked contracts with, because that that apparently is happening this weekend. They will all be in the building. They will be participating in the, they have a little orientation. You know? Hey. This is where your locker is gonna be. This is, you know, this is where the food is. This is where the bathrooms are. This is, you know, the logistics of being a Detroit lion. Like, there's there is a surprising amount that goes into that. You know, if you've ever changed jobs and showed up on the first day and you're like, oh, wow. Didn't know that was there. What the what's in this room? You know, that that sort of thing. But they will be involved in the, the off season program. There are put there are portions of it that are tailored more towards rookies. They do get the rookie seminar from the NFL PA, that tells them, you know, basically, don't ever gamble on sports. Don't gamble in the team hotel. Don't gamble. Even if you think for your even if it's not on football, you can't gamble in the team hotel lobby. Not if you can go across the street, JMO. You're fine, but don't do it in the hotel. Still one of the dumbest freaking things ever. Can't believe you guys suspended six games for that. I know that I know they middle it down, but that was rules. Contradictory rules. Let's promote gambling. Let's say I have gambling sponsor half the ads that you see during our telecast, but the players, no. No. No. No. No. No. They can't do that on their own free time. That's a show for Chris and I to do in the dead of summer. Just to get back into the the activities, what the rookies will be doing, the biggest difference in not having the rookie mini camp is that there won't be invitee local players there. And we've seen in the past, like, that's where Nate Lynn showed up. That is where, Ian Kennelly from Grand Valley State last year showed up and made an impression, enough that he wound up getting some significant run throughout the preseason. You know, it is is a place where local guys and undrafted rookies can really try to make a name for themselves with a larger group around them. They can actually do football things in those, and that's not gonna happen this year. And that is disappointing to me, and I know it's disappointing to some agents as well. So

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Speaker 2: Look. I don't mind at all at all but the lions are trying to change things up this offseason because what they've been doing worked to a point, but it feels like they plateaued. And they needed to do some changes in order to get over the proverbial hump, and they are doing that. In tomorrow's show, I have doctor Jimmy Liao. Spoiler alert. We recorded it already. But I will tell you that one of the things that he harped on was how much younger the lions have gotten in their free agents and in their draft picks. They are focusing on getting younger and healthier. These are positive things. These are changes. This is a conscious change from Brad Holmes and staff to change things from doing the way the the same old, same old wasn't getting it done, and they have recognized that. And I appreciate that, and I hope you as fans appreciate that. Nine and eight was not good enough, and they're not just gonna be like, well, we've had all these injuries, and that's that's the reason why. No. They're working on it. Will it work? God. I freaking hope so.

Speaker 5: I don't know if it

Speaker 2: will, but it's certainly worth trying. And trying something different with these rookies to get them more ready to play, I will say the Lions are not the only team that has done this. Washington for years didn't do one. I know my last year that I lived in Houston, which was 2013. The Texans did not do it at all. So, you know, there is precedent for doing it, by the way. That team made the playoffs, pretty well, actually. They, I don't I don't mind that at all for the lions, you know, mixing things up. And we will see what comes of it. We'll see if the lions play any of the starters in the preseason this year since they're not doing joint practices. That's another change. Dan Campbell talked about it. He felt like they weren't getting enough out of the joint practices that they did with the Dolphins and the the Texans last year, the year before they did the Jaguars, the Giants, the Colts, the Bengals we've seen. We've seen a lot of teams. And while I love them from a media standpoint, if Dan and the coaching staff and administration staff feel like they can do better to get ready for the twenty twenty six NFL season by not having them, alright. I'll buy it. We'll try it. It's worth a try. Because last year, they were not ready to play football. Oh, I say I take that back. They were not ready to play the packers. Packers were ready to play the lions, and that game wound up costing Detroit. Nine and eighteen in last place missing the playoffs. Remember that first quarter, first half of that game against Green Bay? It was as bad as a Dan Campbell team has played, and they are trying to avoid that. And making proactive changes, I'm gonna support it. I'm glad they're not trying to do the same thing and and keep trying to beat the, you know, the the the same drum. Let let's change things up a little bit. I'm a prog music guy. Signature changes are always good, mostly. Yes. That's a Mike Portnoy reference. Lions added two players yesterday. Let's move to the next segment of the show. Some of you might recognize this guy. That's Joe Bocce. Not in the last uniform that he wore. That's him as a Bengal where he spent most of his NFL career playing special teams. He is a linebacker. Spartan fans, do you know him? He played at Michigan State. He is actually from Berea, Ohio. He grew up, like, within walking distance of the Cleveland Browns, headquarters, but, curiously, wasn't a Browns fan. There are some of us from Cleveland who are not, in fact, Browns fans. He's he's another one, even before he went to the rival. But this is a move that they did to shore up the linebackers and shore up special teams. Now he did play some for the Colts. He'd be playing for the Bengals and the Colts last year. He he moved midseason. The Colts defense had a run of injuries that rival Detroit's, believe it or not. They they they did. And Bocce got to play some defense. And I'm going to bring up, for posterity's sake, his grades and thing, profile from last year with the Colts. And those of you watching on YouTube, you, you see what the the dirtiness here. Those grades are not good. 45.4 overall on defense. Significantly weighed down by one really bad game against, the Rams, but Rams do that to everybody. Actually, that's the Chargers. My bad. That that is the Chargers. It's not the Rams. Either way, I want you to focus over here on the receiving part Because I saw a couple people like, oh, we got our let's see. It's only replacement. The hell we did. 17 times he was targeted in coverage. 17 times he allowed a completion. 9.8 yards per reception. The yak number. Let me get out of this so I can scroll over to that side. Where'd that go? Allowed a quarterback rating of 107.4. Allowed 75 yards of yak on 17 receptions for a linebacker. That's not good. Look. He's a special teamer. This might be your Zach Cunningham replacement. And I think that's probably the best way to look at it because he's no longer with with the lions. He's a free agent. He was one of several free agents, who hit the status of not tendered bot not tendered a contract offer as an unrestricted free agent. That means they are no longer in the compensatory draft pick formula, whether they're signed elsewhere or not. Biggest name on that was DJ Reader, who was expected to sign with the New York Giants yesterday. He wound up not signing. They signed somebody else instead, so he is still out there. I have had questions if Reader would come back to Detroit. I don't I don't see it. I don't think so, but you can't rule it out.

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Speaker 2: But, anyways, the for Bocce, this was a tryout extended tryout for a a vested veteran, who has played in the league for a long time. Let me go back to his profile here. Scroll down. You'll see just under 400 total defensive snaps in six seasons, started with the Eagles. Almost all of his work has come out, but he has played over 1,000 snaps in special teams and was a core specialty, especially for those Bengals, from '21 to '24. That's where his bread is buttered in the NFL, and that's gonna be where he will, will he will he will make the lions or not? The other guy they signed is Jay Giuffele, defensive tackle, and he is a nose tackle. And you might recall they have not replaced DJ Reader yet. They did sign an undrafted, rookie from California who I have yet to watch. I need to study him. He's on the list. Go to Schuyler Gill Howard today. Look for that, probably Saturday, maybe Sunday, but he is on the docket for today. But Toffele will bring his profile up as well. One second here. I wanna share Jay Tufele played with the Jets last year, And this is him. Listed at six foot three three zero five. I always thought he was bigger than that. He looks bigger than that. Fourth round pick in 2021 for the Jaguars. Look down here. He's bounced around. He also played in the Cincinnati teams with Bocce. He has played more. You see, he doesn't do a lot of pass rush pressure. He has one career sack, you know, 16 pressures. This is what I want to focus on if you're looking at here. I'm rolling my my mouse over it. The missed tackle rate. And it shows up in his tackle grades, which are atrocious. 28.3 last year. Last year, he had four missed tackles on 11 tackles. The year before, three missed tackles on 14 tackles. Just not he's not nothing more than a space heater on the inside. He's a veteran. He is smart. I I did consult with a Jets guy, thanks, Connor, who, tipped me off that, you know, you won't you won't notice him was the phrase that was used. You kinda don't wanna notice your nose tackle. Right? Like, that means that he's either getting blasted back or he's running in the backfield and losing contain on the quarterback. He's got a shot to stick. He'll compete against Chris Smith and whoever else is on that defensive interior to back up Tylik Williams and Ali McNeal and Levi Anzorike, presuming he's healthy, which is hopeful, man. Be nice to have be nice to have a healthy Levi this year after him missing last year. So that's that's the Lions' new players. They signed two. They did have a couple of receivers in, receiver return men in earlier this week, in James Proche and Scottie Miller. Neither of them signed. You're gonna hear a lot of these guys coming and going through Allen Park as they look for guys who might fit, that they they wanna sign, or they're getting them ready for, like, training camp and somebody goes down with an injury and they need to call somebody in to take the roster spot. That that's probably where those guys fit, if if they're looking there at all. And that's you're gonna again, you're gonna hear a lot of it. It's not an indictment on any player who's there now. It's doing due diligence and background work on players that they might be interested in signing. It is not signing Joe Bocce is not a sign that Trevor Nowaski's job is in payroll. That's that's not the way this works. It's you got 90 roster spots to fill. I believe they're at 87 right now, and that's after they have signed the the presumed, undrafted free agents. So, again, we'll see when that list comes out. It should come out today. It might come out Friday, as that that is the time when when I believe the rookies are reported. They actually haven't told us, officially when that rookie thing is gonna happen. The rookie mini camp was going to be not this weekend but next weekend. But, they're not having it. So that's gonna be today's show. Tomorrow, again, interview with doctor Jimmy Liao, we talked about the changes to the Lions roster philosophy from a health and age standpoint. He gave a lot of great information on all the draft picks and some of the guys who are coming back off of injuries. You won't wanna miss it. Make sure you like and subscribe to the channel, so you know when that one's going live. Jimmy's great, man. Just wonderful information. He even, talked about, the the, we talked about a couple of other players, Jordan Tyson and Jermott McCoy, who were prominent prospects who had some injury issues, and he walked through those. And it was very informative, and I I enjoyed it, and I hope you will too. So check that out. If you happen to be in the six one six and are going to the Avatar show tonight at GLC, I will be there. Come say hi. I'll have an obnoxious Avatar tank top on. Look. So every year at the end of the draft process, I go to a concert, and I go by myself. It's my me time. I've done it I've done it for, I think, nine years in a row now. This is mine, and I am looking very much forward to it. If you're there, come say hi. Please do. Don't be shy. I probably won't talk much, but we're there to, don't go in the forest, baby. Jeff Risen signing out. Be good to one another, everybody.