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Speaker 1: Hey, Heidi, whole lion stands. Welcome to the Detroit Lions podcast. It's episode six ten. And, we're we're talking about your NFL draft reactions and a whole lot more. This is the official Detroit Lions podcast for Reddit. I am the dashing of the hosts, young master Chris. Neither one are true. And the most beautiful, hardest working, but most relaxed man in the Lions universe, Jeff, the Riz Rizton. How are you doing, brother?

Speaker 3: It's good to be with you, Chris. We haven't been together since the draft. That was like two weeks ago. I know. Sadness.

Speaker 1: I'm out next week again. I'm sorry. Anyway Next

Speaker 3: next week's gonna be, a fun one. So we we

Speaker 1: got are rocking it. You are a fucking rock star. I can't I can't say enough what you've been doing in the daily week. Else. You are a master.

Speaker 3: Like, let

Speaker 1: that dominate for a moment. Yeah. We got you. You're back. Alright. Well, let's, let's talk about it. Don Burr out there. How you doing, brother? Good to see you. Let's see. Yeah. This is a reactivity on Christmas. Okay. Let's talk about what we're gonna talk about. Let's talk about what we're gonna talk about. Today, we will cover, really quickly the off season workouts. Russell's gonna talk about draft reactions, some remaining worries to the lines and a whole lot more. We've got an awesome show here. Rizzler, are you ready to go, my man? I hope so. Let's do it. Looking for my guys. Hold on, folks. It's gonna be a wild one. Oh, man. Alright. Let's get into it. Off season workouts. There's a ton to say, with all the media nationally all attending on the at the same time. Everybody's covering this right now. Riz, were you able even to get to see anything on the field with all those people there?

Speaker 3: We were not because lions don't have media access at all.

Speaker 1: So no act no. No. Nothing. Nothing until,

Speaker 3: a mandatory mini camp. I I think they actually do have to let us watch that, as, like, part of the media contract. But until then, we don't get anything. So

Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. We're not

Speaker 3: the only ones, but it it's it's well, I shouldn't say that. OTAs have always been sort of restrictive, but we've always had a rookie mini camp in there. And that would have been last weekend, and they didn't have it. So we have no no reason to be there.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yep. Jeff Merrill, thank you, sir, for the super chat. Oh, no. Just got here. What did I miss? My friend, he just missed the hey, Heidi, ho. We are just covering things right now with the off season workouts, so you got it all in hand. But thank you for that super chat. Alright. Let's, oh, dragon's milk. Yeah. Fresh fresh from the breast. Yes. Delicious. I assume. It looks good.

Speaker 3: It's very good. It's the, the hell is it? It's mocha something. It's very good. Coffee chocolate a something. Coffee, chocolate. It's very good.

Speaker 1: I'm I'm still on the not drinking during the week week bandwagon, so that's been, it's been good for me.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Coffee, chocolate. That's it. Madcap coffee. Good stuff too. Mhmm. I'll talk Grand Rapids. One of my favorite places to go.

Speaker 1: Nice. Problem is I'm trying to make up for it on the weekends, so we'll see what we can do about that. Alright. Well, let's get into it.

Speaker 3: That'll get you.

Speaker 1: Yeah. It'll get you alright. Alright. Yeah. Good stuff in the chat. Everyone's giving you the praises, mister Risen, about your dailies. Great, daily with Forno. Just all around. Emery. I love Emery. And I missed not being able to get him on this year. I'm so happy you did. It's awesome.

Speaker 3: We have, Chris Serpaso coming tomorrow. And then on Friday, we have a Packers guest who most of you know from if you follow the NFL draft and my history at all, we used to work together, and we're gonna have a lot of fun. And we haven't seen each other in, like, three years. Oh, wow. So, we're gonna have a lot of fun with this one.

Speaker 1: Good stuff. Good stuff. Alright. Let's get into it. Let's talk about the the Lions draft. I got a couple of talking points, if you don't mind, Riz, to toss out there first, and then we can we can Fire

Speaker 3: it up.

Speaker 1: Follow-up with I know you've got a lot. I want to give your voice a rest a little bit here. But first off and first and foremost, I think this was a very adult draft for the Detroit lions. And I think that's just as I think about it, that's probably the best way I could put it. It wasn't flashy, but it was coherent. Right. We came we came in needing a bunch of help. We really got what we needed. Everything lined up perfect in that regard. National grades are national grades. I don't really care a whole lot, but I think if you kinda look at best pick available for our needs, we nailed it, nailed it, nailed it like a very healthy, sensible adult would. Sometimes adulting isn't flashy, but it it it tends to, you know, do good things for you over the long haul. I think that's kind of the first headline I would take away. How about any thoughts, reactions?

Speaker 3: Just to to touch a little bit on the best player available, but also being a position of need, like, they married very nicely this year. Yeah. I I think it's irresponsible to run to conclusions that Brad changed his ways or he was reactionary or anything like that because, like, it was very clear what the needs were, and it was also pretty darn clear. Like, when they took Blake Miller, he was the best player on their border to go to some position. When they took Derek Moore, pretty obvious. Keith Abney, pretty damn obvious he was gonna be the best player available to go to some position.

Speaker 1: Yep.

Speaker 3: I I I don't want to, like, I don't wanna run away from the narrative that he's he doesn't do that or that he does do it. But I think this year is a very poor year to reinforce your argument either way on that front.

Speaker 1: Mhmm. I alluded to a little bit of contentiousness in the building about that, Blake Miller pick, and everybody after spending time with him is like, never mind. It's good. Yeah. We're all happy. It's it's it's it's it's just fine. And it's funny how that's come around. Because I, like I said, I was like a little bit nervous that there might be a little bit of, push pull from all of that. But once they got and sat down with the guy and met with him, even, you know, it just wound up really good. Everybody's really excited for this kid's upside and what he brings the the draft. So that's awesome. I think the the second headline is the draft says the lions believe their identity starts in the trenches and on defense still. Five of the seven were on defense. Two premium picks were on tackle and edge. You know, grit, toughness, all those things, but trench play is one of the key parts of the Detroit lions and that they've known about. And as everyone knows in the lead up to the draft, I was nervous. I was really, really nervous about both of those positions. And and, you know, when we talked about where we should go, I did start with edge first and then wound up with a tackle. And and I knew those were the things, and I'm like, the edge is the most important because it shores up the whole they got them both. They they they landed them both just fine and really well, and it real it and we'll go beyond those play those two players. Right? Because there's a lot of really good stuff out there, but those two things just settled everything down for me, man. The and and it's it's an identity thing, but it's the identity that the lions have is what's gotten them to the win columns that they've gotten to.

Speaker 3: It is. And we talked about it when we were on the air that Thursday and Friday. Like, they needed to to shore things up because if they didn't address offensive tackle and edge both, there's gonna be some problems.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Again, it goes back to there were such clear obvious deficiencies and needs, And it's it might be, you know, a little, you know, reckless to demand that much of your rookies already, but both of these guys seem very ready to roll too. Blake Miller, he will be our starting right tackle. Like, I don't I don't even think there's a competition. No. If there is with Giovanni Manu and and Larry Borom, like, okay. Borom can push him, which is fine. You want that. Yeah. You you like to have that comp but we didn't want Larry Borom starting. Now now he is in the Dan Skipper role, and he is a definitive upgrade over Dan Skipper in that role

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: As the backup tackle. And I think we feel better now if Penay or Miller miss some time, they're both very durable guys, if they have to miss a month for, you know, a broken thumb or something like that, we've got a guy who can come in and at least you won't be like, oh my god. We can't do this on offense because we don't have our tackles. I I do think that Boram has a baseline skill level enough that they can do that. That that that's great. And then Edge between Derek Moore and DJ Wonnum, feel a lot better now than I did last year at this time about what was gonna happen because we knew, hate to say it, we knew Marcus Davenport was fool's gold. Yeah. We knew that Josh Paschal was unlikely to play. We didn't know what Al Kadeem Mohammed was, and Al Kadeem Mohammed wound up being, like he was great for six weeks, then he didn't touch the quarterback for six weeks, and then he

Speaker 1: was good

Speaker 3: at the end. Like, I think we're gonna get a better DJ won him. Not as flashy, but he might be more consistent. And I think that's sort of what we want. And more with well, the way the way Emory Hunt talks about him if if you haven't watched somebody, you go watch it after we're done with the show, of course. But he his the way he brought up how effective that Moore can win with speed or power and his way to instantly win, that's exactly what like, everybody who's watching this, everybody in Lions Land, what is the biggest complaint we had about the defense? Not aside aside from injuries and damage. Getting pressure quickly. Yeah. Like like, has all those, like, all those pressures, and that's great. But a lot of them took too much time and didn't really pressure the quarterback. DJ or Derek Moore is gonna do that, and I'm I'm happy with that. Yeah. Yes. Happy with that.

Speaker 1: I wanna do a little bit another piece on this a little bit. Maybe it's, maybe it might be contrarian. But the first thing I'll say, but it's still, I think, an important headline is this draft may have actually raised Detroit's floor more than it raised the ceiling, meaning the fall off on entry and the filling of positions with quality players, including free agency. Right. I think it's helped this team a great deal in the space where they've been hurt the most. Now I don't want to, I don't want to knock, right. We talked about the line, the trench play guys that we picked up. But what we did is lifted the low point in this team. And that's a very, very important thing. We've talked about it before where Mayhew would have, like, four stars. And if any one of them are hurt, there was nobody behind them. Right? This is a team whose floor is much, much higher, which means, in a in an awkward way, it it pushes everybody and it does lift the ceiling. But I mean, right now, the moment the movement is lifting the floor on the team.

Speaker 3: I think the ceiling has always been, this team can win the Super Bowl. I don't think that changed, but I I think you're right. I think the floor did rise. I think they're better equipped to handle short term injuries. Again, long term injuries to to stars, no team is equipped for that. But if Hutch has to miss two weeks, they're not gonna die on defense now. If Jack Campbell has to miss a a game, maybe two, okay, like, that's gonna hurt. But I you know, getting Rolder and, you know, doing the things that they've done, they they have Chris, we've talked about insurance before. I love insurance. I know you don't as a Florida man, but I love insurance. And I fee I feel like they went shopping at the right insurance store, and that that makes me happy.

Speaker 1: Yeah. No. We don't believe in property tax either. Thank god. That's going away. No income, no property. A free college for the kids. Gotta love it. Alright. So let's talk about it. What about what those I kinda I kinda threw some headlines out there, Riz. I know you've got a lot to talk about here. Let me let me give you the mic and let you lead the convo now.

Speaker 3: I'm just, like, I'm just excited to see what happens once once we get on the field, and I want people to get healthy. You know, we still have a lot of questions, the the the safeties. But, man, I'm excited to see what Keith Abney can do. I'm I'm excited to see him and Roger Mercuri and Ennis Rakeshtra all battle for the effectively one roster spot. Now two of the two of those guys will make it, and maybe all three will. But that's gonna be fun, man. And I I am I'm pumped for the I'm pumped to see what Tully Williams could do in year two. We've seen pictures of Isaac Tauslott looking rocked, jacked up.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, buddy. I it's

Speaker 3: like, I I've seen, like, I've I my kids have played beach volleyball against him. I've seen him wearing no shirt and just, like, board shorts. Like and he he had he had he he looked good. He did good muscular definition, but he was not, like like, jacked up. He looks jacked up in the pictures we've seen, and I'm very excited about what that's gonna do for his ability because he he is working on learning how to get open better and shorten his stride off the line so he's less easy to jam. Like, he's he's learning all the things that that that weren't there in year one. Alec's learning that too, and he's doing it with a leaner body. We're gonna see them take a jump, and I'm very excited to see what that is. And I hope as we go on through this offseason and through the summer that the fans start to feel better about the guys who are coming back, who are in year one, year two, you know, of their experience. So the twenty four and twenty five draft classes, this is kind of their time to shine. And that 24 class, big year for them. But I I feel better about it now than I did before because we have guys who can pick up the slack if if they can't. And that is not something that was true in the last couple of years. So to your point, the floor, floor's coming up. Rising tide lifts all ships, right, or something like that? Yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah. It is the same. Good stuff. Look at you rock and roll, brother. It does. It does. And and, this is one of those cases where we'll be able to see it play out and, and hopefully, hopefully we don't have to scrub the floor for some backup players, you know, for after two years of just injury, hell, it would be nice to see, okay, now we revert to the mean or even a little better than the mean, and we don't have to chase, you know, filling in gaps. We have a team that's healthy for most of the season, or at least an average rate of healthy and can come in and drive. It's been wild to watch the last couple years, the lions at the top of the injury list every single time. Disconcertate disconcerting, if I could say it. It's it's just one of those things that what in the hell, man? What in the hell do you start looking at? Is it strength and conditioning? What is it? I'm hoping it's just crap luck. I know we've made a couple of changes in the, in the conditioning room, so hopefully we'll be able to see the the fruits of those labors and and we can come together because this team healthy, I I think you're right. The ceiling is absolutely Super Bowl. It's a it's a Super Bowl victory. There's and this isn't just Homer Homer job. Right? I mean, it it is truly what we what what this team has available to it.

Speaker 3: But with that, we all know that. The Lions know that. And that does put pressure on this team to win this year because this like, I know I know Brad does like to talk windows, and I don't really don't either because I don't think it's windows open and close so randomly in the NFL. Like, look at Jacksonville last year. And now after their draft, like, everybody's picking up the last place again. Like, it's just so wild. Yeah. Sustaining excellence and and, you know, six five, six winning seasons in a row, which the lions are poised to get. That's hard, man. But now, yes, now that we've talked all this up and, you know, are excited about what's coming in and what they've done this off season, they've gotten better. They got better where they needed to get better, I think. I think most people think that, at least to some degree. Now you gotta win now. And now the pressure is more on the coaching staff and the leaders on the team to make sure that the games like Green Bay in week one and the Max Brozberg collective shit don't happen again. Because that is no no matter what talent you have, if you're not ready to play against Max freaking Brosmer, doesn't doesn't matter. Doesn't matter what you got.

Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah. 100%. Alright. So there we go. Riz, what else do you have about the the draft? What's jumping out at you that you, wanna cover?

Speaker 3: So just to get in talking with you know, I've done Emery, did his interview, which is fantastic. Fantastic. Talked to Chris Repaso. That's gonna air tomorrow. Talked with with Tyler Fornes, who's a draft guy aside from being a Vikings guy, and I I hope that came across in the video. Like, it wasn't too like, I wanted I wanted to share, you know, like, the Vikings perspective and what what our one of our prime enemies is doing, and I I thought Tyler did a pretty good job of being neutral on that. He's he's like me in that he can he can point out objectively the things on his team that are good or bad, and, I think he did a good job with that. And, you know, just talking with a couple other guys who off the air, national people are pretty excited about what this team did. And a lot of it is is similar to what you said, Chris. The floor, like, they're not gonna get if they have to go

Speaker 1: They'll be back in a second,

Speaker 3: I promise. Got that guy's got pelts on the wall in the NFL, man. Like, there are you know, you know, Damon Clark coming in at linebacker has a little bit more linebacker experience of what Grant Stewart offers. You know, they've got that now. They've shored up to getting Chuck Clark. I don't think we talk enough about Chuck Clark. Now now having said that, he might not make the team. He might be he might be a year too late, but at least they're taking swings at these guys. Yeah. But that that's a guy who has started a ton of games in the playoffs for very good football teams. I like that. I I I like that they pillaged good football teams to get their their free agents who are hungry and looking for something. So I'm I'm feeling very good about this team right now. It's funny. Another month, but we'll see. But I I I right now, I'm I'm Bridges. In the Kool Aid, baby.

Speaker 1: I was I was a doomer before the draft. I was a doomer on this even. You and I, even off the air, talked about it. Like, how how nervous I was. Like, I was like, holy shit. Like, talking to windows open and close. And it's changed. Like, it's like, holy cow. No. This is this is is this is completely different. And it really is about windows. You you close the windows yourselves as a team by making poor decisions with how you pay players. Jack Campbell is one that I've sort of sir, we're sure we're gonna wind up.

Speaker 3: Oh, man. So fucking

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Speaker 1: I am sure we're gonna make some good decisions with Jack Campbell and get that taken care of. They're not gonna let him go, but they're gonna make it do happen in a sensible way. So this team's window stays open for a long time. Also gotta have a shout out here. Mike Hodges. Such always, he's been here since like, OG land. Doctor. Leo's recent daily DLP gave me more hope for a younger and healthier team moving forward. And it absolutely did. It absolutely. And God bless Doctor. Leo. He's he's really killing. Do check out his Substack, spend some time with him. He's a fantastic human being besides a smart guy. I mean, he really, really is. He deserves any kind of success he can find in this space. So go give him some love. Give him give him some hugs and kisses like he deserves, but not from his wife. He does. You don't give

Speaker 3: him a Jimmy's great, man. He he gives the information in in such a professional way, but also, like, he he lets on that he's like, there's some subversive humor there too.

Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3: He's a hilarious guy to talk to outside of, like like, the medical banking.

Speaker 1: Well, that's why I call him doctor Liao, just for the reaction. You know? Because there's always a shot back. Here's something, Riz. I want you to to jump in for preacher John fourteen thirty four. Can you briefly explain how a five two defense works and how our current roster could implement it?

Speaker 3: Yeah. So a five two defense is it's four defensive linemen, and then your fifth would be, like you you know, just to go with the the projected starters. Hutch, Aleem, Tylik, and we'll we'll say Wannam for now until Moore does that. Then your fifth guy would be Derek Barnes or Derek Moore walking up and effectively being on the line of scrimmage, and and it it creates the illusion. Now there's only two linebackers, though, and it would be Jack Campbell. And if it's if it's not Barnes, then it could be Rodrigo. It could be Roeder. It could be Damon Clark, maybe, possibly. Like, it could be somebody that they haven't signed yet. I I don't know. It could be it could be Eric Hunter for all we know, UDFA that I really like. But what it does, it it it keeps your linebackers clean, and it's great for playmaking linebackers. If you go back to the Bears teams that had Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs, they ran to Tampa too, which is a little bit of a different style of defense. But they often brought up with a fifth. They're they'd use a safety or an extra linebacker and make a five two de facto defense. And it gets quicker pressure because it it it gives you isolations. There's only five offensive linemen. They gotta block five guys.

Speaker 1: Right. They're

Speaker 3: not getting out to the linebackers. The linebackers are free to do what they wanna do. The safeties will crash down. Cornerbacks who could that got peanuts, and Nate Vasher. And I I hate to talk nice about the bears. I freaking love that defense, dude. Lance Briggs is still one of my all time favorite players. Charles Hillman, one of my all time favorite players. I hate that they play for the Bears, but I love those guys, man. And you can do those sorts of things that way. And it it it gives a different look to the offense that slows down their ability to get big plays. As long as the the five upfront are handling their business, and you can bring pressure from different ways. You can set up different twists and stunts. It gets you more speed on the field, believe it or not. And one of the other things you can do with it is if Barnes is the is the five and you have Jack Campbell in the middle, it's it's kind of a five one five if you if you're a nickel. Now that's it's different. I don't think they're gonna do that very much, but you you have the ability to do those adaptive types of things and get more multiple. And and I know

Speaker 1: Oh, you suck in it.

Speaker 5: Chris, I

Speaker 3: I can I can hear? When when you and I were in Mobile talking to Matt Patricia with the Hooters girls

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 3: They had a

Speaker 1: lot of questions. They they did, actually.

Speaker 3: But

Speaker 1: None of them football related.

Speaker 3: The the ability yes. God bless the restaurants, baby. Where was I? Just thinking of Twin Peaks.

Speaker 1: Multiples. Multiples. Yes. You

Speaker 3: you can do multiple things, and the what that does, it creates unpredictability for the offense. Last year, and I say this is a Kevin Shepherd defender, there were times when you looked at the set, where you're like, okay, we know what this guy's gonna do. We know what this guy's gonna do. Wait.

Speaker 1: Are we still talking about those Hooters girls? Maybe. But he's looking at the set.

Speaker 3: The offense the offense did like, the defense wasn't dictating to the offense what the offense could do

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: Nearly enough. And I think that's gonna change. And a a dropping as a five five man front look, even if it's a handful of times a game, it just keeps things different. It keeps things mixed up. I like that idea very much, and I have been told that the lions are open to doing that. Look. If you were at training camp last year in the day that they did the joint practice against the Texans specifically, they did a lot of that, and it fucked CJ Stroud up, man. Like, he was lost, and they couldn't run against it. Now some of that was the fact that their offensive line was turns, but, yeah, I like the idea of being able to do different things and not always be the same and not always especially when you're shorthanded with personnel. If what Kelvin Shepherd did, he got conservative. He didn't take the risks. Mhmm. The aggressiveness got out of the way because he was so paranoid that somebody would get hurt or that the guys who were in there as replacements couldn't handle it.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 3: And I don't want that again. I don't think the line I I know I know the lines don't want that to be that way again.

Speaker 1: 100%. Alright. I've got a we got a question, a presser question here, honoring the post game presser questions. We'd love to do that. Which fair food item do you feel would be the favorite cheat meal for the o line? A corn dog, elephant ear, deep fried Oreos, funnel cake, or I haven't been in a fair in a long time, so I'm just gonna say a churro instead of whatever that word is.

Speaker 3: Chica rolls. So it is tulip time here in Holland, Michigan. It's freaking cold, by the way. It's, like, 44 degrees right now here, so nobody's, like, out. And all the two are are blue. So I will whine here for a second. One of the big things that you do at Tulip Time is you get a fat ball, an olieboli. It's a deep fried puff pastry with filling in it. Well, they have shrunk it, and they need to change their freaking oil because it was not good this year, and I'm very disappointed by that. End of rant.

Speaker 1: Okay. Well, thank you. Send your letters to the editor to the tulip festival, and and they'll tell you to plant your tulips right here. Okay.

Speaker 3: The elephant ears elephant ears with Bavarian cream on them, that's a good way to go.

Speaker 1: I'm Bavarian.

Speaker 3: Chris, what's your favorite beer food?

Speaker 1: I like being the Bavarian. I wanna get to the next question. What do we take for the Matt Campbell news today in ESPN that we offer him the job first to turn it down, so we pivoted to MSCDC. That was something we talked about that we wanted to cover the last second here since it's breaking. What do you got, Riz?

Speaker 3: So we knew this already. And and Chris when I when I told Chris, he's like, didn't that didn't we didn't that happen? Like, yeah. It did. Yeah. We all basically knew this. So it's a report from Jake Trotter from ESPN. Jake's a great guy. I know him. He used to cover the Browns. When I covered the Browns for USA Today, he was ESPN's Browns guy. He's a great reporter. I'd I completely trust him, but this is information that we already knew. They wanted Matt Campbell. They offered him the job. He turned it down. This is the latest validation of this. But this is these are things that were reported back in 2021 when it happened. And I think it sort of just got glossed over or forgotten. Dan Campbell made an allusion to it in his introductory press conference. He's like, I'm not Matt or or something like that, but, like, you can't go wrong with a Campbell. Like, that this isn't news. It's just like, did that really happen? Like, I I think people gloss over it back in time. And now that it's out there again now that Matt Campbell is prominent because he's at at Penn State, like, yeah. That's much ado about nothing that we're we're where to do. That that's where I'm at, Chris. Where are you at on that?

Speaker 1: Yeah. It's it it it I I we knew it. I didn't realize that it wasn't public knowledge. Poor Trotter and Birkhead, they were they had something, evidently, they could've used in, you know, the beginning of July for something to cover that people would have been interested in and clicked on. But, you know, they're pretty mature in their in their jobs here, but whatever. I don't know. It's not that it's yeah. Okay. Thanks. That's not where I'm at. I'm gonna I'm gonna hit you with that. We we're gonna talk about worries here in a second. Worries that remain. Okay? Sure. I wanna start I'm gonna lead into that topic a little bit with some, some prompts for you, some questions. Okay? Alright. This is one where because I think this does lean into the worry area myself, but, was Derek Moore the answer at Edge or just the latest attempt at an answer?

Speaker 3: Can't answer that until we see it, honestly.

Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. That's fair. I don't think the draft a 100% solved the who's the second true pass rush threat. Like you said, we have to see it. I

Speaker 3: would agree

Speaker 1: with that. He's a logical ad and a good player, but may. He helps. He just doesn't erase the concern. And it's a I think it's a fair worry until we see him play. So you're I think your answer is right. But the the the behind the answer answer is it it he may be the one, but, boy, every draft pick at some level is an is is a little bit of a gamble. But I think one until we see what he really brings, it's gonna be a something something to definitely watch.

Speaker 3: Yeah. I'm I'm optimistic that he will be that guy, but I don't know that he's gonna be that guy.

Speaker 1: Yep. Yep. Here's one that I know we wanna talk about. Is Keith Abney the kinda pick local media appreciates more quickly than national media?

Speaker 3: Well, based on the national media I've talked to, I don't think so, and that's because they freaking love it. If you go through even I'll I'll bring up my guy, Thor Nystrom. Most people he's a Vikings guy, and he's got his own stuff stacked now. I I like Thor. We get along very well. We I've I've had a couple of dinners with good good dude. I like him. I know most people don't. But he's like, damn, man. That's a great pick. Like, you know that if people who are, like, homorifically against the lions like it, it's probably a good pick.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. He could wind up being one of the most important picks of the class, oddly, because he I mean, look. You you you can't ever undersell an OT. Right? He's not gonna get the the Blake Miller level of attention. But a nickel corner is a real NFL job, and it's it's not just like a subpackage afterthought. It's a real freaking job. And quarterback for the lions, especially with the the injuries we've had, has always been a point of trouble, contention, never quite all all we wanted after game one. It's it's it's always been kinda different. Even nfl.com, they single them out as Detroit sleeper. Right? I think he's he's very he's again, we have to see him very much as the may have solved the problem, with Derek Moore. But this guy, he has all the upside, man, to take that job and be solid at that job as long as he's here. And again, that nickel corner is an NFL ass job, and it's an important one.

Speaker 3: So I did a I did a radio spot in Philadelphia. Was it this week? Last week. The draft was not last week. It was before. Last week. And the host said to me, Keith Abney is gonna start for you guys, doesn't he? I'm like, he could? Like, they loved him. Like, they again, when your enemies are like, damn. That's a good pick, It's hard to argue against that.

Speaker 1: Well, let's wonder there's a good question here from Jeff. Do we know why he fell? I mean, he fell pretty far after a second round projection.

Speaker 3: Because he's short and because he got hurt. If he was five and Emery said this. If he was five eleven, he's a second round pick. No doubt about it. But he's five eight and three quarters and doesn't have the best long speed. Like, he's, like, if he's playing outside, which I do still think he's better outside than he is in the slot even though he's small, sort of like Amica was, He's gonna need safety help over the top because he's not like, his speed doesn't sustain 35, 45 yards on the field. Like, Christian Watson is gonna get him on the outside. You know? If the Bears can protect Caleb Caleb enough, like, he'll have Like,

Speaker 1: I hope he can't.

Speaker 3: To go over the top and get Roma Dunsey down the slide. That's gonna be the issue for him is the long speed.

Speaker 1: There you go. I promise he's coming back.

Speaker 3: When you haven't watched the film, then when you have.

Speaker 1: Yep. Okay. Lost you there for just a second, Riz, but we know you're living in a time warp. Like, you're the future.

Speaker 3: Yeah. We know what's

Speaker 1: going on. So here here's here's another one. And we talked a little bit about it, but I I this one was, I think, my more pointed attack on the question. Did the lions come out of the draft better or just deeper? Because we said we raided the agent to raise the floor. But

Speaker 3: I think if you

Speaker 1: He's saying better right now. I promise. Someone's making popcorn.

Speaker 3: Agency in. Massive upgrade. I think you're seeing I think Blake Miller as a rookie maybe not be there, but in year two, he's gonna be better than what Taylor Decker was at the end of Taylor Decker.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, I I agree. I agree. I I I think he very well could be. And and the guy is just an Ironman. So alright. Draft reactions, is there anything before we move on to the next topic that you wanna still hit on the, on the draft reactions?

Speaker 3: Not really. I I do think and I guess it leads sort of into, like, the biggest worries that they didn't address a couple of positions. Or they've tried maybe in under with UDFAs, but I don't see any UDFA making the roster. Maybe the practice school.

Speaker 1: Put this one back. But The dramatic pause. Alright. Someone's making popcorn, Riz.

Speaker 3: That freaking Internet sucks, dude. Again, when I moved into this house thirteen years ago, there were 35 houses here. There are now 135, and they've not upgraded our input into our neighborhood. And we're all in the same damn thing.

Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you out. I'm coming to your house, Riz. Get ready. Lock the lock up the doors and lock up your wife. I'm coming over to fix your Internet. Then he freezes right after that.

Speaker 3: It froze again. Damn it? It froze. I couldn't hear it.

Speaker 1: Oh, man. Alright. So, yeah, I I oddly, I just signed up. It's been around for a while, but I just signed up for the five five gig Internet. So I I I'm gonna be in good shape. Alright. So let's, let's get through this. One last thing that I, I hope, and I want to leave. I think this can lead us into another topic. Well I'm gonna save that topic. I wanna save that topic. So let's talk a little bit about the worries. Any, any worries that we have about this, this team here still? I'm gonna find, I have a list of I had a couple I have notes this time, Riz. You wanna believe can you believe that? I just have to remember how I wrote them. There you are. Alright. So the edge room, as we talked about, it it depends on projection right now. We have to see what's there. And then also, you know, fine. Hutch plays 99000% of the snaps. You're gonna have more I think you're gonna look for a rotation. So who's number three that's gonna rotate and and and provide a pass rush? And when do you do that? When's the right time to put that rotation in to give your guys the power they need at the right time. Right? And to set you up, you need someone who's gonna be able to set you up for the third and long so that you can really pin the years back and go for it. And then you that's when you're obviously want your Hutch in there and your your best guys in there. So I think my worry there is it's it's still all projection like we talked about. I my my my gut tells me we're in good shape. My brain tells me that we've you know, show me. Let me see it. We talked about that a little bit, Riz. Let's talk about linebacker. It has candidates. Yeah. But not certainty.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Right. Sorry. I'm looking at my Internet settings.

Speaker 1: Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 3: No. So they haven't replaced Alex Anzalone yet. And my working theory, and people who watch the Daily DLP know this because I've espoused it several times, I don't think they are. I don't think they want to. I think the four three, the lions playing more four three than any other team. I think that's dead. I think they've self scouted and realized that's not what they wanna do anymore, which is great. I think we all like that. But you still have to have somebody who can cover. And as much as we love Jack Campbell, he's still flat footed in coverage from time to time. That's not his that's not where he's at his best. Derek Barnes, we saw it a couple times last year. It's it's it's just not good enough. Jimmy Rolder, not a cover guy. If it's in front of him, he's fine. If it's behind him, he will never know what's happening. That's one of the reasons why he went in the fourth round.

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Speaker 3: Doing the film the the next film study is on him. I discovered Gil Howard that get posted today. Check that out. Detroitlionspodcast.com. We do written content too.

Speaker 1: We do. Can I plug? Can I jump in? I I wanna do something, and this is in the ultimate trans level of transparency that I wanna put out there for folks. I'm thinking of putting out I've been tweaking this a lot, and it's a aggregated newsletter of the latest news in the lions. And it is, in transparency, written by AI. I'm thinking about actually making that a and and be having it posted by a the DLP beat bot and labeling it as AI, not trying to pass it off. But Yeah. I mean, I've I've run this by a lot of people, and it is not AI slop. And it is not obviously written by AI.

Speaker 3: It's not my last word on sports?

Speaker 1: No. No. And it's actually I mean, I read it. It just kinda keeps me informed of everything going on really quickly. I I I get it in the morning, and so I just read it as a kind of a a start up. I'm thinking of putting that on the on the site just to give somebody, like, people, like, a morning start. Like, here's the themes and trends for the day. Here's your lion's jump on on on things. Again, I I'm I'm totally open to feedback. If people absolutely hate it, I'm I'm happy to get rid of it. But, I think it's it's it's something that people will really actually get value out of and not just something to get slammed up for clicks. Because that's I I don't know. If you folks didn't realize it, we're not we're not jamming, you know, slamming up clips. So, love to hear your count your your your feedback on that. There's there'll be a link, you know, where, you can just give direct feedback, and we can use that to see if you guys find it valuable, if you if it if it's good. But I think there's a place for it if it's done well. You know what I mean? But I don't think it can supplant. There's the the human is the the key part of anything that's creative. And I I I don't think that any computer will ever absolutely replace humanity, but I think, you know, getting it's it's it's just putting thoughts together of the conversations that are out there give you a good start in the morning to start. So we'll see. Put it up there and, see what what folks say and what you think. So, I just wanna put that out there again, full transparency and an opportunity for everybody to kind of feedback what they think about it, and if they find value in it. Again, just trying to get more stuff out there for folks to to leverage for their own well-being. Yeah.

Speaker 3: And it's not like, if it's crap, we're not gonna put it out. That's just not what

Speaker 1: we do. No. It I'm

Speaker 3: just away from that world, Chris.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no. 100%. 100%. That's it's it's truly not what what we're trying to do. It's just like a different means.

Speaker 3: The way things have become.

Speaker 1: Pour one out for pour one out for Riz. No. Well, that's the thing. We we've got Riz. We've got BISH doing content out there. I think we're gonna see a little bit more writing coming on the site as well to to kind of, I don't know, bury that stuff. But I just I think there's a valuation. They had Right?

Speaker 3: Chris, I've actually had a couple of people who are good, talented, seasoned writers who have approached me about potentially writing for us. So that's gonna be for not the off season stuff, but, like, once the season gets going. Yeah. Or we can do actual written content, and it will probably look familiar to what I used to do elsewhere.

Speaker 1: Nice. That's the way it We'll see. Love it. This is that's great. So that's that's, that's what we're looking for, and that's what it's about and and where we're at. So just so you know. I also say and just for transparency, like the show notes, we literally take our transcripts, and it runs through the AI to to write the notes because that's such a tedious thing. People wanna watch the video. They or listen to the podcast. They don't wanna read the notes. They're really not that interesting anyway when we would hand write them. But it's it's helped take number one, and make and we were laughing before. Riz is not the most technically savvy guy in the world. He's he's grown leaps and bounds here in the last couple months. But we have a thing now where Riz can con concentrate concentrate on the content, create these videos and these podcasts for folks, and create that value. And then all the kind of bullshit work behind it. Right? All the here's a title. Here's a description. Here's your tags, and here's all the the the publishing and all that and uploading. That's handled automatically so he doesn't have to worry about it. And it gives him the freedom to actually just do the content and do the the the the stuff that he does. Same thing for Bish and Brown and and and Gray, the whole thing. They all review it, and it's it's reviewable for them. Sometimes you're in a hurry and you get it out. Please don't get hung up on those things. They're things that have to be there for a whole number of stupid publishing reasons. It's about the content, and the content do. Other than that one newsletter thing, will never ever be AI. I promise you that. But I I just wanna make sure we're completely transparent

Speaker 3: about it. Even on even on the things that are automated when it it generates, you know there are certain things that it generates, and I do look those things over. I do have the ability to edit those, and I have been editing them more. I know just that's one thing. Derek Moore keeps getting spelled d e r e k. Like, it's not Bo Derek. It's Derek Moore. It's r I c k.

Speaker 1: I can I can fix that?

Speaker 3: You know, little little things like that. Little things, Emery has a little Emery's from Louisiana. He has a little bit of an accent. You know? It doesn't come out often, but you you can hear it. And it mistranscribed some of the things that he said because they don't do I I won't call Avery occasion Emery occasion because he's not, but, you know, there's that lilt to it. And I Chris, you know this about me. When I'm tired, southern accent comes out. Country boy. I grew up on a farm, man. That's the way I was. Mhmm. I I don't have to, like, consciously hide it, but I'm aware of it when it comes out. And I have done it a couple times, and it's like it did not it did not understand what I was saying to it.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And and and we evolve, you know, look, today's the worst that it'll be before or since yesterday. Right? And every day gets better and work on it. But just for just and and we'll get off the top and go back to football here in a second. Just for kind of context around this, just this podcast, it used to be an hour and a half of work before the podcast to get everything set up. And then it was an hour to an hour and a half of podcasting and then another hour and a half after that to get an episode out. And like the way work is for me now and all the other stuff, and then bringing Risen for the dailies, nobody has the time or or capacity to do all that. Ash did a great job for us for a long time. He was grinding hours putting this stuff together for us. By automating this, it lets us put more content out, and it's it's absolutely real, you know, real human content. We're never gonna do fake, you know, the heads or anything like that. But I just want folks to know that these automations make it so we can do these things that do more of it. So, it's it's really just to allow the human side to be better. And and that's that's our, you know, our forever promise. Again, I'm being, about the one little newsletter thing. This is not creeping death or anything like that. It's just one thing that that we thought might give some value to folks. Right?

Speaker 3: So let it be written. So let it be done.

Speaker 1: First print first first pressing of that album too, buddy. That one's worth some real money too. Oh my god.

Speaker 3: Chris was telling me about his album collection that he recently unearthed. Holy crap, dude. I'm

Speaker 1: Yeah. Metallica signed master of puppets first pressing. It's worth over a thousand dollars, people. That's crazy.

Speaker 3: Yeah. But you can't sell that. That that's the sort of thing, like,

Speaker 1: like forever.

Speaker 3: We talked about, like, what what happened in my family with it. Like, I regret selling some of it, but at the same time, like, it was nice getting a lot of money too.

Speaker 1: Yeah. That one, like, that one I got at Monster's a Rock. I got that one signed. I was backstage. That's when I worked in radio. Backstage for nine hour show. And and I was like, I don't know. I was 21 at the time, and they would not serve booze at the Silverdome for this nine hour show because they didn't want fights. Me, underage backstage, I was tanked drinking for free. It was fantastic. The rate working on radio was a lot of fun back then.

Speaker 3: Can I ask you a random question about Monsters of Rock? Because I I'm going to see both entities involved. Dokken was at the the original Monsters of

Speaker 1: Rock. Uh-huh.

Speaker 3: Did Don and George fight at that show?

Speaker 1: I don't I was not a huge Dakin fan. I know you were, and I know it's blasphemy j. Yeah. Blasphemy. I was I was running around, like, back. I'll tell you a 100%. I was backstage and, like, I got a signed Van Halen album too. Sammy Hagar signed my Van Halen too. What the hell? Because obviously he wasn't on the album, but I was actually backstage meeting them. And Ted Nugent rolled in back before Ted Nugent was Ted Nugent today. And and we were all hanging out and there was just like a big, like, wash tub full of ice and beer, and we're all like, it was wild. And so there's pieces of the concert that I didn't see, so I cannot testify as to what happened during doc, and I apologize.

Speaker 3: I am going to see Docken and Lynch Mob separately, but on the same bill together. I think it's in Shipshewana, Indiana, like, in June. That that's got tickets today. So but, like, they they those two legendarily hate one another, but then they love one another. Yeah. And and they realize they need each other.

Speaker 1: This is back in the day of film. You'll love this. I met I met Metallica, like, three times. One time, I got my picture taken with Jason Newstead. I'm wearing a this is back. I I I've started wearing tie dyes again. Right? So but I I had a tie dye on back in the picture. Oh, yeah. And then I met him again and got him to sign it. It was really cool to have those, like, that

Speaker 3: sign for

Speaker 1: it was so awesome. Yeah. It was so awesome. Fun time. Okay. Let's have a football. Wait.

Speaker 3: First up for Jason Newstead who just recently renounced that he has cancer. And Oh, no. So God bless you. He's one

Speaker 1: of my faves. I hated that he he it didn't work out. And, actually, I just bought the and Jason for all or injustice for Jason LP because that mix is way better than what Lars did to him. Fuck Lars.

Speaker 3: He's he by the way, he is a Lions fan. He's from Battle Creek, Michigan. He is a he's a Detroit sports fan.

Speaker 1: So He's yeah.

Speaker 3: Best for Jason.

Speaker 1: Best of luck, Jason. Best of luck, man. You're you're you're one hell of a a bass player and a and a presence on stage. Please, please get well. Alright. Let's, let's rock and roll into this. We wanna talk about one other thing. I think did we cover the worries, Riz? Do you feel good about or bad about

Speaker 3: So I do think I do think we still have I still have some concerns about interior defensive line run defense. We haven't replaced Roy Lopez or DJ Reader who signed with the the Giants this week yet. I've not sold on the the undrafted dude that we got from California. I don't wanna butcher his name, but I don't know, man. I don't know there. That's that's gonna be tough because Tylek Tylek's a first round pick because he can get into the backfield, not necessarily because he's a great run stuffer. No. He was a good run stuffer. Teams that run power at us, and there's not a lot of those, that that's gonna be tough because I think we're gonna miss DJ Reader more than most fans realize because he is a reason why there was an all pro next to Jack Campbell's name. Reeder might not have made a lot of plays, but dude is the best friend for linebackers behind him. And you will see that in New York because I know he still got something left in him. I'm I'm I'm an unapologetic DJ reader slappy. I I'll I'll admit to that. But how Jack Campbell adjust to not having that guy specifically in front of him, I'm interested in that. I know Jack's a fantastic football player, and I'm sure that he will do fine. But in the back of my mind, I worry just a little bit that he's gonna be that much easier to get blocked or get in the way of him pursuing sideline to sideline. And that is something we saw it late in the year. The run defense really faltered. Yeah. And that can't happen because then what happens when you're third and two versus third and nine? Not that we can stop the third and nines anyways. That that's another worry, actually. An extra help. Long. The line being they were either and I don't remember the the stat exactly, but they were they were either thirty first or thirty second in third down and long conversions allowed last year and the year before. That shit's gotta change, man. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Aaron, twenty two months of membership on the YouTube channel. Thank you so much, man. Best year of DLP yet. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Everyone, please like the videos. Thank you, Aaron. Really appreciate you for for being part of this for so long, man. It's Appreciate it. The support of it means a lot. It does. It helps all our guys do our do our stuff. So,

Speaker 3: You are I'm I'm gonna ask, were you the guy that I met Friday night at beer fest? Because if you were and and I know that guy's name was Aaron. Thank you for coming up to me and and saying hi. That was nice. Bye.

Speaker 1: Alright. There you go. Appreciate it, Aaron. Alright. Let's see. Did you no. Did you get your worries out? Did you wanna talk about that at all?

Speaker 3: I mean, I Chris, as you know, I always have existential dread about injuries. I I fear weird things. I'm I'm deathly afraid of sinkholes, oddly. I can never I'm the Florida man. Yes. I know. Like, the sunken gardens thing that so we we went to Saint Pete for spring break for a few days. My wife wants to go to Sunken Gardens. I'm like, that's a fucking sinkhole. Nope. Not going not going there. I'm also deathly afraid of clowns and driving under an overpass where there's a train that stopped on it. Like, I can't do it. Like, I'm not gonna close my eyes. I will shutter through it. Like, I We need gives me the willies. I hate that.

Speaker 1: We need the clockwork orange your ass under an overpass with a nineteen fifties clown and jam Steve Miller band. No. God.

Speaker 3: Just just run me into the freaking train. Chris, what's your biggest fear for the lions or otherwise?

Speaker 1: The lions is as much as I love how fantastic this ride has been with MCDC, I I my biggest fear is being edged and falling back into the realm of where they have been. I don't know that I have it in me to be to be, wholly and and totally honest. I'm I'm terrified of what might happen if we fall into, inaptitude and irrelevance again. I I really am.

Speaker 3: Or eight, nine next year or something like that?

Speaker 1: I no. And it has to be more, and it has to be more permanent. Like, I I you know, I don't know. Like, if Dan Campbell was caught in some kind of Sharon scandal or something, he won't be. You know he won't. But, like, something crazy like that, and we had to reroll the whole front. I'm I'm I'm I don't know, man. We've been doing this for eleven years. Been a fan since Billy Sims was drafted. I I can't you know, I I I don't have much. I'm so worried. And that that's my big fear with the lions. Otherwise, heights, man. Heights is the thing outside of football that and and the lions that that that I just don't get along with. And I I used to go to Cedar Point, go up top of, was it Meanstreak was the big one at the time, I think, or or, Magnum. Drop. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Magnum and then Demon Drop. Those are great ones. I don't do that as much anymore or at all anymore. Yeah. But it's weird. Like, I when when I get to New York, and I'll be up at, you know, the 60th Floor, standing in a window looking out. And I'm just like I get a little bit of the heebie jeebies. You know what I mean? I'm just like, god. I don't like to know that that I'm here. So we are by the way,

Speaker 3: we are going to have a daily DLP devoted to Cedar Point this summer. Jared Mueller, who runs Dogs by Nature for he he's a Browns guy. We worked at Cedar Point at the same time, but we didn't know each other then. And I I also have another person, who I know who's in the industry. He actually works for the Bengals who worked at Cedar Point, and I do know him from there. And we're gonna have a little bit of a Cedar Point roundtable sometime in the dead of summer before it's training camps.

Speaker 1: That's and that's something we talked about. We we do touch on this during the draft show. During the summer, during the off season when there's not a lot of football and before training camp, maybe doing a, a show by each each of the hosts about something they are somewhat expert in or something. And, I was I was really, thinking leaning into the AI thing. I might do, like, a, like, a primer to get people kinda because there's a whole bunch of stuff out there that people are sure of.

Speaker 3: There's a lot of people that have

Speaker 1: a lot of

Speaker 3: of opinions, good and bad and also wrong about AI.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I live, breathe, and I got a, like, whole big model running at home, much less working with it every day. It's it's it's there's a lot to it. But, I I think that would be interesting, and I think I can do it in a way that helps prep people. The one thing I'll tell you just really quick sorry. We're we're all all over the place here about stuff that's not football, so we'll do extra football here in a second. The worry that AI is gonna take your jobs, I will I will put that to the test with you, a mental kind of challenge. If you think anything about, companies, corporations, their number one priority, no matter what they do, is return of, shareholder value. Yeah. And they get that through productivity and products that sell. If they can do have products or or I'm sorry. Technology that five x is what people do. If you could say, oh, oh, I've gotta do a presentation. Send an agent to go do my presentation. And then, oh, I gotta do my expense report. Here, agent. Here, go do the expense report. And, oh, I have to do, research for this, for this account. Let me go do this. And also you're doing three and four things going all at one time. You're now four times more productive. As long as your company has products that are wanted in the marketplace, they're four, maybe five times more profitable, theoretically. Why would they take a multiplier, which is the person that can do all that work? Because there's no AI, and there's not gonna be for a very, very long time that can do the human part of that stuff. They're just predictor models. Right? So, I think a lot of the fear is overblown on on in that space, and I think that it's just gonna be things have changed a little. That's all. Alright. Glad I'm done. Have I written my own DLP LLM? No. But that's on my summertime list, putting together a lot of stuff that drives, again, value that gives people things that they can search, run, test from, you know, using our shows as as a baseline, our writing as a baseline, that kind of stuff. I got and I got some other ideas as well. But, yeah, I think we're gonna have a a DLP thing. And then the automations, this is something I think, Riz, I could probably package up and sell to other podcasts because who doesn't wanna be able just to record and make it all happen? Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 3: It's it's a lot easier when you don't have to do the the tedium bullshit. It really is. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Alright. So with that, let's roll into the next magic piece of the talk, and that's, is it it's it's it's a conversation about local versus national media. And I wanna I'm gonna hit it with this one. Is Detroit being underrated because national media prefers exciting picks to useful ones? And like, the the Lions draft is kind of, like, mid packed. Right? They're the b b minus is that when those Grady people get Grady. We, as local people, kinda see what's going on, and we talk about raising floors and things like that. I wanna and and then we'll talk a little bit about the the the local versus national media. I wanted to kinda put put that question out there, Riz, and let you react to it and kinda take the the ball and run.

Speaker 3: Yeah. I I I think some of it is that that the Lions' needs weren't really sexy. They need an offensive lineman. They need an edge. They needed cornerback depth. They need a linebacker depth. They did all that. They checked those boxes. There's still a few on like, they didn't need a playmaking wide receiver. They've got Jamir Gibbs, the best running back on the planet, arguably. They've got they've got the tight ends. They've got everybody who's gonna touch the ball on offense, they're back, and they're awesome. Quarterback. Like Right.

Speaker 7: Are all batteries the same? That's like asking if all soccer players are the same. Take Messi, the most decorated player ever. Is there any other player who has achieved that? No. Just him. Now take Duracell. Is there any other battery with power boost ingredients inside? No. Just Duracell. Remember, goats only trust goats because they're built different and Messi only trusts Duracell.

Speaker 3: That's what sells. Or if you needed an island corner, Lions didn't really need that. They they are invested, right right or wrong, in DJ Reed and Terry and Arnold. And I will tell you, I know this, the lions are still incredibly bullish on Terry and Arnold. They absolutely still believe he could be a number one corner in this league, like, to a man in that in that locker room and in that staff. We'll see. I I'm sorta with them. I I like the growth that I saw last year before he got hurt, but we'll see. But they didn't need those positions. Now Edge could be a sexy position, but they didn't take that first. They waited till the second round. They took a guy from Michigan. Michigan had a disappointing season. So did Clemson. Like, they took guys from programs that had coaching catastrophes and just underachievement.

Speaker 1: And I think that's recruiting. But good recruiting.

Speaker 3: Yes. That's sort of a wet blanket, though. Like, you know, if you watched Clemson last year, TJ I I know. I know. I know. The Lions like TJ Parker. Not enough to draft him, obviously, but they liked him. They're Ed, the the the Clemson Edge. It would have been a difficult sell for a lot of people just because because he came from Clemson and because he was great in 2024 and 2025 wasn't as productive. It wasn't as sparkly. And I think the fact that they got that and more, that that that's a tougher sell. And then they didn't have a third round pick. You know, they there wasn't any controversy. They weren't involved in any trades, really. Like, it's they they didn't move up to get more, but that was to get them before Baltimore drafted him because Baltimore's gonna take him with the next one. We talked we talked about that on that draft Friday. We don't need to go back to that. But, yeah, it's it's kind of I don't know. It's it's like hitting doubles instead of home runs. You know, chicks dig the the sacrifice fly. You know?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yes. They do. Yeah. So come on down, Riz. We can catch a game Brick House right down the road from the dollhouse from Aaron. He he he wasn't the guy that you met, but, he's he's ready to hook up. I I mean, meet up. Sorry. So you got

Speaker 3: I assume those are strip trunks.

Speaker 1: I have not been to a peeler in a long time now. Yeah. A long time. Yeah. Suddenly, you just Long time. Oh, man. I don't I

Speaker 3: don't know if I've been to one in the twenty first century. That's how long it's been.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. You may be right. It may be it may be that long.

Speaker 3: I have a 13 year old daughter, so that sort of clouds things. You know? Like Yeah. These girls have dads.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm afraid about that. It's when you see them there that's really kind of, like, embarrassing. Yeah. Alright. So yes. All right. So we got that. What else? The, the, the national versus the local. I want to talk about like what, what they see and Riz, you, you, you gave me the stem in our conversation beforehand, What they see on and how they evaluate prospects versus what a team kinda really needs and looks for and what they plan on landing. And I'll I'll just kinda add that, like, one of the things I found Brad to be good at is plucking players from teams that haven't had a good year. He's he finds talented players who are a little bit under the radar because they don't get all the the the sparklers and fireworks that, that a national champion does. Right? And so many people see, you know, oh my god. Indiana is a national champion. Let's just take their whole team. They're gonna, like, you know, they it's there's just so much focus on that kind of thing. Right? Whereas you see Clemson, they've had some great years. And when they did, they had some great recruiting going on. Michigan still has the fruits of, you know, you you you, you think about our, you know, our our pickup with, Derek Moore that, here's a guy who wanted to play for Jim Harbaugh, who's been gone for a while. Right? That's that's how he showed up there. Team hasn't been as great since Harbaugh left as far as, you know, they haven't gone gotten to the natty, but Harbaugh was able to pick up a really strong talent, one that the lions really liked. And that's one of the things I think that people kinda miss. The national guys do focus on those big name, big kinda, you know, achieving teams because that's where the clicks and all the views are. They do a great job of evaluating though them. But the teams, they have a little bit different kind of evaluation because they're looking very specifically at guys around some of the gaps they have on the team and areas that they wanna build and fill out. I'll kinda leave it at that and hand it to you, Riz, to kinda tell me I'm an idiot.

Speaker 3: And I think the the the way that certain players and personalities and styles fit gets lost sometimes on the national. And that's something that like, Gray Gray and I had a conversation together in the Slack today. And what spawned it, Tyler Fornes, who was the guest on the daily DLP, talked about how because the first question I asked him was, everybody had Dylan Tianeman projected at 18 to the Minnesota Vikings. And he's like, I never did. I never saw the fit, and most Vikings fans didn't. And true enough, I I did some research on it. Like, not many Vikings dudes ever had him projected. About the same percentage that had Caden Proctor projected to the lions, which wasn't many local people at all. And it led me to it sort of just jarred my mind that, like, we all kinda knew that the Caden Proctor thing was a weird fit. Like and when Daniel Jeremiah runs with it, when Dane Brugler runs with and they're like, these guys are fantastic at their jobs. They're great evaluators. I love those guys. But they don't know the nuances of the certain players and and how they would fit with the certain teams. To some extent, they might, but they're gonna ask people. And that leaves you open to getting John Dorsey, which I think happened to Daniel Jeremiah in this case. Because I and I put this at the end of the DLP a couple daily DLP a couple days ago. I got it on very, very, very good information that the lion's interest in Caden Proctor that went out to the national people was fabricated, was a ruse, was a smokescreen, if you will. And some people bought into it, and it was done deliberately to find out who was talking to whom in the national media. John Dorsey is a fucking master of that.

Speaker 1: Yeah. The canary truck. He is. Mister canary truck. Yep.

Speaker 3: Yes. He is. A 100%. And Daniel Jeremiah probably got caught with that just as most of us got caught. And DJ was Tyler cited him as being the progenitor for the reason why everybody mocked Dylan Dineman to the Vikings. And I look. I did it too. It made sense to me. I don't cover the Vikings, though. I probably should have paid more attention to what the Vikings guys were saying, and that's that's my bad.

Speaker 1: Well, to be fair, they didn't have a GM either. So They don't. And they traded

Speaker 3: their best player away on defense. I I still think Chris, we talked about this when it happened on that draft Friday. They traded away their best pass rusher and didn't replace them at all. Did you

Speaker 1: Bob Quinn in the house. Bob Quinn in the house. I wanna downgrade at every position and it's pay more for it.

Speaker 3: Minnesota is the one team that you can say in the NFC North definitively did not get better this offseason. Offseason. Chicago is debatable. Green Bay, I I think they did. I kinda like what they did, honestly, but reserved. Lions got the Lions got more better than any team for sure. I don't I don't even think that's arguable. I don't I don't think that's debatable. Like but that that's Alliance's point of view. But and and I I really and and Greg brought up and I, actually, I wanna read what he said. Let me pull that up here.

Speaker 1: Alright. I wanna I just wanna say while you get that, the the the the walk around the NFC North that you're doing with the the the different different interviews is is fantastic. And folks should really pay attention to those videos to get an idea of where the lions stand comparatively.

Speaker 3: Yeah. And one of the things that I do and I and Tyler was great about it. He was very forthcoming. I asked him what he thought of the lions and I thought he gave great answers. So if you haven't watched it yet, watch Tyler. Tyler's a good dude, man. Yeah. You you've met him. Yeah. At the seed bowl. At the seed bowl. Yeah.

Speaker 1: He's he's he's a really good dude. Kinda a little bit quiet, you know, not not, like, jumping your face, which I actually really appreciate because some folks are just like, hey. Like, hey. Spike. Spike. Spike. Oh, god. Please give me a minute to breathe. I'm working on something. He was just really cool. I wish I'd actually spend a little more time chatting it up with him. He's a really good guy.

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker 1: Really good guy.

Speaker 3: So this is what Grace said after I wrote a little soliloquy on. And my my closing comment was, national guys are great for evaluating players and also teams. As far as what players those teams actually want, stay local. And Gray chimed in, and and he's he's perfectly right on this. Thank you, Gray. Never expect the nationals to know about one of the 32 teams they cover more let me read again.

Speaker 1: He wrote a better than that. I promise.

Speaker 3: Never expect the nationals to know more about one of the 32 teams they cover than the guys that cover only one of the 32 teams. That's brilliant, dude.

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 3: I like to think that I know a lot about several teams, but I don't like, Jacksonville? What the hell? I don't know. Arizona. I don't know. I don't know what they're doing. I don't really have an idea what they're doing. I don't I okay. They're they're moving forward. Alright. I don't get some of their decisions, but I I'm not I'm not a Cardinals guy. I'm not meant

Speaker 1: to. And I

Speaker 3: think when when you're going next year in the draft, and I will shamelessly point out this, like, I do work for the huge show. Shameless shameless self promotion is inherent in us.

Speaker 1: How do I get a huge mug?

Speaker 3: I I do too.

Speaker 1: No. How do I get a huge tumbler? You gotta work on that for me, man. Yeah. I I I

Speaker 3: I I know a guy.

Speaker 1: I know. I'm sure he's huge. Alright. Go ahead.

Speaker 3: I had Blake Miller and Derek Moore both in mock drafts to the lions in January. I also knew they were signing Kate Mays well before it happened. I wasn't the only one in Lions' Land that knew that. But go outside of Detroit, ain't nobody having that. Yeah. Nope. Schlicht knew. Reisman knew. I think Raven had a pretty good idea what was going on. I know Nolan Bianchi, although he has to cover some bases. I think he knew what was up. Colton Bouncy absolutely knew what was up. But listen trust your guys who know what their no no draft, specifically, Lions draft next year. Russ, by the way, Russ Russ Brown knew they loved Derrick Moore. Knew it early. He he might have been the guy who tipped me off to it, maybe. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more. Don't like, again, there's a lot of value in what Daniel Jeremiah, Lance Zierlein, Dane Brugler, Matt Miller, Jordan Reed, like, all those guys. They're all good. They're very good at their jobs. Trevor Sikama. I'm trying to get desperately on the daily DLP because he owes me a favor, and, I'm I'm trying to call that in. They don't know the inner workings of the team, like, they can't. No. Gray Gray put it perfectly. They some of those guys talk to me and Schlitt and other people who do know to try to get their feel for it. But they like, they're still at the mercy of us. We could we could be a complete jackass and say, no. They're taking Caden Procter. Some people bought it. So remember that next year in February and March. Like, read their player evaluations because they're good. They are good. But understand how that fits or doesn't fit in Detroit with your team. And lean on the people that you know who know the Lions and the Lions draft. And I think that's my concluding point there.

Speaker 1: There's your concluding point. Yes. Speaking of the gray ghost, he will be returning soon. He's got a lot going on with, picking up and crossing a multiple state lines with all of his early worldly belongings. So he's still there. We love him still. He loves us. Don't worry. People come and go a little bit here and there as as life permits. So we all give each other grace. Especially, Riz, as we head, we're almost a month away from crossing into our twelfth year. Holy crap. Can you believe that?

Speaker 3: I wasn't here until, like, episode at what was the first one I was on? Like, 48 or something? No. It was, like, the twelve. Was it really?

Speaker 1: Twelve. Yeah. It was, like, episode 12. So you've been here

Speaker 3: Wow. Pretty OG.

Speaker 1: I've been here. I was here in episode one.

Speaker 3: I miss Case sometimes.

Speaker 1: I do.

Speaker 3: Not all the time, but sometimes.

Speaker 1: What about Case? I'm gonna get him on I'm gonna get him on it because I I haven't tested him in about a month or two. We gotta talk.

Speaker 3: We always We can get him on a daily. That'd be fun.

Speaker 1: Oh, he'd be great.

Speaker 3: I love I

Speaker 1: wanna get it. I want he he he always wanted to do that tiki bar. And then I was really, like, suspect not suspicious, but I was I don't know. I'm all in now. Having been to Frankie's Tiki Bar in in Vegas, which is not on the strip. It's off the strip. Multiple times, that's exactly the vibe. That place is fantastic. And the drinks, oh, god. I I I'm ready. I mean, I'm ready, Kase. Let's go let's go do this tiki bar. I'm not sure Fargo's the place for it. I mean, you'd probably need a lot of heaters, but electrical bill would be kinda high. But, hey, we'll figure something out. Right?

Speaker 3: It's cold here.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Alright, everybody. We're gonna rock and roll with all that. Thank you for tuning in to the Detroit Lions Podcast. Don't forget about us on Patreon, patreon.com/detroitlionspodcast. $5 a month gets you access to the most intelligent lions chat on the Internet when you do that through the Slack. I'll tell you the, the the folks in there, especially now as we get out of the draft and into the off season, the conversations, well, really, you know, stuck to football and and and talking about the team in the off season. It's it's one of the things that I'm so happy of of what we created because it was that time of year when I especially when I didn't when I moved away from Detroit, I was jonesing for anything lions, and it was just ugh. But to have a group of people that can hang out and and be relatively smart, like, the most intelligent lion's head on the Internet about the lions, and then find other topics to carry in and then weave in and out of the lions. So it's absolutely it's it's a great great place full of really awesome people. You should check it out, and it'll help you get through the dry season for sure.

Speaker 3: Guess got some good Pistons talk going, as the resident Cavs fan in the Lions fan base. It disturbs me a little. Last night sucked. By the way, I'm on the huge show tomorrow talking about the Cavs. That's gonna be fun. Just to to go back in time, this isn't a I saw Bill Laimbeer play in Cleveland before he was in Detroit in person. Like, my love for the house goes way the hell back.

Speaker 1: They I love Bill Laimbeer. I everybody hated

Speaker 3: theirs. They are still my sporting passion outside of the lines and always will be. And, I do apologize for that. Having said that, I really do like Kate Cunningham a lot. And I like this Pistons team a lot. And I think this the team that wins this is going to win the East. So I don't think the Knicks I think the Knicks are simultaneously overrated and, like, just overconfident at the same time. That bugs me. And I think that either the, the look. If if the Cavs lose to the Pistons, I'm rooting for the Pistons the rest of the way, like, 100%. My wife will so my this this was Casa Del Rusin last night while the Pistons game's going on. I'm in a recliner. She's on the couch, and we're watching the game. She's a Pistons fan. She's from Detroit. I'm just going crazy every time James Harden, like, turns the ball over. Or, like, at the end, Cade to Duran dunk three times in a row. And she's just laughing her ass off and, like, excited. I'm, like, dying. But, like, at the end of the day, like, I'm happy that I'm happy that the Pistons are good too. Like, I don't want them to be be good.

Speaker 1: Oh, we got Hodges here saying my New England born wife absolutely hates Laimbeer. That's why I love him, though. Yes. I love him. He's it's the same reason why, Vlad was my favorite red wing for so Konstantinov was such it's it's it's a tragedy what happened, but he I I I still have a a jersey of his that I keep just he was my favorite because he pissed people off. They hated him. And and they were off the game. Yeah. Yeah. Lame Bier the same way. Loved him. Loved him. That that's that's my style. That's the thing I I just love about sports is being the guy that gets under people's skin. I like about podcasting too. Also, don't forget about us on Twitter at at jeffrisden at jeffrisden, and at det lions podcast, det lions podcast. See y'all notes what's going on in the show, who's doing what, when, where, when, how, why. It is the place to be pants free. Also, go to Detroit Lions podcast and subscribe to the podcast. Because when you do such a a wild thing, Riz gets to daily.

Speaker 3: I get to come into your ears automatically.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Every day. Juicy. Thank you for tuning in. We're gonna see you next time on the Detroit Lions podcast. Remember, no pants, no toasters, no hot tubs, and no problems because we are your Detroit Lions and Reddit connection. Thanks, everyone. Peace out.