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Speaker 2: Hi, the whole lions, man. Welcome to the Detroit lions podcast, episode 611. This is the Detroit lions OTA update, official Detroit lions podcast for Reddit, and I'm your dashing host, Chris. With me is my good friend and daily DLP superstar, Jeff the Riz Rizdud. How you doing, brother?

Speaker 4: It's good to see you, Chris. I've missed you. We haven't gone live in a long time, so it was it was a good day to can the daily and do it

Speaker 2: with you. Oh, man. It's fun. I'm so glad to be back in the, back in the saddle. Although I'm leaning on one stirrup more than the other, but, hey, we're okay.

Speaker 4: Yes. Yes. Chris has been on injured reserve. We're happy to have you back. I'm glad you're well.

Speaker 2: Thank you, brother.

Speaker 4: We were talking before we went on the air here about all of your your predicament. Yes.

Speaker 2: Long story short. Long story short. I got five gigabyte or gigabit Internet in the house. Right? Fiber, like, wicked fast. There was an air there was a problem with one cable. It's the cable that comes into this room, of course, and it runs through the attic and over. And I'm like, ah, fuck. So I had to I had to replace part of the cable. Up in the, you know, up in the attic, go do it, get it all ready to go. Cool. Start to come down out of the attic. Not thinking, not paying attention. We have, like, 10 foot ceilings. Get to about waist high through the attic hole, and the the ladder kicks to the left, and I just go straight down. And I land on the ladder, like, side with the side of the ladder. So it's like a crack back kind of a all down my right side. Hit my head on the way. It was cool. Whatever. Anyway, I'm here. Broken ankle was the worst. I thought for a long time I had passed the bone density test, but that was that's where we're at. So still sore three, like, three weeks later, like, still, like, jacked up. So, anyway, I'm here. I'm so glad to be back. I'm so glad to do this again, Rose. Thank you for carrying the load like you did. I I I just heard from Gray. He's very shortly soon to come back as well. We're gonna get him in the mix. And I know that, Bishop Brown, I think they're taking a little bit of a break like they do till roughly August time frame, but we're gonna see what we can do about maybe get them running a little earlier by, getting them some stuff.

Speaker 4: Russ is, Russ is dealing with his son being a football recruit, and that's his summer. So

Speaker 2: Thank you everybody for the welcome back. You guys are awesome. Alright. Let's, talk about what we're gonna let's talk about what we're gonna talk about. How's that sound? We got OTA updates for you. We're gonna talk a little bit about Kirby's future and the expansion team for the league, the Hammond bears, who, I think Chicago is a city that is so repulsive that it can't hang on to a football team. What's this the third time a team's left?

Speaker 4: It is actually.

Speaker 2: Oh, we had a great show lined up. We got all the good stuff coming on. Mr. Risen, sir, are you ready to go?

Speaker 4: Let's do it.

Speaker 2: I forgot to add the, the the drop. We'll go right into it. Okay. Okay. First off, OTAs. Mr. Risen, what in the heck is going on in Lion's Land? They've been doing these what is it? On field training Season

Speaker 4: training activity.

Speaker 2: Really early.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Off season training activities. That was it.

Speaker 4: I don't wanna call it football, but it's football adjacent. Like, they're not in pads. They're not going full speed. They're they're literally not allowed to touch one another. Even the linemen, like, they can only mirror. They can't actually touch them.

Speaker 2: Coach, Dan Campbell's touching me.

Speaker 4: You know, it's it's funny because Dan Campbell has talked about, like, how they they try to wanna get healthier and how they're trying to take it easy. Well, this is the process of taking it easier and trying not to get more injuries in the early off season. But at the same time, like, it so I I have not been to the OTAs. I'm going to mini camp next week. I will be there for for both days of that, but I don't see the need to drive roughly six hours around the trip to watch ninety minutes of dudes going through a walk through. I'm not gonna do that, especially with gas prices. So, so I haven't been there, but all the reports are is, you know, you hear, like, oh, who's participating? Who's taking for like, and and there's value in that. And there's value in, like, you know, getting to see who's there, who's not, who's in shape. But beyond that, like, there's not really a lot of football going on. So

Speaker 2: But we get to find stuff out. There's a lot of

Speaker 4: We do we do we do absolutely learn things during this this season.

Speaker 2: Already have a question from the, from the press pool for you, Riz. How do you feel about injuries, and why does it perpetuate the next man up mentality?

Speaker 4: Injuries suck. As I said often, my biggest fear with this team is this dreadful dread of injuries. And, unfortunately, my fears have come true the last two years, and it's killing me because, you know, we talked about this in the draft process. Like, one of the things that I'm very big on as a draft evaluator, I am much more skittish towards injuries than most of my draft pick peers.

Speaker 2: Mhmm.

Speaker 4: And the fact that Brad has leaned into injured guys has been very difficult for me to reconcile.

Speaker 2: Now he

Speaker 4: this year this year, other than Skyler Gill Howard who's, you know, missed some time, like, like, most of the guys are pretty healthy. Specifically, the top two, Blake Miller, legendary durability. He has wrist surgery on Saturday. He misses Sunday's practice. He's back at Monday. Like and that's the only practice in his life he's ever missed. So, like, I feel good about that. Derek Moore, a very durable guy. But I I the Kirby Joseph situation is frustrating. So I love Kirby.

Speaker 2: I absolutely agree. And it's the did they know he had a degenerative thing before? I gotta say they probably didn't. No. But this this so this is why. Right? But, like, when you talk about, like, risk profiles and you do the math and the statistics on it, this is why you don't bet on guys that are already injured because you find things out on people like you did on Kirby. And this is where I I don't wanna say I won't I won't say afraid, but I'm the the thing that stopped us in the progression of this team every year since the Campbell except for year one. But every year since the Campbell and, Holmes takeover has been injuries. Yeah. This team has never been able to live up to his potentials because of injuries. And you can say injuries are part of the game. That's fine. But at some point, you have to manage the risk. They're doing a great job building the team. They're getting all the right people, but the one ability that they're not managing and accounting for is availability, and it's cost us so much. And it's I you you people talk about windows. I look at this team and the roster and our windows wide. I mean, it's they they blew the frames out. Right? The windows open. So that's great. But there's gotta be a point where this team can really land it. And when you have a schedule like we do this year, coming off of what happened last year, you have the skids are greased, man. It is you can do it. Why You're

Speaker 4: in such a good spot, Chris.

Speaker 2: Why play this game with injured players? Right? Why not why are we doing this? Because this is one this year here is a a year that could be squandered. And I'm I'm terrified of that as a Lions fan who's put up with so much for so long. I get it. We all have. And a Super Bowl is what it is, and it's gotta be, But this is really truly the year. Like, you heard me earlier. I flipped, man. In in all in this time off, time to contemplate and all that. You have. This is the year. Everything is lined up for us. And the one thing, again, that will stop it is this injury business. Shame.

Speaker 4: I, so I think that last year was the year that got squandered myself. I think this year, it's it's more it's difficult to be more injured than they have been. We know what Kirby is. As I said on the daily a few times, I think they've prepared for the injury absences and the inevitable coming injuries better this year than they ever have before.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: I wanna give Holmes credit for that because that's not been his MO. And, you know, adding Christian Issey and adding adding Chuck Clark, adding, you know, bringing about the Maddox back, bring Thomas Harper back. Like, you can find two starting safeties out of those four, and a lot of those guys would start at a lot of teams, which is great, but there's still not Kirby and Blanche. That's that's the frustrating part. And the fact that they had just paid Kirby.

Speaker 2: Yep.

Speaker 4: There there are there are ways to mitigate getting around that, but, basically, look. I'm someone I have a degenerative knee condition. I have osteonecritis in my right knee. It was caused by your knee.

Speaker 2: And your knee degenerate, but go ahead.

Speaker 4: Yes. Yes. It was it was caused by a contact injury. Mine was in volleyball, believe it or not. I suffered a life altering knee injury contact knee injury in volleyball, blocking at the net. Dude went under the net. His knee his knee went into the top of my knee, and it killed the bottom of my femur. That happened 11 ago. And I will say, like, I I don't I'm I take I get a cortisone shot about every year or so. I'm actually due for one. I can feel it. But, like, there are days where I'm, like, really close to a 100%. And I can, you know, I can skip if I want to. I can jump. I can, you know, do things. And then there are days yesterday was one of them, where I literally can't go down the steps using my right leg. Like, I have to bounce on my left leg and hold on to both sides, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. And I fear that that's where Kirby's at, and I hope that some that a couple of those good days that he might have might come on a Sunday, and he can get out there and play just a little bit. But I'd that's that might be asking a lot.

Speaker 2: And the other question is, is he damaging it further by by playing on those Sundays? Because Right. Because one

Speaker 4: of the things It sounds like it sounds like it's a meniscus problem

Speaker 2: Mhmm.

Speaker 4: Or lack thereof, and that's your padding in your knee. And then you when you start getting bone on bone, that that that that that's literally arthritis, and it gets worse the more you you whack at it. You whack. A better word.

Speaker 2: I just I'm more concerned about the person as much as I love the team. I am concerned about the person because there's people behind what makes this the sport so fun. And I don't want him his life to be marred completely and see him in twenty years rolling and brown in, like, a wheelchair or something because, you know, they roll him out on the field for the, whatever, ring of honor days and all this. It's I don't want that. He doesn't deserve that. He's he's always been a great personality, a great he's, like, all the good stuff you want from somebody to to play. Now on that being said, I there is a a product that just I think it cleared phase one studies. That's an injection that actually replaces the cartilage in your knees and hips to prevent people from needing a replacement. Now he's in the NFL. Right? That helps. You can get a lot of people's ears. Can he get into a study to try that as an option? Right? It it's a little bit and it depends how much somebody wants to play ball, right, to get into something because there's risks being in clinical trials. And there's also some people get some people get the placebo. Right? So that it's they don't actually get the drug.

Speaker 4: That's true too. I never thought of that, but that's

Speaker 2: the point. Yeah. But, boy, if you want you know, maybe there's an opportunity to to take a shot and see see how this thing works and and how, what they can do and and get him into a study on that or something. Because, especially, it makes sense to have, you know, people in sports who are going to put more pressure onto something like that to see, you know, what are the limits of this thing. You know? Like, how well does it work under, you know, big loads, all that stuff. But I hope I hope, like, whatever it is, whether it's that or something else, he finds the relief he needs. And and and the hope of hope that he comes back and he can play football for a full career.

Speaker 4: Yeah. You know, you brought up a good point about, like, life after football. And I I go back to the first senior bowl I went to back in 2008. And seeing guys like, back back then, you used to be able to stand. Like, there there were there were hedges inside this the stadium at where they used to be, where everybody spit their sunflower seeds and dip. But I'm standing there, like, in the end zone area, and there's, like, three or four former offensive linemen that are standing there watching the offensive line practice. And they're going over the body parts they've had replaced since they retired. I'm

Speaker 2: like, holy shit.

Speaker 4: Like, oh, yeah. Yeah. I you know, I'm on knee number three. I'm on hip number two. You know, my my right no no the toes on my right foot move. Like, I'm having this good you know, this is I'm I'm, like, 35 then. I'm like, oh my god. Like, these guys aren't much older than me.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 4: Oh my god. But that's that's that's you understand when you play football that that's part of your life. But when you're playing, you don't think necessarily as much, especially back then, about your post football. Now I will say, and I I will give begrudgingly, I'll give some agents some credit here. I think awareness of post football life and quality of life after you're done has risen exponentially in the twenty to twenty five years that I've been doing this.

Speaker 2: Isn't that weird?

Speaker 4: I think it's a very good thing. But at the same time, there are more there are some old school fans who are like, oh, these guys would be pussies, man. Back in my day, we used to do, you know, two hours and two days two hours, no water, then you you you you put a you fill your helmet with a hose, pour it over your head, and then you were back out of practice again and, you know, you're bleeding. And I was like, okay. It doesn't have to be like that anymore.

Speaker 2: Troy Fanman comes in with, at least it's only arthritis. It could be gout. So very good point.

Speaker 4: That's true. I haven't had a gout flare up in a very long time. Thank god. You, man.

Speaker 2: You've been living on the you've been living the clean living lately, so good for you.

Speaker 4: I I have been alcohol free since, I don't know, early April.

Speaker 2: Holy shit, my man.

Speaker 4: I don't know. It's kinda fun.

Speaker 2: I've been on very limited alcohol intake comparatively, but

Speaker 4: I shouldn't say I did. I did have a couple of beers the other day, but that's that was that was celebrated. But I blacked out,

Speaker 2: so I didn't remember.

Speaker 4: Oh, my god.

Speaker 2: And and

Speaker 4: there were concerts are off limit. Yeah. Concerts are different. I had had some fun. It's a couple of concerts. By the way, I got to meet I I will say this in that if you're watching Slice. I met, Slice from Twitter. In real life, we wound up having some drinks together. He's a really good dude. I enjoyed it very much. And it was the best part, we didn't talk about football. I I really enjoyed that. So

Speaker 2: yeah. Cool.

Speaker 4: Like like, when I go out, I understand that people wanna ask me about lions. So if I get that, that's it's cool. It's it's fine. But there are times where it's like, goddamn it. I'm going to an Avatar concert here. I really don't wanna talk about football today. And he got that. Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Speaker 2: Hey, Peas are two years free of alcohol on Friday. Good for you, brother. Wow.

Speaker 4: You, man. It's fun to clean the system every now and then. It really is. Fun to clean

Speaker 2: the system. Change going on about with alcohol in society and the the Gen z, the Zoomers and stuff. It's I think it's good to see. I mean, it really is. You know what?

Speaker 4: You know, my son turns 21 next month. He's never had a drop of alcohol in his life, and I will say a lot of his friends haven't either. And that's kind of It's weird to me.

Speaker 2: My son was just age.

Speaker 4: Oh my god. My entire being was acquiring alcohol.

Speaker 2: My son so he just he he was on a school trip. They went to Costa Rica, did a bunch of stuff.

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Speaker 2: Endangered animals and plants and stuff like that. Anyway, so he was there, and I I'm I didn't realize he knew, like, it was a thing that he recognized. But there's a thing about me. When I go to, like, a a resort with a pool bar or something like that, I'll buy the pool, whatever, and they bring the cocktail menu around, I always just start at the top and work through the whole menu. And then at the end of the day, by the end of the day brew. Yeah. You you can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning. But so by the end of the day, I go through the the whole menu. We go back. My wife showers. I sleep for about an hour and a half. Wake up, shower. We go out to dinner and do everything else. It's all fine. Right? And it's just my thing because I I I get to taste so many different drinks. You know? It's it's awesome. Some I like, some I don't, but it's just it's just it's like a kind of I'm a little competitive. They're like, whatever. So, my son says, yeah, dad. You won't believe it. I went to the we were at a resort, and I said, I'm gonna drink through the menu like my dad does. And I was like, oh, really? And he was like, yeah. Yeah. And I was like, oh, that's cool. He was a head three. That's all I could do. Good for you, son. Good for you. So yeah. It's usually, like, twelve to fourteen. It's alright. Over. You see that

Speaker 4: when you're in the NFL, you can't.

Speaker 2: No. No. Gino, 33983. Live during the day. Great. Yeah. This is your noontime nuggets, my friend. Noontime nuggets back up in Rackham. Let's go. Good time. What else we got, Riz? What do we talk about? A little bit more. What about the the Lions? Looks like they really did lay down the law. Kendrick Law is out season.

Speaker 4: Yeah. That's disappointing. Like, it sucks for him. Like, you're a rookie. You get drafted. Like, I I the more I poked, the more I don't think he thought he was gonna get drafted. Like, it I I won't say that it was a surprise to him that he was drafted, but when that phone rang when it did, like, he he he was probably on alert that it might be somebody trying to scam or goof on him. So, you know, he's all excited, and he's got this great opportunity. And, like, he was he wasn't gonna play. He he might not have even made the team as a rookie, which so, like, in the lion's scheme of things, like, it's a it's not much, but it sucks for the dude. We're just talking about how, like, how Kirby we worry about his mental state of mind, for, you know, not being able to do something that he loves and, you know, has committed his life to. We're just starting like, that that that's that's terrible, man. I hate that. Dan Jackson had that happen last year. You know, he got hurt very early on before he could really show what he could do. Yeah. And one of the things that I'm looking forward to watching this summer is, what do we have with Dan Jackson? Because we got to see, like, OTAs last year where he's not allowed to hit anybody. Well, the reason he got drafted is because he freaking knocks teeth out when he hits. So we never got to see him do his thing. Yeah. And we never really got to see that with Kendrick Law, and that sucks. So next summer point. Will be Kendrick Law time. Like, can he field the punt? Can he run? Is is he a running back? Is he a wide receiver? I talked to a scout an area scout who watched him play at Kentucky, and his team thought he could convert to safety as an NFL player. That's that was his path, but he'd be special teams primarily. But, like, they're like, he's so physical, but he doesn't know what he's doing with outside of having the ball in his hands on offense. Like, we can have him go get the ball on defense and hit people because he likes to hit people.

Speaker 2: Alright. Okay. Oh, man. Oh, man. Yeah. That's I'm an aerialist scout, by the way. So, I'm familiar with the the work over there. Let's see. Let's talk about, inside offensive line and secondary depth. Feels way better this year. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Stand. So with that a little bit, Riz. I mean Yeah. What's what's what's the big shift? We lost Decker. I mean, that's the outside, but we had to replace that. I mean, how are we gonna how can you even bolster your inside if you're worried about your tackles?

Speaker 4: I think addition by some well, so so some of it is the fact that they knew that they had to do it, which they didn't a year ago. Graham Glasgow was I think they thought he would be better than he was. Frank Ragnell, they didn't really

Speaker 2: That's on Frank. Yeah. I love Frank to death, but that one's on that that Timing was bad. Left was

Speaker 4: bad taste. The way he handled it wasn't great either. Mhmm. And this is before he tried his abortive comeback at two hundred and seventy five pounds. Knew he wasn't gonna come back, allegedly. I'll I'll I'll more than allege that, but, you know, that's that that is what it is. It didn't work, and they didn't adequately prepare. And this year, again, like, with safety, they had time to realize, okay. Like, we're losing we're done with Coyote Alsheka. Like, we've been our seventh lineman for four years, and he's never threatened to move up from there. It's it's time to move on.

Speaker 2: Well, he does every time there's an injury. That's his boy.

Speaker 4: Like, I like it.

Speaker 2: And he was not, like, serviceable. Mhmm.

Speaker 4: He was serviceable. Like, you could do worse. And I'm I look at the Rams offensive line depth and comfort myself in that for that. One of the big reasons why I'm not buying into the Rams being inevitable is just and I I did this on the daily of the day. Look at their depth chart. I dare you to name five guys on that team who don't start, who you would be comfortable having on your football team, let alone playing. That's Mhmm. That some of that's because they have a very top heavy roster by salary. Like, I get that. But that that's that's precarious. When you hear Monte Adams as one of your wide receivers, when you're that dependent on a 37 year old quarterback who's had multiple back surge. Like, yeah. Okay. I I worry about that a little bit.

Speaker 2: There's something about that team, though, that the wild way in which they just cast trade, they continuously seem to go all in, and it doesn't hurt them. Yeah. Like and and I I I echo myself. Well, it's it is wild, and they're competitive. But I asked myself, if they can do that, what what's where's the gap? Where's their and then and is there a middle ground where you can go kinda all in on big names or on the right guys, but not to the extreme that they did. Right? Because we seem to be the the other extreme. And these are both guys you know, the GMs are the managers.

Speaker 4: I just agree with that. We've gone all in, but it's with our own guys. And they're good enough. No. They're hurt. Well, that that's that's like, that's your problem. We well, unfortunately, we get bad injuries to key positions. Like

Speaker 2: like, the

Speaker 4: guys that we brought in, they're good enough to win. Like, there there isn't a better there isn't a team with more depth of high end talent than the Detroit Lions of football. There isn't.

Speaker 2: But I I fully subscribe. On the

Speaker 4: field at the same damn time.

Speaker 2: I fully subscribe to you build through the draft. Free agency is is a fool's errand. But I'm watching the Rams do this over and over and never actually have a price to pay for doing this. They stay competitive. They might have one down year and then it bled. Yeah. I'm not I'm not I'm just like, it's something worth considering. Right? Because most teams are trying to do it the way they do. Just fail and they're in cap hell. Something that LA is doing. And I don't know what I I I don't know. I haven't dug in, but something they're doing is working. And and, I feel like we could go find that safety if we had that LA mindset or or way of doing it. Like, we could Yeah. Fill these gaps where we have injured guys. You know what I mean? Maybe make Kirby a third third string, right, until it messes deals or not. Right? Yeah. But I'm just I'm just saying, god, man. I I don't I don't like that model because it seems way too chaotic. Right? I'm my heart, I don't know if I could handle it, but I don't have heart problems to worry. That's where his he's got corner on that market. But the,

Speaker 4: along very well.

Speaker 2: Moving right along. But I just I don't know, man. I I don't know. And by the way, just as a side note, your DLP thing while your heart was fantastic, man.

Speaker 4: Oh, thank you.

Speaker 2: I couldn't be happier to have a cohost than than you, so thanks for still being around.

Speaker 4: Thank you for that. I appreciate that. That was, last Tuesday.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Six

Speaker 4: two. My my cow art anniversary. I had a steak. It was wonderful.

Speaker 2: Meet your neighbor. This is your your cousin, your son.

Speaker 4: Yeah. So, like, I I understand, like, wanting to do what the Rams do, but I'll go I'd never go cross sports here to basketball. I'm a Cleveland Cavaliers die hard. You know this about me. And they did that move this year with James Harden. And while it was good enough to beat the Pistons, that's that we're gonna do a daily later this summer on the Pistons because I'd I I know that team very well. And I I like I I do like that even being a Cleveland guy. But when a when you ran into a better team that understood how to expose a better coached team in New York that understood how to expose what happens when you have James Harden and Donovan Mitchell on the floor at the same time, Like, that trade looked awful. Like, oh my god.

Speaker 2: Can I please have Darius Garland back, please? And, like,

Speaker 4: and I feel like that's sort of where the NFL is at too. Like, it the Rams are great on this, and they're they're a very good football team. I've I've said it on the daily. Like, they should expect to be the favorites, and they they should be. They should be. But last year, Seattle beat the shit out of them in the playoffs, boy, because they knew how to play them. Yeah. This Lions team, if we play them in the playoffs, I'm picking the Lions, especially if it's in Detroit. It it was a different animal. But I think that there's the sense that a lot of Lions fans have that, like, the Rams are inevitable and, like, why are we even playing? Like, no. That that that ain't it, chief. That ain't it.

Speaker 2: Oh, man. I don't know. That's that's the one that's it's it's killing me. Right? It's killing me that that that they keep doing that. And, like, where's the pay? Where's the where's the pay? Like, they gotta pay the piper. I swear they had to pay the piper. What's going on?

Speaker 4: And well, so mood is they are exceptionally well coached team and much like we want Brad and Dan to be and I think they are Sean McVay and Les Snead, Sherry, football brain.

Speaker 2: And

Speaker 4: that helps so much when they're seeing the same things the same way. And I think Matthew Stafford deserves some credit for being involved in those conversations as well. Like, I yeah. I can play with this guy. No. I don't really like this guy, but they're very good about that. The fact that they didn't have a first round pick between Jared Goff and Jared Vers, and now they treated both of them for massive pieces. Yeah. It's it it it's a it's a it's a credit to Les Steed and Sean McVay as how sustainably good they are at a business model that shouldn't frankly work, but it does. Yeah. You know? Good for them, man. That's if you're a Rams fan, that's all you can ask for.

Speaker 2: Yeah. They've got everything they're they're supposed to have had. They got it in their Super Bowl. They they can't ask for it. They and and, actually, in in LA, they typically don't ask for anything they're given, and then they're excited, and then they move on. Yeah. I

Speaker 4: mean, it could be the Chargers finding new ways to lose games still. Yeah. So they probably will this year too. Yeah. Who knows?

Speaker 2: I I don't know. They seem to be a little better at that than under under Harbaugh than they were historically, but I don't know if even his his manifest will allow him to punch over the top. I don't know.

Speaker 4: Both both Harbaugh brothers, and John probably deserves more credits in this, but the thing that they're best at, especially when they first get somewhere, they raise the floor.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Like, the Giants, they're not gonna be bad this year. They're not gonna be an easy team to beat. They might not win a lot of games, but they got a lot better. Even with Malik Neighbors being injured, we just had the conversation about the lions. Like, imagine if Amon Ra Saint Brown might not be available week to week for the rest of the year.

Speaker 2: Shut your horror mouth. Don't ever say that again.

Speaker 4: Well, that that that's what the that's what the Giants are going through right now. Yeah. Micah Parsons is out until at least October. That was some shiny news. So can we talk about the Packers for a quick second? I know I know if

Speaker 2: Please. Let's fuck the Packers a little bit.

Speaker 4: Okay. It was an exceptionally bad week to be a Green Bay packers supporter. You find out that your best player, the guy that you traded your first round picks for and Mica Parsons isn't gonna be available until October at the earliest. And you sign Christian Watson to a deal where he makes 2 and a quarter million dollars less per year than Amman Ralph Saint Brown. I did a statistical comparison. This is publishing at Real GM later today. Christian Watson's best year, if you combine if you take his best year in catches, best year in yards, best year in touchdowns, it's it's a typical Amon Ra Saint Brown year through about week 10. And they're paying him oh, and, oh, by the way, he's missed games at least three games every year but one with injuries. Like, they paid him that. Like, I get like, he's good. Like, I'm not gonna say he's not good, but good lord. Wow. What a overpay.

Speaker 2: He's a lot better than he showed at senior bull, dude. The drops were his his his his

Speaker 4: He did a lot of drop on the team. He still has drop, but he like, he's he's good. He's there's talent there.

Speaker 2: Yeah. The speed he's got is crazy.

Speaker 4: For his size, the way he gets the top speed is is but my god. They're paying him they're paying him more than the lines are paying J Mo. Like, J Mo gets J Mo's a better player. J Mo's a much more diverse receiver and more durable more durable. Like, that that was that was a fun one to write because it's like, my god. The the the negativity flowed.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, there's a really good one here. Let me, get back to this. From, Marcus Newsome. Who do you think wins the slugfest for left guard? Mahogany, Frazier, Barch, Scruggs is the most important camp battle in heading into the season?

Speaker 4: Yeah. It probably is. Yeah. Because I think, honestly, I think that's the only starting spot that's really open. You know? Yeah. If if the Christian Mahogany that played before his injury last year shows up the job's his and, like, it's not even a question. Like, I think people forget he was really good early. He was probably the lion's best player in the opener, Green Bay.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4: Once they came back like, he played very, very well in that game.

Speaker 2: That was a great game. Yeah.

Speaker 4: But then he got hurt, and he might have come back too early or just wasn't right. And, like, we saw it. We need we need some we need some competition here. I love Juice Scruggs as your sixth, seventh lineman. I love Miles Frazier as your Coyote Al Sheikah replacement. Asking them to be more than that might be asking too much, but let them let them fight at it, and let's see. Ben Barch, he's he hasn't practiced yet. He's he strikes me as do you remember the Lions actually had a guy named Natane Muti for a

Speaker 2: couple of years? Yeah. I mean, barely I remember it. I mean

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Speaker 4: So, like, the first week of training camp, I think it was 2023. It might have been 2024. But, like, the first week of training camp, like, he's the best guard on the field. Like, regardless of who else is out there with him, he's just destroying people. And he gets hurt.

Speaker 2: And we're like, oh, yeah.

Speaker 4: Well, that's why he's here because he got hurt all like, he got hurt at Fresno State all the time. He got hurt when he was with the Raiders all the time. Like and and and now and I think he's out I think he's out of the league now. Like, he just some bodies just aren't made for football. Unfortunately, his was wonderful. You know? But that I worry that that's where Ben Bartsch is at, unfortunately. But we'll see. He's got a shot.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Good battle.

Speaker 4: Don't forget, the center from the senior bowl or the the combine that I liked from Ohio State. I I blank on names so freaking often. I'm getting old.

Speaker 2: Gotta give a shout out. Anthony Berardi with the Super Chat. Thank you, sir. $10. Rocking. Anthony Berardi says, it seems to me that what McVeigh and Seed are doing is reckless. There's something called the law of averages, and I'm just reminded of the causes of the nineteen twenty nine stock market crash. That's my analogy. It's so true. Yeah. But the I'm gonna throw some and and I don't disagree. Like, I I regressing to the mean, law of averages, all that. I'm I'm totally with you, Anthony. But here's the thing that's pretty kind of counter to that. That's that's that's contrarian. Okay? K.

Speaker 4: Because I

Speaker 2: like to do contrarian arguments and and kind of pressure test things. The Lions have never been to a Super Bowl. It's a long time to not to have regressed to the mean to at least get one appearance in the freaking Super Bowl. So, I don't disagree with you. I just know that there is there are statistical anomalies in this world that, that that just don't add up that could be possible. I mean, California elections through another place. Right? Statistical anomalies that could be plausible that that how things change that weren't expected. Like, you can see it in real time right now. It's but I'm with you. That's why I'm, like, I'm questioning, is there a middle ground? Because I I don't think I feel comfortable going full in like he did.

Speaker 4: I think the way to look at it is has any other team really had a lot of success doing that? And the answer is no. So, I mean, the Chiefs, they they've they've had some homegrown people like, you know, Chris Jones was homegrown. You know, they they've they've done well with a lot of guys that they've drafted probably a little bit earlier than expected, but, no, they're in a position honestly, the Chiefs fascinate this me this year because their best defensive player is in Los Angeles, not just playing for the Rams. Like, that's you know, Mahomes I love Mahomes, but is he gonna be ready? Like, he he's on the same injury timeline as Micah Parsons.

Speaker 2: Yeah. He's the

Speaker 4: guy who's getting hit instead of hitting. He's the the amount of stress and torque you put on your knee as a quarterback, especially as a running quarterback, Like

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 4: I worry about that, man. I do.

Speaker 2: Let me ask you a question quick. It's a big biting pig. Awesome dude, by the way. Hey, guys. Riz, regarding your bi bioweek proposals, is there something you can propose it with someone you can propose it with to pull who can get a string, who can get the ball rolling? I wanna first, before we go, for folks that missed it, let's talk about your biweekly proposal. Set that up and then kinda get into Yeah.

Speaker 4: So all teams from the same division go on the buy at the same time. It's week seven, eight, nine, and ten. All of the Norths, both the AFC and the NFC, are off in week seven. When they come back in week eight, Chicago plays Detroit, Green Bay plays Minnesota, then the next week, another divisional game. They're all in this and and all those games are on Sundays. So they're all or or Thursdays if you want them to be. Like that. So they're all so you're not gaining a statistical advantage from your schedule within your division. And they I have been whining I get whiny about that. I've been whining about that for a very long time. I have talked to Pat Kerwin about it. We had we had dinner one time. Our our our friend, Pat, he was a little more cogent at that night. But

Speaker 2: Pat was dang till we saw him. He was so great. Like, he is such a pleasant drunk. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4: He's very gregarious.

Speaker 2: The red eyes, just a little smile, and I oh, he's so great. I I At least

Speaker 4: so Pat told me and this and this is going back, god, at least ten years, that, like, it has been talked about, but the TV networks don't wanna have Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, and Green Bay all dark. They don't wanna have Philadelphia, New York, Washington, and Dallas all dark at the same time. And that's a problem. And, like, I I I wish there was a better answer to it. It it makes too much sense. There there's no reason, that, like, the lions are were by what? By eight which I think are seven. Right? We're seven this week? Seven this year, I think?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 4: I like it. I like it early. I always like an earlier buy.

Speaker 2: I

Speaker 4: think after week sit last year was a little early.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Because it feels like when you're when you have a later buy and this is just my thought. I haven't done research on this. I could be terribly wrong. But it feels like a lot of guys will be like, yeah, man. I'll I'll I'll I'll I'll gut it out through this week and just until I can get to that bye week. And their play isn't as good, but they don't wanna take that time that extra time off.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 4: And it feels like you get away from that with the early ones. Then you're you're like, well, yeah. One more week and then, yeah, I can wrestle a bit for the play. Like, I I I get the counterargument too. But I I like middle of the year buys. Seven, eight, nine, and ten is when the buys should be. I honestly like, if they go to 18 games, I don't have a problem with them the entire league taking a week off. Like, take the week off where, like, the college football playoffs start or something like that. Yeah. Or the World Series. I I know nobody gives a crap about baseball anymore, but, like, take the first take the World Series off. Take I don't know. Like, hockey does it for the Olympics. Yeah. I I think it works.

Speaker 2: Well, you get your all star break in in most leagues too. Right?

Speaker 4: I mean Yeah. It's And it's and the football doesn't get that. I mean, I I do think that there's some merit in having something like that.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I think you know, I this is probably too much, but I'm gonna break the season into thirds and have a midpoint everybody break. And then a three week period before that that's kinda in the middle and a three week period that's after that that's kind of in the middle of the remaining season. So you got nine games. Right? So four, five, and six, and then the same spot on the on the games after the the midweek buy. So you you still get two buys a year and everybody gets that week off. I think that would be so much better for the player's health and then the resulting quality of the game. I think that would be fantastic. Now here's something and you guys folks some folks have heard me pitch about this before, but this is what's ruined video games for me, is the idea that you you no longer get better at a game by playing it and getting better with strategy and that kind of stuff. You get better at a game because the game lets you. It does this whole skill based matchmaking and puts you in with people exactly like where you are. You have no sense of accomplishment. You don't know where your things are. And then they've just and and how they do that is they throw chaos in. Just random things that happen, like, the blue shell in Mario Kart is a great example of that, but on steroids in most of the games today. It's just something that's gonna knock somebody good down. Right? Oh, their bullets don't connect in a first person shooter. Or, oh, this didn't work. Or, oh, they they adjust the lag for people. So they change things in the game, and it's no longer about your ability to play the game well. It's about what the game allows you to do based on the people around you and what and and at the core of it is what will psychologically give you the dopamine hits at the right sequence and and distance apart to keep you playing such that then when you play more, you'll buy more from their inevitable digital bullshit shop. That has completely ruined it. And what I've seen is is the same kind of psychological work is going on in sports, just about everything you see. And the whole idea of making things more subjective for the officials is exactly that. We had a little bit of chaos, a little bit of controversy. It drives conversations. It gets more media coverage. It gets more people. It's all about more money. It's not about the integrity of the game. And that's where I think this whole break like this, the whole concept of doing this and making the football better and having the players more healthy is actually detrimental to the league because you don't have the chaos of, oh my gosh. I've got my third string safety in. Oh my gosh. I've got my, my left tackles. The second string got right. It's all these things that people can talk about and create chaos around the game to show to make it seem like it's it's evenly matched. Just skill based matchmaking for football. It's like, I hate it. I hate being lied to. I hate being faked out. I hate hate being treated like I'm an idiot. That's what they're doing to people. It drives me nuts, man. I hate. It's it's Shit. I

Speaker 4: I was just reminded. I watched I watched some of the UFO this weekend, and I watched, Washington. Yep. And they were talking they're in the playoffs. They're in the conference championship games. And three players came out of retirement to bolster the depth for Washington. Like, that's how frail and fragile things are. And that's that's the UFL. The UFL, I love I love like, we are friends with Dean Blandino as a disclaimer. Like, we we like Dean. Dean's been on the show several times. We like Dean a lot.

Speaker 2: Call him right now.

Speaker 4: He's he's good on TV. But the fact that they talk about what you can hear the officials talk. You can hear the officials talk to the coaches. I love that so much, Chris.

Speaker 2: We need to

Speaker 4: hear the NFL. They won't ever do it. No. I love it.

Speaker 2: Why? The question is why? Because everybody loves it. Everybody loves it. And what it is is it's your chance for the Doritos coaches moment. Right? Or the Minute Maid official review. Right? It's a it's just a chance to move, throw a bunch of more ads up there and make more money. Right? And at the same time, provide something that the the the fans love. They would love that. And, like, for people that are new fans, they'll see them talking. You suddenly get an understanding of the game much quicker. Right? Your learning curve goes up, and what happens then? You get hooked in watching the game and buying the merch. Right? It's it's I don't know. I I stick with me on the Minute Maid, official review. Right? Like, go with that.

Speaker 4: You're right, though. Like, people when you hear the machinations from it, like, there are so many people who learned basic football terminology and basic play shells from playing Madden, Like, because you're part of the game, and then you say, oh my god. They do they actually do this. Like, they run that play.

Speaker 2: Yep. Like,

Speaker 4: I I know I know I know what's coming because I've done this. I'm like, that that that's an engagement point. And I think that the NFL is slowly getting away from that, and that's a little disappointing.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's it's like I said, it's the chaos. That's what they want because that's what they think. So it doesn't it doesn't last. That's the problem. Once people start catching on to it, you burn them out quick. And it works great in the short term. You know what I mean? But eventually, you're gonna be you're gonna be begging for you're gonna be the the Burger King out there showing the the the Burger King costume guy getting fired. And you're gonna say, hey. They need to figure out I Yeah.

Speaker 4: Yeah. I

Speaker 2: But their commercials are gonna be, hey. We messed up. Sorry. Come back and try us again. Right? And then and you don't ever wanna be in that position as a business. Hey. We sucked forever. We know our product was garbage, but now we fixed it.

Speaker 4: But, Rich, I boycotted Burger King because of the king because I can't stand animation things. I I I freaking hate it. He scared the crap out of me. I I have not been to Burger King in decades. I will consider going now. Don't say I'm not saying I will, but I will at least, like, when we're driving on the road and I'm listing off options of things like Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's. I don't even say Burger King now. Maybe I will say Burger King. It's just so, like, my daughter and so

Speaker 2: I won't. Yeah. Really?

Speaker 4: I won't.

Speaker 2: I bike I boycott a Burger King because the food was shit. It was absolute trash garbage. If they wanna argue, I might say or if they wanna, advertise, I might say something different. But I'm willing to see Yeah.

Speaker 4: Y'all wanna pay for my watch? Yeah. I'm good.

Speaker 2: But it would have to actually be good. You know what I mean? I would have to actually enjoy it because I I don't sell my soul like that. But, I mean, it's a joke. But, I would love to hear from people saying, holy shit. It got a whole lot better because Domino's did that. Hey. We fucked up. We're gonna fix the pizza. The pizza's

Speaker 4: a lot better. And their pizza is better. Yeah.

Speaker 2: It's a lot better.

Speaker 4: It's pretty good.

Speaker 2: But I'm not gonna go give them another shot until I hear from some other guinea pig that tried it and says it's genuinely better. They made it they've done more than just make commercials. You know what I mean? Because that's that's the litmus test, and their food was absolute It was rash, man. Bad. Oof. It was bad. Could they cover for why we don't hear the refs talk for refs health and safety?

Speaker 4: That's probably related to the gambling thing. I will say, Chris, I'm sure you disagree with me on this, but I think, like, all the polymarketing and Kalshi stuff is just right for corruption and peril on

Speaker 2: the things. I don't disagree at all. I'm a 100% I

Speaker 4: I enjoy I'm shocked that it's illegal to do, quite frankly.

Speaker 2: I I enjoy gambling myself. Now I'm not like most people who do. I, like, bet a dollar on a game or $2 on a fight or something. It's like a $5 is probably the most I'll put down. I put a $100 in an account. It's probably, like, eight years ago now. Right? And I'm still playing with a 100 that same $100. I got, like, a $130. Right? But it's just it just makes it more interesting. Like, I and it's and my wife laughs her ass off because I'm like, come on, you fucker. Get off. Like, because I watched UFC, I'm like, oh, yelling at him. Get off his ass and fight the goddamn fight because I got a dollar on it. You know what I mean? But it just makes it more exciting. I don't know why. It's funny.

Speaker 4: It does.

Speaker 2: I don't need to throw big money at it. I could, but it's just like, just enough to make it interesting and pay attention.

Speaker 4: You know? Those of you who wanna go down that rabbit hole, read the book about, the Tim Donahue situation as an NBA official because that's kind of what he was doing and why he got banned and why the league took a massive hit. And now it's like standard operating practice. It just baffles my mind that this is legal. Because it's so the the congressman from New York who bet that he wouldn't show up at an event when he said he did and it changed the markets, then he bet heavily on it. Like, that that shit's bad, man. That's that's not good for a country. That's not good for life.

Speaker 2: Yep. Yep. Alright. It's a chance rocking. You guys got a lot of good stuff. Let's see. Let's let's the last ten minutes or so, let's pop some, some q and a out of the chat. You guys throw in your questions. We'll we'll do our best to answer them. And, if not, we just

Speaker 4: let me By the way, while you're talking about this, somebody had mentioned earlier, I am not going to OTAs this week. I'm actually going to Hammond, Indiana, and I will make it there faster than people who live in Arlington Heights, Illinois. And I live 55 miles into Michigan. Exit 55 off of I on 96 is right there. Hey.

Speaker 2: What? Shouldn't say that.

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Speaker 4: I, I I I can be there, and it so I used to back in the day, back in the nineties when I was on the road all the time. Yep. My I worked out of Chicago in an office in Downers Grove that's basically at Interstate 88 in Highland, for those of you who know that area. And that is as the crow flies about 22 miles from Midway Airport. I never never never and I made this trip twice a month every day every month for three years. Never made that trip in less than forty five minutes ever. Oftentimes, it would take hours, plural. And you're sending all these people, they have to go that much further to go to Indiana. I don't know if you've ever driven that, Chris.

Speaker 2: Or Long time ago. Yeah.

Speaker 4: But when two ninety four and eighty come together in South South Of Chicago near the Indiana border, it's a massive choke point. And you also are going across a you're going over the giant hole. Like, there's a giant hole there. Mine. And it it, like, it restricts what you can do. And you have to and and there's a 65 coming in the other, like it it's just chaos there. It's a natural choke point for traffic. And now you're gonna put that many more people there, and they don't have the infrastructure to fix it. And is it gonna be Illinois that fixes it? Is it gonna be Indiana that fixes it? Sure as hell it's gonna be the bears that pay for any of this crap? Like, it's it's a nightmare for these people down there.

Speaker 2: I'll go

Speaker 4: to the casino, so I'm I'm happy. Very nice part

Speaker 2: of it.

Speaker 4: Hammitt. I like Hammitt.

Speaker 2: But do your point about the, the gambling and Gaussian and all that interfering? I I a 100%. 100%. It's it's just ripe. And that's and and if the NFL is embracing it, that's why they should embrace transparency. Because Right. Again, I've said this before in in the industry, I mean, you can't even be in a place where you have the appearance or potential of being compromised. And they've actually built a system, which it looks almost like it's built to be compromised. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4: Let's say like, you can and you can do this. Like, you you can bet people did do this in the Cavaliers Knicks series. Will James Harden make both of these free throws? And it's like micro betting. What if somebody gets in his head and like, hey, man. Missed the second one. I've I got money for you. Like, that's so easy. It's so easy.

Speaker 2: Especially when you get to smaller sports. Like, you start talking water polo and shit like that. I mean, it's silly, but for a gambler, those are you can you don't have to throw a whole lot of money at somebody to make a lot of money. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4: Yep.

Speaker 2: Alright. Really quick. Here's we go. Who's the Lions player we will be most impressed by his development this season?

Speaker 4: That's a good question. Tylek Williams. I think you will I think people will not be questioning why he was a first round pick this year. One of my bold predictions for the

Speaker 2: year. Really?

Speaker 4: He's good. He's not he's he's different than DJ Reader. That might take some getting used to. So one of my it's it's a small concern, but it's a it's a concern. Jack Campbell's a great enough player that he will figure it out. But they don't have a nose tackle. And Jack Campbell racked up 172, however many tackles he got last year in no small part because the nose tackles never let blockers get to him. Roy Lopez and and DJ Reader, neither of them's here. Jake is a replacement. Like, he might not make the team. So I I wonder how the defense is going to morph for that. But I think within that, Tyler Quiges is gonna look a lot better this year. I'm hopeful that the answer to that question is DennisRakeStraw, though.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 4: Not counting on it, but I'm hopeful.

Speaker 2: Alright. Well, it's another one here. Let's see.

Speaker 4: Mike Hodges. Thank you, Mike.

Speaker 2: Yes. Mister Hodges.

Speaker 4: I like Mike.

Speaker 2: Steven Bathie. Q and a, is it just me or do the lions have the best off season of the NFC North? Every other team has holes they did not address and drama off of the field. And it's

Speaker 4: a funny quote. McCarthy, like, basically trying to talk his way out of Minnesota that just hired a GM that drafted a guy who broke his foot in at the combine in a non contact drill And the first round, like, yeah. He's

Speaker 2: you know, he said to himself before he made that pick, you know, this shit works for Holmes. I'm going in.

Speaker 4: Yeah. Green Bay, you know, they're good like, they're Chicago's a good football team. Like, they're talented. Like, I get why people are bullish on them. No pun intended for Chicago. But, like, they've had a weird off season, and I I don't know if they're I think they've at least treaded water, but I think they are now where the lions were going into the 2023 season. We're like, okay. We overachieved a little bit last year, and now there's some pressure on us, and we will see how Ben Johnson handles that. We will see how Caleb Williams handles being the hunter or the hunted instead of the hunter. Some some guys will thrive, but they might thrive. They might also wilt. I'd I would worry about that with them.

Speaker 2: Good times. Good times. Good times. Alright. Another one. This is this is gonna be a short one. JJ McCarthy is a is a wild ride, man. That's that's

Speaker 4: The more I've talked to people from Minnesota, the more JJ McCarthy is playing all for the name on the back of the jersey and not the front. And Yeah. That was somewhat evident at Michigan too, but it's become much more exacerbated now that he's got money.

Speaker 2: Yeah. More money,

Speaker 4: I should say.

Speaker 2: That was the game. That's I mean, what was after? Ah, big, white, and pig. Why don't all NFL stadiums automatically blare safety dance when the home team gets a safety? This is this is a a very contentious point. I might just make a little edit that it didn't send it over to Ford Field so they have it in the in the back pocket.

Speaker 4: You know, I'm gonna guess that men without hats could probably use the the bump from residual music. Right? Slices.

Speaker 2: Can I can I we got a good question here, and I wanna I wanna toss it at you because I'm gonna scramble it a little bit? And sorry, Gotham City. I love Gotham City. I love that. That's a great play. But Besides Yeah. Curves

Speaker 4: Yes.

Speaker 2: That is awesome. Besides durability, in what regard, if any, is 2026 Blake Miller an immediate improvement on 2025 Taylor Decker? And I wanna and let me jump in on on this really quick because I'm gonna scramble it up just a little bit. You can't say he's an immediate improvement over, why can't I remember, Pena? God. Why did I blank up Pena? Right. You can't say he's an immediate improvement over Pena because Pena is just world class, like, an untouchable world class.

Speaker 4: Yes. Agreed.

Speaker 2: But to say is he better than Decker is tough because he's gonna play right tackle. Right? And Panay is going to the left. So now you have to ask yourself, is the combo of Decker and Panay at tackles better than the combo of Pena and Miller at tackles? And that's that's kinda where my head went. You can you can tear it tear it out.

Speaker 4: No. That that I think that's that that's the absolute right way to look at it. I do think that the lines are gonna have to learn to run left a little bit more, just because Penay is the like, he he might be the best run blocking tackle ever. I don't say that lightly either. Somebody like, I I saw Orlando Pace play in high school. I think I was pretty freaking good when he was a freshman in high school. Like, he's in the hall of fame. But Pena is a world Pena is a world destroyer. I think it's it's tough because, like, Decker wasn't right last year. He he didn't have the strength in his shoulder to to sustain blocks and to, like, forcibly jolt somebody when they got into him. Like, one of the things that happens when you block, sometimes sometimes you inevitably like, the defender gets his hands into you, and what you can do to get off of that, Taylor Decker was really inhibited by by his shoulder problem in doing that. I don't think Blake Miller is gonna have that problem. I think where Blake Miller isn't going to be as good right away, He doesn't have that Rolodex knowledge of all the past registers that are coming at him that Taylor Decker did. Like, Decker knew, like, well, this guy, if he's gonna cross my face, he's gonna have his feet aligned just a little bit shorter. Like, little things like that that you pick up on just from experience. Miller's gonna have to learn that some of that the hard way. Like, there are going to remember back when when Taylor Decker was when we first started doing the show, Chris, and I came on. And I'm like, Taylor Decker for 48 out of the 50 plays looks great, but, like, then there's two plays like, has this dude ever seen a football game before? Yeah. Like and he got he got past that. I have a feeling that's what Blake Miller's gonna be like this year. Like, he's gonna be fine. You won't notice him. But he like, he'll you know, someone and it'll watch it be Lucas Van Ness of all people. Like, he just cooks him.

Speaker 2: Kinda really Yeah. So here's here's where the benefit is. Because Decker came in, and he had to learn all about the guys he's playing against. Right? Mhmm. He's got Penay who is going to be able to work with him in that in that online room every week. Here's what this guy does. He always likes and start talking tendencies and game prep for him. And I think there's there's an accelerating curve available to Blake that's gonna be He

Speaker 4: also has he also has Dan Skipper in his ear as a position coach.

Speaker 2: Great point. Great great point. That's a great point.

Speaker 4: That's gonna help a lot.

Speaker 2: Skip brings it all, man. He's awesome. I love Skip still.

Speaker 4: I love that Skip's still in the building. That's that's fantastic.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And he he has some good snappy tweets out there sometimes too. Like, tell people like, he had one. I forget what he said. I forget even what the what the tweet was. He's not talking to you. No. That's absolutely fucking wrong. Like, something like that. I was like, go find Skip. It's so on brand. Oh, god. I love him.

Speaker 4: That that's that's who Skip is. That's who we will always be. That's one of the reasons why we love him.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Alright, my man. Let's, let's call it this is new time nuggets version talking about, OTA updates and everything else. You like that new time nuggets?

Speaker 4: I do. I do like that.

Speaker 2: I I I I stole it from radio way, way back in the eighties, but the kids used to talk about noontime nuggets and go out to the car and partake in different kinds of nuggets. They're now legal in Michigan, but it's a, I love I love the crossover. It's just freaking great. So, oh, last question, Terry Gator guy, and then we'll end on this. If Skip is in his ear, will his route running route running be elite?

Speaker 4: I hope so. He did he did actually in Clemson's spring game, not last year, but but the year before he did catch a touchdown pass. Yeah. In their spring game. So, like, it's it's just like what's going on in OTAs right now, but it still it still counts.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I have to I I will say this is much shade we threw at Holmes today about, you know, the injury stuff. Before the draft, all the things we talked about, offensive line, defensive line helps you safety, all the things, and how are you gonna do it? He fucking nailed it, man.

Speaker 4: He checked the box, man. Yeah. He really did.

Speaker 2: He freaking nailed it. I I'm Like and it wasn't a stellar draft this year of players. Right? The selection of players wasn't out, like, over the top, but fucking Holmes, man. He he he's his own kind of magician. So we'll go. We'll go run with it.

Speaker 4: Alright, biz. Happy with the state of the team. Very happy.

Speaker 2: Yeah. So am I. I gotta I gotta say it's been it's awesome to get back in the saddle. Awesome to have a nice

Speaker 4: It's good to have

Speaker 2: you back. Good to

Speaker 4: I haven't done a daily. I didn't do one yesterday. Not not doing one today. We'll have one tomorrow.

Speaker 2: This is it. We got new time nuggets instead of a daily today. Come on. Yeah.

Speaker 4: You guys can do it live. It's all better. Yeah. I've I have toyed with the idea of going live. I tend to record it 07:30, 8AM, somewhere around there. If people are up, I might try to do a live one one of these days.

Speaker 2: There you go. Yeah. It's because the Saturday ones are people love those Saturday ones. They they chew them up, but it's fun to go live. It's it's the interaction and the chat is is is fun. It's always always great stuff. So all you all you guys gals watching, spending time,

Speaker 4: thank you so much. For joining us.

Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on a work day at the at the noontime nuggets. And, I'll put that one back up. Noontime nugs. Gino's got them for us. And we'll we'll keep rocking it. Like I said, we'll go and we're gonna go throughout the the summer. I know Riz is gonna get some vacation time. I'm gonna get a little vacation time too and then when the down season hits. But we'll we'll have good content for you. We'll have, you know, just there'll be a couple breaks along the way. But, this is the time where we really

Speaker 4: got a chance to through the through the start of the pre season. And then there will be a ten day period where unless the Wi Fi or Internet in my hotels in London and Paris are really good, you won't see me.

Speaker 2: That's alright, my man. That's you well deserved. And it's it's the thing. We're we're kind of forced to take our vacations in this little period here. But now that we've got such a good crew going on, we're we're able to kinda to to swing this a little bit with with Mission Brown and Gray and everybody. It's just it's it's nice that we can keep the content flowing for everybody. We will have we

Speaker 4: will have daily interviews with, doctor Liao and with Bischoff, in the coming days. So all those are set. And Anna Marie Hunt is coming back on as well. He actually just made the vacation I'm taking later this year. He went to London and Paris. I'm going for basketball purposes. My son's team's playing over there. But, it also happens to coincide with my wife and I's thirtieth anniversary. So we're gonna we're gonna enjoy that. And, yeah. So I will we'll talk, Chris, about maybe Greg can do a week or something for me. Yeah.

Speaker 2: Yeah. It'll be fun

Speaker 4: for that. But I will miss, unfortunately, two Lions games because of

Speaker 2: that. Oh. Their their

Speaker 4: final two preseason games are I won't see them unless they're available. But I'm actually, not to say that. I'm sure they're available in Europe. I'm sure they are. I'm trying

Speaker 2: to put together a a dream for this has been with me for ages, but to The Maldives. And I my hotel points are enough that I can get an overwater villa at a really nice hotel on the Equator for free for ten days. And I'm like, oh. And I look at the I don't know. There's a lot of good stuff. So that it's we'll see. There'll be it'll come up in the next year or two. That one's that one's gonna land, but I can't wait. I'm I'm excited about it, man. Okay. With all that, don't forget about us on the Patreon, patreon.com/detroitlionspodcast. You get access to the Slack, which while the chat is awesome, anytime talking to the guys, Gray, Riz, me, Aye, Brish, Brown, we're all there. Have fun. Great crew in there. Great conversations. A lot of fun. A lot of intelligent lions talk. The most intelligent lions chat on the Internet. You get $5 to the Patreon. You'll automatically get access to the the Slack, patreon.com/detroitlionspodcast. We'll get you there. Soon as you join the Patreon and and get in there, takes, like, a couple hours to get you into the, into those Slack, so don't panic. Make sure to follow us on Twitter at jeffrisden, as he said it right there, and at det lions podcast. Det lions podcast. It is the best place to hang up pants free. Talking lions talk. Why are we pants free? Because we are talking about a golden future, a beautiful future for these Detroit Lions. And, when you get that excited, you can't even wear pants. Be sure to go to Detroit Lions podcast. Subscribe to the podcast so we can all do the things. I guess it's Riz mostly doing it because he's got the dailies. What do you do on those dailies, Riz? What do you do with

Speaker 4: people's combing your ear holes automatically. Oh,

Speaker 2: it's sexy. Who doesn't want that? It's just it it just feels like getting out of the pool afterwards. It's good. Thank you for tuning in. We're gonna see you next time. And the Detroit Lions podcast, remember, no pants, no toasters, no hot tubs because we are your Detroit Lions and Reddit connection. Thank you everybody for joining us. We will talk to you.