00:00The NFC North is loaded with questions. Kevin Walsh County right side and Joe Lisi will try and answer them, or at least, you know, figure out what's what early on.
00:10And the Lions, to me, are the starting point because it feeds them down to the Bears.
00:16My question to you, Lisi, is how concerned are you about Detroit losing both coordinators in Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn in the same offseason?
00:23Well, very concerned. We talked about it with your Philadelphia Eagles a couple of years ago, right?
00:27They start 10-1, go 1-5 down the stretch. I'm a big believer in, everybody can tell you, offensive, defensive coordinators, they're in the scheme.
00:36They're in the system. They're running the same exact thing. It doesn't matter. You're seeing the game through a different set of eyes.
00:43People don't realize, you know, Ben Johnson on first down might want to run the football.
00:47You know, now they might want to utilize play action. You're going to get different play calls in different types of situations.
00:54And these coordinators are like pitchers that they have to get into a rhythm, right?
00:58It takes a while. Could take a month. Could take two months to understand how that talent responds in game situations.
01:05And they feel comfortable with the game plan. And that's why I can't buy in to the Detroit Lions big picture.
01:11They might be a 10 or an 11-win football team. They might win the NFC North.
01:15But I can't buy in right now. I think there's a bigger shot that they regress and come back to the pack than they are a 14-win football team.
01:23And again, it's nothing against Dan Campbell. It's just that when you have so many moving parts, like coordinators moving on, that's a huge hit to the team offensively and defensively, Donnie.
01:34Yeah, and also they get hit with a double whammy. Like Ben Johnson doesn't go out to take on the Chargers role.
01:39Like he's in your division. You play them twice a year. He knows what you love to do.
01:43And he loves to have a scheme against that. So I find that fascinating because it's easy to take Detroit because you're at, like, talent level.
01:49Amazing across the board. And if Aiden Hutchinson comes back and is a terror that he was before he got injured, that takes them to the next level.
01:54Because I think we can agree Detroit didn't lose the playoff game or, you know, collapse down the stretch because they didn't want to win.
02:01They just didn't have enough horses on defense. They couldn't stop Washington. It was like a track meet.
02:04And they had so many players injured, their offense just couldn't compete at that point here.
02:07So for me, I look at this division and say, yes, Detroit should be up there.
02:10Minnesota question marks, we'll get to them.
02:12But if we're just looking at the Chicago Bears, well, there's something brewing there.
02:15They spent a lot of money. They have a lot of weapons.
02:18And the final piece of the puzzle might not just be getting your quarterback here in the draft two years ago.
02:22It might be Ben Johnson saying, I'm going to make this work. Watch this.
02:26Two great wide receivers, a really good offensive line we invested in.
02:29DeAndre Swift in the backfield, Loveland at tight end.
02:31What do they not have to succeed here?
02:34And they might be the true wild card of that division.
02:36As you see the win total at eight and a half, Ben Johnson's in town.
02:39They're going to be around that. And that's all you can ask for.
02:41So I want to just quickly stick on the Detroit piece of it, though, because I'm not even really trying to like I'm tired out from engaging in debates of, you know, fantasy people with bad takes.
02:53But for the people who believe Dan Campbell is better than Nick Sirianni, Sirianni came with a background as an offensive coordinator for a team.
03:01I'm not sure we even know if Dan Campbell, he doesn't have that pedigree.
03:07Dan Campbell's pedigree is motivator, leader of men, all those things.
03:12And also Sirianni had experienced turbulence in terms of guys in and out before the situations necessarily.
03:21And I know it obviously resulted negatively, right?
03:23But like moving around, you know, coordinators is something that he had experienced prior.
03:27On top of that, Aaron Glenn leaves as the defense is a disaster.
03:33Like Aiden Hutchin leaving, Aiden Hutchin's injury is not the only reason that that defense was awful.
03:39That defense was just not all that good ultimately.
03:42And now you add the defensive coordinator leaving.
03:44I just think it is.
03:45I think the jury is still a little bit more out on how great Dan Campbell is.
03:52I think that that is fair.
03:55I think, you know, Detroit also has a, one of the other things they have working against them is a quarterback that people don't trust.
04:04And that's not unfair, right?
04:06Like the reality is the Rams moved on from Jared Goff in order to bring in Matthew Stafford and won a Super Bowl and find themselves with a lot of hype again.
04:15The hype around Detroit, when people, if someone were to say, hey, I like the Lions and here are my five reasons why.
04:20I don't even know if Goff would be in the top five reasons to necessarily bet on this football team.
04:25I just think Detroit has a lot more questions around them.
04:28Now, to get to the Bears point of it, this has to be the most expectations that's ever been put on a football team that has the worst record or the worst odds to win a division I've ever seen.
04:38And I'm not saying it's wrong, but they are plus 550 to win this division.
04:42And it feels as if the Bears don't make the playoffs, then we're going to, I don't know if Ben Johnson's on the hot seat, but Caleb Williams might be.
