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Do you need Holmes to be more aggressive in free agency or during the trade deadline?
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00:00Day four, Lions free agent watch.
00:03They say patience is a virtue.
00:06John, you're the more virtuous one.
00:09You're steady.
00:11I'll admit it, I'm getting impatient here.
00:13They need starters on all three levels of defense.
00:17I assume they'll use the first round pick on tackle.
00:20They only have one other pick in the top 100 today.
00:23They freed up some cap space, but John, it looks like their bargain bin shopping.
00:26How do they address all of this?
00:28How do they get better from last year?
00:29How do they win a Super Bowl?
00:30I realize it's still early, but I am impatient, and I'm curious if other Lions fans feel the
00:34same way.
00:35John, my biggest question, though, is are you starting to feel impatient?
00:40I'm not impatient in regards to how they're constructing the team for this year.
00:45I understand a lot of the things they're doing.
00:47There are still plenty of players out there, quality players.
00:51They may not be your A-level guys, but there's some A-minus, B-plus guys out there, especially
00:58at the edge position, that you can put on this roster.
01:03You have the draft.
01:05There's a lot of different ways to acquire players.
01:09Where I'm getting a little impatient is with the front office and how they've traditionally
01:16gone about doing that.
01:18I'm impatient because we haven't seen Brad Holmes be overly active in free agency, even if it's
01:29just signing those B-level guys.
01:30We haven't seen him make a lot of trades to acquire professional, experienced, good talent.
01:39It's always been through the draft.
01:41They're going to have to do things differently than they have in previous offseason.
01:47So I'm a little bit frustrated in where they are as an organization, but I can understand
01:53why they're doing some of the things they're doing.
01:55Now, I will become very frustrated if they take all of the savings that they got, the extra
02:02cap space from Jared Goff, and they drop it on a running back.
02:06Even though I love Jameer Gibbs, I think he's going to have a monster year.
02:12I don't know if he has monster years ahead of him, especially if he starts putting 500
02:17to 1,000 carries on his frame over the next two to three seasons.
02:21Separate issue with Gibbs.
02:24They have some cap space.
02:26Some will go to rookies.
02:28Some is available to play in free agency.
02:31If they're not going to chase one big fish like a Hendrickson, hey, that's.
02:3628 million bucks a season, then the alternative is I need to put 12 on the D line, eight at
02:41linebacker, eight at safety.
02:43Again, address all three levels of the defense.
02:46Guys are flying off the board.
02:48They don't use the draft to fill needs.
02:50They're very public and in your face about that.
02:52We don't use the draft to fill needs.
02:54So, John, as we sit today, fun thought exercise.
02:58Who's playing on defense week one?
03:00And I can give you Hutch.
03:02I can give you Aleem.
03:03I can give you Ty Leak.
03:05I can give you Jack Campbell.
03:06I can give you Derek Barnes.
03:08DJ Reed at one corner.
03:09I'll even give you Terry and Arnold at the other corner.
03:13I don't know about either safety.
03:15I'm counting seven starters on defense right now.
03:18Well, I can tell you, Brian Branch, unless he is a walking medical miracle, will not be
03:26there week one.
03:27Right.
03:28So that's one vacancy.
03:30Kirby Joseph, maybe he's there week one.
03:32I have no confidence he's going to be there for consecutive weeks and for the long haul.
03:36Correct.
03:36So, John, I think they need at least three, maybe four starters on defense.
03:42Time to go and pursue those guys is right now, not while the field depletes and you're
03:47left with leftovers.
03:48And here's the other thing is if they follow the plan that we think or we envision that
03:58they'll have, they're going to take an offensive tackle in the first round.
04:02That leaves the ability to go and reliably get one starter in defense in the second round.
04:09Yeah.
04:09And let's say it's more than one starter.
04:11They need more than that in terms of depth in fielding of a 53.
04:16I didn't even mention depth.
04:17You're right.
04:17I mean, now we start getting into interior D lineman and more than one edge rusher and
04:23multiple people in the secondary because that's just the way football is played now.
04:28And I do think while Alex Anzalone is a player, we don't shed a tear to lose.
04:33They played three linebackers a lot last season.
04:35And even if they only play two and run more nickel or big, you know, big three safety looks,
04:40who are the two standup guys?
04:42Because Derek Barnes is much more of a, a Sam around the line of scrimmage, sometimes as
04:47an edge hand in the dirt.
04:49They need to address interior linebacker at some point.
04:51Well, it's so yes, they do because it's not going to be Rodrigo.
04:56No special teams guy depth depth.
04:58Yeah.
04:58He is a guy that will come in and spell whoever is starting in front of him.
05:03He may even spell Jack Campbell at times, not often, but at times.
05:07And so when you look at their depth chart, they'd have three quote unquote starters, Rodrigo,
05:14one of them, Jack Campbell, Derek Barnes, who do they have after him a dash in every single
05:20situation?
05:20Because there is nobody on the roster currently that fills those positions.
05:25I didn't know if that was a player I hadn't heard of a dash.
05:27No, no, no, no, no, no.
05:30And so they need depth at those positions.
05:34They need depth at the edge position.
05:36Right now you have Aiden Hutchinson and Hassanin, Ahmad Hassanin from Boise state, right?
05:43Who wasn't even on the roster last year?
05:45He was drafted.
05:45He was heard.
05:46He was released.
05:47They brought him back.
05:47I mean, who else is even listed at that position?
05:49No one.
05:49Well, Tyler Lacey, but he just signed with, with the Cowboys.
05:52Right.
05:52And Pascal was let go yesterday.
05:54Again, not shedding a tear, but you have to replace these guys.
05:56Right.
05:57And so if people are wondering why they weren't in the Trey Hendrickson sweepstakes, we all
06:02would have loved that.
06:03Or why aren't you going to get Max Crosby?
06:05If you're going to earmark, let's just say $28,000 for, or $28 million, sorry, $28,000.
06:11You wouldn't get you very far.
06:13$28 million for that position.
06:16If that's what you were going to spend on Trey Hendrickson, you can go out and get Cam
06:23Jordan.
06:24You can go out and get A.J.
06:26Neponezza.
06:27Both of them.
06:28Because you're going to need more than just Hutch and whoever else that it is that you
06:33sign for the same price tag or less than you would spend on Trey Hendrickson or Max Crosby.
06:41You could sell me that rather than putting all their eggs into one player, they're going
06:44to aggressively get four or five guys.
06:46But then I would just say clock's ticking.
06:48Right.
06:48And you could go out, hey, in the draft, in the fourth round, you could draft two edge
06:55defenders.
06:55Do any of us think that those edge defenders are going to be very productive as rookies
07:02as fourth round picks?
07:03You don't count on that.
07:05You shouldn't count on it.
07:05It's a pleasant surprise if they are.
07:07Certainly not a team chasing a Super Bowl is not counting on it.
07:10Guys, I don't understand why you'd be impatient with the Lions.
07:13They're a bottom feeder organization, one of four teams to never play for a Super Bowl.
07:17Okay.
07:18They used to be a bottom feeder organization.
07:20They're not a bottom feeder organization anymore.
07:22And they don't need to act like it.
07:24John, we have to be honest about the golf savings.
07:26It's not as much as we all think it is.
07:27So did you read this?
07:28They saved 32 million yesterday.
07:30That news broke during our show.
07:32It's reported it wasn't a max restructure.
07:34They could have actually freed up more money and chose not to.
07:37And even after you take the 32, you go, well, you pay your rookies and you pay your first
07:42wave free agents.
07:43That's why I think there's more restructures coming.
07:45Why didn't they do a max restructure of golf?
07:47Well, because you can pay some of those bills now.
07:49You don't have to put everything off for future because you just want to leave yourself some
07:54flexibility.
07:55And I'm not going down the road of, oh, they want to just move on from golf.
07:58No, no, no.
07:59You can pay part of that bill now.
08:01I think some of the impatience to me is not only what they haven't done, but maybe I'm
08:05projecting a little bit to what they won't do.
08:08They didn't free up the max space with golf.
08:10We haven't seen a St.
08:11Brown restructure in conjunction with the start of free agency.
08:14I think that's showing us we don't plan on freeing up a ton of cap space because we don't
08:20plan on spending a ton of cap space, to which I would say, so we're doing this on the cheap.
08:25We're trying to build the defense at all three levels with popsicle sticks and glue.
08:31Well, they're keeping some of those moves in their back pocket.
08:35So hopefully they go out and they use that cap savings in free agency.
08:40And then what do they need for their draft picks?
08:43Oh, well, we need some more cap space.
08:44So let's redo Amon Ross St.
08:46Brown.
08:47Let's redo Penny Sewell and we can free up another 15, 20 million for our draft picks.
08:53So they're keeping those things in their back pocket.
08:56Not that they won't use them, but they know that they can.
08:59Guys, I truly don't understand.
09:01And I don't think anybody understands what Brad Holmes strategy is right now.
09:05Either this is going to hit us like the Tigers with the Framber news or the guy truly doesn't
09:11know how to be a GM outside of the draft.
09:13You know what?
09:14Is there even an equivalent of a Valdez move?
09:16I don't know about that.
09:17I will say there's a chance like I could have taxed that in.
09:21I kind of feel the same way.
09:23Okay.
09:23Like I'm like either something's coming or he's clueless.
09:28That's a strong word.
09:30He's just not willing to adjust.
09:33He's super conservative as a general manager and just thinks you build through the draft.
09:36He's stubborn.
09:37How about that?
09:37Yeah.
09:38Like I'm more, I'm so impatient right now when it comes to that they're in this position.
09:45That they got caught with their pants down with the offensive line because he made irresponsible
09:50draft picks over the last couple of years.
09:53And now you're sitting here and then you handed out premature contracts that you didn't need
09:58to give and you have less money.
10:00So you're talking about that.
10:01The loyalty thing that our guys, we're going to reward our guys and stuff.
10:05And I think he rubbed some people, some players in this organization the wrong way because
10:10yeah, we're going to take care of some of our guys, but we're not going to take care
10:14of some of the other guys.
10:16But I'll defend him on this.
10:16But I defend that point.
10:18Not everybody in an NFL locker room is equal.
10:19I'm sorry.
10:20We're going to take care of Penny Sewell.
10:21We're not going to take care of Alex Anzalone.
10:24Like, I'm sorry if the harsh realities of the NFL are coming to your door, but that's,
10:28that's the league.
10:28I'll defend Brad on that.
10:29There are some guys worth taking care of more than others.
10:32Exactly.
10:32But, but, but where I wanted to drill down on is use the word irresponsible for some
10:36of the draft picks last couple of years.
10:38I think we could specifically say, well, Giovanni Manu was the guy you drafted him to be.
10:42Well, they'd have the tackle spot solidified, right?
10:44Like those picks being projects and not working out.
10:47Those things add up.
10:49They thought they were the smartest guy in the room, taking him and thinking they could
10:52turn him into something.
10:52Come on.
10:53That was project all over the place.
10:55They probably could have got him.
10:56They said it was project at that time.
10:57Yeah, but they probably could have got him in the seventh round.
11:00They may have been able to.
11:01It's like, that's the, the reaches that he made with some guys.
11:04And then, well, I think I, Broderick Martin, Broderick Martin wasn't even expecting to
11:07go when, when the Lions called him, he was setting up for the party for the following
11:11day.
11:12And if you're such a good scout, you should have traded up for Quinion Mitchell, not Terry on
11:15Arnold, you know, I, I just, I feel like I really feel this.
11:20I didn't feel it at the time necessarily, but I think the Arnold pick was kind of a performance
11:25pick because they were picking in the draft in Detroit.
11:29I truly, they wanted to make a little splash on the scene, you know, with the draft here.
11:36Oh, the Lions made news in their home city.
11:39I think they got caught in a moment, man.
11:42I don't, I don't see it that way.
11:45But we'll continue the conversation when, when I see the clock, you guys should jump in on
11:49this to two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97, a growing impatience.
11:53Do you see the plan?
11:54How does this come together?
11:55It's 97 one.
11:56How does this come together?
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