00:01Good morning. Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov and Greg behind the glass. It's
00:06a Wednesday. Later this hour, we'll play cat or kitten. You love your cats, don't you?
00:13You know me, John. I do. All right. Lions are wrapping up mandatory mini camp today
00:25and then we wait until late July for the ramp up of the regular season. Let's take inventory.
00:30John, couple questions. Is this roster good enough? And what do you believe? Do you believe
00:36in this strictly business mantra that they're carrying over? Well, there was a time where we
00:41had the capital I, capital F. If Jared Goff can be the franchise quarterback, if they're able to
00:50draft all those things, we still have some of those. And I think the biggest thing, is it good
00:56enough on face value? Yes. If they are healthy enough and it goes to, and I do, I do think
01:05that
01:05they have plenty of depth on the offensive line. No one, no one, including myself wants to see Larry
01:13Borum start, but is he an upgrade over the fan favorite Dan Skipper last year? I think he
01:19actually might be as a swing tackle as that extra guy. The offensive line is better, but if it's more
01:25defensively, what are they going to get out of Kirby Joseph? Will he be healthy for more games that
01:33available than he's not? What type of player will he be when he's on the field? When is Brian Branch
01:38going to be back? What it does? Ennis Raikstraw look like Terry on Arnold. If the defense is healthy
01:46enough and if some of those guys have gotten better, then yeah, I think this roster is good
01:53enough. I put it like this. I don't consider them in that top Super Bowl favorite tier, but if your
02:00next
02:00group is where I put the Lions, which is good enough to be in the playoffs, good enough to win
02:05this
02:05division, and then we're going to find out if they're good enough to make noise because there
02:08are, I think, questions on defense more than anywhere else. Offensively, I love that they
02:12prioritized the offensive line with free agency. It was their biggest commitment to the center,
02:18and then their first pick in the draft was on the offensive line at tackle. I'll give you an if
02:22there. If they gel, I have no doubt that Penny Sewell is going to be able to make that transition
02:29to
02:29left tackle. No question. He did it in college. He's got it in his background. It's been a while.
02:34There may be some bumps along the way, but if they can gel, because you've got a new component
02:39at center in Cade Mays, you've got a new right tackle in Blake Miller. Technically, you have a
02:43new left tackle in Penny Sewell, even though he's a vet, and I think he's still the best tackle in
02:47the NFL, but you have undecided who's going to be at guard, and I talk about if Terry and Arnold
02:54can
02:54get a little bit better, if Ennis Rakestraw can be better, if Ratlidge can be better at that
03:01right guard position, because you're going to put him next to a veteran center, but a rookie
03:06tackle. Cade Mays was great in pass pro, and the Lions were getting killed with twists and stunts
03:14and stuff coming up, and that was messing Jerry Goff up. Solidify that. Love that. Can he be a
03:19better run blocker in a gap scheme? That's kind of the selling point of Cade Mays, that that will
03:24improve. Vertical. Yeah. Yeah. North and South. And then, yeah, Blake Miller, if you're going to start a
03:29rookie tackle, I want a guy that played 50 plus games in college, the offensive line should be
03:34better, and if the offensive line's better, this offense goes from a team that was on paper top
03:37five, but couldn't really punish the good teams to a team that should now convert big third and
03:44fourth downs and red zones in the big games. They are led by their offense, and they are led by
03:49their
03:49offensive line. To win a Super Bowl, though, I need to see what these safeties look like, and I need
03:54to
03:54know what a Lee McNeil brings to the table, because if he is great and gets back to what he
03:59was pre-injury, Aiden's got his help, and those safeties and corners that you have questions
04:05about don't have to cover as long. So I do put a lot on a Lee McNeil. He said he
04:09lost sleepover
04:10last year. Like, he's going to have to be a difference maker for this defense to be good
04:13enough to win a Super Bowl. And you want to know, one, that he's aware of it, and clearly
04:18he is, and motivated, and it sounds like clearly he is. Like, he was very motivated in his first
04:25few years. One, two, because he broke into the NFL, wanted to establish himself, wanted
04:30to earn that next contract. Well, he's done those things, but now he kind of has to re-earn
04:35those. They're not just handed to you. They're not just given to you. And he had a great first
04:39game back. Tampa was, we're all sitting there going, Lee McNeil came back at 100% full strength.
04:45And then it was kind of disappear after that. Well, they're doing weird stuff, too. They're
04:49playing him at edge some. Yeah. I don't know if that was an indictment on they didn't have
04:54enough at the edge. Yeah. Or that they thought he could give them some pass rush upside out
04:59there. I think he needs to be back in the middle, and he could be a disruptor as a three
05:02technique. Yeah. But some of it might just be he just never had his footing under him
05:08coming back midseason from that injury. And a Lee McNeil, I think, will be better by
05:13default. Like he's going to, it's another, it's a little bit more removed from that ACL.
05:19He's going to have not just the physical attributes that will be better having been
05:24more removed, but it's more the mental, right? Just being able to trust it. That's a huge
05:29part of recovery from an injury like that. And, but he'll be better if Tyleek Williams
05:35can be better. If he can be that running mate and you're not sitting there going, if you're
05:38looking at a depth chart going, Levi owns a RK? Is this too many ifs? You're using it
05:46a lot. Like I'll put it, I'll put it to the audience. I'll ask Tom. I mean, John, if,
05:51because we ask, is this team good enough? Is it too many ifs that we keep saying? Because
05:55not everything's going to break your way. No, not everything's going to break your way,
05:58but I think it is. I have a level of confidence that a Lee McNeil will be much more like
06:05he
06:05was prior to surgery versus post-surgery. I do believe that Tyleek Williams, that Tate
06:11Rattledge will be better in year two than they will in year one. The bigger ifs that I don't
06:17know about are going to be, when is Brian Branch going to be back? What level will he be playing
06:23at? We just talked about a Lee McNeil coming back from a surgery. This is one for his position.
06:27That's probably more impactful. The Achilles then would be coming back from an, from an ACL.
06:32Well, I think the biggest if is you're looking in the secondary going Kirby Joseph. Will he even
06:41play? Will he be able to go to training camp? Well, that's the, between now and camp, we'll
06:47start to get more clear answers on that. I mean, they were somewhat optimistic about Branch and
06:52at least didn't dismiss yet that he's going to be put on the pup for sure or not. I think
06:56he will probably, but they're, they're usually, they air, it seems like their, their history,
07:02they air on the side of caution when it comes to those type of decisions. What I just don't
07:07know about for Branch is he'll play football this season, but would it be like an Aleem
07:12situation where it's just not the Brian Branch we saw pre-injury? It might take him a full
07:18year to get that healed and play confident and reckless, you know, the, the, the, the
07:24reckless abandon that he plays with. If we get like neutered Brian Branch and Kirby Joseph
07:31is week to week and we're not sure if he's playing or traveling or suiting up, he's not
07:36practicing. That's where I get concerned. It's the two of those together. If I had one
07:41of them, I'd feel good. Yeah. I think the biggest ifs that I have the least amount of confidence
07:46in or in the secondary, if Terry on Arnold improves, Oh, okay. Going into your three,
07:52like, should I, should that really be an if as a former first round pick, right? If he's
07:59one of the ifs I don't think is going to work out, right? You can overcome ifs. See, that's
08:04the thing. It's every team has a ton of ifs right now. You know, it's, you don't have a
08:09perfect team. I think what the Rams and their aggression, you know, this off season and even
08:15like Eagles and other seasons is when they do that, they, they hide their ifs and can,
08:22are the lions good enough to hide their ifs? Well, the argument would be how you hide if
08:25you have a dominant offense again. And so I think the roster is good enough. Here's the money
08:32question. Are the coordinators good enough? And I put an S on that because I think Patsy, we'll see.
08:39I think Dan Campbell's determined to get back to Ben Johnson's offense and with some wrinkles and
08:46win with a dominant offense because they, especially early in the year, know they have
08:49defensive warts, but I questioned Calvin Shepard still as a coordinator. I questioned Aaron Glenn
08:55as a coordinator here. Yeah. On the Petsing front, Campbell made it clear. Like he puts more on his
09:03offense in general, right? He's harder on his offense than his defense. It's part of his background
09:09and Petsing was what the best man in Ben Johnson's wedding or vice versa. There's a, there's an idea
09:14that we want to get back to dominating the line of scrimmage and play action passing off of it.
09:19And we want to have more of those elements we had two seasons ago. If they're that team,
09:23they won 15 games, but they ultimately fizzled out. Right. So, so that's the question is how do you get
09:28over the hump? So I think maybe the biggest, if I have on offense is going to be the offensive
09:36line,
09:36not a question of talent. They're going to be more talented. Cade Mays, an upgrade,
09:42Penny Sewell going to left tackle, an upgrade, Blake Miller, not an upgrade from your tackle last
09:47year, but in totality, yes, I think the five that they put on the field, but the biggest, if I
09:53have,
09:53and I think it's whether you're talking secondary or you're talking offensive line, you've got to
09:59have great chemistry. You can be a good above average offensive line. If you just have good
10:06players, but it takes chemistry and understanding what each other is doing and trusting each other.
10:14And that chemistry makes you, it goes from above average to good to great. Well, that's part of
10:19the issue is I feel like the offensive line, knock on wood, you get those guys healthy,
10:23they're going to gel. The secondary, I don't know who's going to be in week to week. And that makes
10:27it hard to get the continuity. The interior of the line, I think is going to be the key to
10:31all of
10:31this. If they've got to create holes so that Gibbs has the ability to run up the middle,
10:36because he will get stuffed if they don't create the holes. Once he has the opportunity to run up
10:42the middle, then the outside opens up because that's the way you play Jameer Gibbs right now. You,
10:47you force them out, try it and catch them on the edge, force them out of bounds, stop the explosive
10:51play.
10:51But if you have to account for the middle, then it opens up everything that opens up the entire
10:56offense and unlocks it. And what is it that they settle on? Who's going to be that left guard?
11:01Is it going to be mahogany? Is it going to be Scruggs? Is it going to be Frazier? March?
11:05I just have a tough time getting away. I'm pretty optimistic about the Lions. I don't know if I think
11:10they have a good enough roster to win a Superbowl, but they got to catch some breaks. They're not the
11:14best team in the NFC. Okay. But doesn't the best team doesn't win every year. Usually, usually it doesn't.
11:19So, well, they have the roster. I can't get away from this number from when they started
11:24turning this thing around in 2002 with the eight and two finish 22 or 22. Yeah. All the way through
11:31the, up to the last four games last year, this team's regular season record was 42 and 11.
11:37They lost the last three out of four last year. And I think a lot of people are keeping that
11:41in their
11:42mind and how they kind of fell apart. It just kind of, they tapped out. They, it just kind of
11:46broke and
11:47fell apart. But this, a lot of this roster had a 42 and 11 stretch in the NFL. And that's
11:53why it's
11:53so frustrating that they didn't get anything out of that. Yeah. But I, the roster has not changed a
11:59ton. I know that the dominant O-line, it's probably not going to be that dominant, but they're stronger
12:04in other places like linebacker with Campbell. Our question for Lions fans, as they wrap up mandatory
12:11mini camp OTAs done, going to have a nice little layoff here before training camp at the end of
12:15July. Is the roster good enough? Is this team good enough? You know what the goals are. You know what
12:20we need to see. Are they good enough? And this mantra about strictly business, I think it's fitting,
12:26but we'll talk more about that coming up next. Get some of your feedback. It's 97 one.
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