00:00Yeah, your headline from last night, the Tigers old ace goes 85 pitches in six innings and
00:07loses the Tigers new ace, Troy Melton, goes into the seventh inning 97 pitches, 97 pitches
00:15shut out and wins.
00:16Hmm.
00:17Hmm.
00:18Hmm.
00:20Hey, man, there's a little extra buzz now.
00:22Oh, it's it's exciting.
00:24There's less pressure.
00:25It's if they don't make the postseason.
00:28Okay.
00:29Okay.
00:30And if they do, it's just a let's just keep this train rolling and see what happens.
00:34Weight off our shoulders.
00:36I loved sitting down to watch last night.
00:38Rooting like hell for this team.
00:39They did the deadline right.
00:40And I'm rooting like hell.
00:41Young group, seven players, 25 and younger.
00:43Let's see what they're made of.
00:45Text coming in on Gibbs.
00:46The extension is worth it for the Lions.
00:48Again, they haven't done it yet, but we're assuming it'll be similar to Bijan.
00:51The extension is worth it for the Lions because it gives them salary cap flexibility that
00:56a tag and a fifth year option don't.
00:58The extension lets them push money around and move it so they can add or retain some
01:02of their other talent, Miguel and Milford, which is a great point.
01:05Yes.
01:05Yeah.
01:06Once you have that contract and the more years that are there, the more flexibility
01:10you have.
01:11Now, I don't think they go any more than what Bijan had.
01:13So it's going to be five from now to be three year extension.
01:15Did I see two Bijan?
01:17It's like 51 guaranteed.
01:18It's like roughly half the deal is guaranteed a little more than half the deal is guaranteed.
01:22So that's not like you're screwed if something happens.
01:25Right.
01:25And ultimately, a team wants to pay you all that money because if they do, it means you've
01:29you're killing it.
01:30Yep.
01:31But yes, you do have more flexibility because if you if you go into that fifth year with
01:38the they pick up the fifth year option and it's 14, that's a hard number against the cap.
01:43And it certainly the true the the franchise tag is going to be a hard number against the
01:48cap.
01:49There's no maneuvering around that.
01:50But as soon as you put years on and you you've got guaranteed slash, you know, likely
01:56to be earned incentives, unlikely to be earned incentives, some don't even you could pay
02:00them.
02:00Some of those incentives don't even go against the cap ever.
02:04So it's it's it's much more malleable to be able to have that type of contract versus
02:11a rigid fifth year option and franchise tag malleable.
02:15Yeah.
02:15Showing off that Michigan degree this morning.
02:17Look at this.
02:17Don't ask me to spell it.
02:19You don't have to spell anything anymore.
02:21You just type it in and then the red squiggly line.
02:22That's what my kids tell me.
02:24Yeah, isn't that the way it is?
02:26Hey, lion, that's the most important in training camp.
02:28I'd make a case.
02:29It's the guy Will Birchfield wrote about yesterday.
02:3197 won the ticket dot com.
02:33Ennis Rakestraw is anybody more important this training camp than a guy who might be a starter,
02:38but who hasn't really played much football.
02:41I think it's like 48 snaps over the last two seasons.
02:44John, he could be there starting outside corner or he could be another in a long line
02:49of, you know, busts in the 2024 draft.
02:51This is a pivotal, important camp for Ennis Rakestraw.
02:54It is.
02:56And some of it is just because of he's now entering year three.
03:00Haven't seen him.
03:01He's been injured.
03:02It's huge for him.
03:03It's even bigger for the team because no Tariana Arnold.
03:07Now, we do think that DJ Reed will probably be more like he was at the beginning of the
03:11season, pre-hamstring injury.
03:12So you have one corner where you're like, okay, we're good there.
03:17The other one, we don't even know who that's going to be.
03:20Is it McCreary?
03:21Is it Izzy?
03:21And is it Rakestraw?
03:23And then with the questions in the backfield, the defensive backfield, you want to have two
03:29guys, at least at the line of scrimmage, playing those corner spots that can not just
03:34not be locked down corners, but that can do the job as it needs to be done at NFL levels.
03:39There's potential answers at safety if they can get these guys right.
03:43There might not be an answer at corner two.
03:46It's it's Rakiasin or Ennis Rakestraw.
03:49The other guys you mentioned are slot guys.
03:51Izzy and McCreary.
03:52Those guys will play in the nickel.
03:54The outside corner two is a real question mark for this team, and maybe it's Rakiasin by
03:58default, but you'd love to see Rakestraw grab that job.
04:02Give them a little bit of depth, a little bit of security, someone that can play there
04:05because they don't really have much of an answer at that position right now.
04:08Yeah.
04:08And OK, maybe it's Rakestraw.
04:11Maybe it's McCreary.
04:12Maybe it's anybody that plays that position.
04:14Maybe that's the position that is most important for somebody to step up and play well.
04:21But I'm not going to argue.
04:23I think there's a couple other cases to be made.
04:24If you want this offense to operate at optimum efficiency and we had a chance to talk to the
04:33OC, we've had a chance to talk to, you know, Hank Fraley yesterday about the offensive line.
04:38I think maybe the most important might be Sam Laporta.
04:43OK.
04:44A healthy Sam Laporta returning to what we saw in his first two years, especially his rookie
04:51season, that can really open up these off this offense.
04:54And we just had this conversation about Jameer Gibbs, like the threat of Gibbs in the backfield
05:00and being able to throw the ball hit to him anywhere on the field, but especially in the
05:03flats, the threat of Laporta in the middle of the field that opens up so much.
05:08I don't know that we have truly unlocked Jamison Williams yet.
05:13We always kind of go this.
05:15Hey, like, you know, he could have this breakout season.
05:17We talked, you know, we heard last year, oh, Jamison Williams going to have a breakout season.
05:20Well, you need other parts around him.
05:24Certainly, he could just beat everybody down the field.
05:27But if you are just dropping everybody back and saying, you know what, we don't want to
05:32get beat deep.
05:33We just want to make this team go 12, 13, 14 plays down the field.
05:38We don't think they can because the offensive line or we don't think they can for whatever
05:41reason.
05:42So we're going to drop everybody back because Jamison Williams, their home run hitter.
05:46We don't want any home runs.
05:47We don't want any grand slams.
05:48Yeah, it's it's the layers of of how you attack a defense.
05:53Jamo pushes safeties back.
05:54It helps Laporta.
05:55It's like an inverse relationship.
05:57Like the run game does the same thing, but Laporta can feast.
06:00He can really unlock so much of this offense.
06:03He's a guy to like this is anecdotal.
06:05We've been out the last couple of days, but we're doing a show.
06:08You can't always see everything.
06:09I try to make a point to walk over and catch the end of practice.
06:12I feel like every time I'm looking over, it's Sam Laporta catching a pass.
06:16Yeah, it's Sam Laporta moving the sticks.
06:18He was a thousand yard player as a rookie.
06:20They missed him sorely last year.
06:21I was talking to someone who's plugged in with the Lions yesterday and they said, boy,
06:24I think I think the tight end injuries last year hurt more than people realize because
06:28it wasn't just Laporta.
06:29Then they also lost Brock, right?
06:31But they were saying, well, it's being able to set the edge is being able to get those
06:34cutoffs in the run game.
06:35Those are things that it's not sexy for tight ends to be able to do that.
06:39But when it's done, you don't necessarily as a fan as you're watching it recognize why
06:45all of a sudden the run game is so effective or why that cutback lane is there.
06:49But now all of a sudden, hey, when that's working, now the play action works.
06:53And now how do you how do you utilize that tight end in the past game to open up other
06:57facets of this offense?
06:58He might be the key that completely unlocks this offense.
07:01So we'll take some nominations that the player that you think is most important in
07:05training camp, not for the season, but right now in the proving grounds where you got to
07:09get some some questions answered text coming in.
07:13The Lions have to sign branch and Laporta this year.
07:16How are we going to sign Gibbs to he has to play this year on his contract, Adam and North
07:21branch?
07:23Well, I mean, you could I mean, take the inverse of that.
07:26Why do you have to do branch and Laporta when we're expiring?
07:30Well, they're expiring.
07:31Sure.
07:32But it's which numbers are going to be bigger.
07:36And how do you how do you manipulate those numbers so that you can actually fit those
07:42guys under the under the cap?
07:44Right.
07:45That's part of why they've tried to do deals early and it can bite you.
07:48I think Kirby Joseph's going to bite him.
07:50But part of the reason to do it early is you start saving five million here, five million
07:54there.
07:55You squeeze an extra player in.
07:57That's been part of their strategy.
07:58And we've always talked about the the cap being a shell game like you move a little
08:02bit over here.
08:03You move something back here into this contract.
08:04You move it around.
08:05And all of a sudden, hey, you've got that extra couple of million to pay Laporta.
08:09Well, and some of the answers, you know, we got frustrated.
08:12There's more restructuring they can do with golf steel.
08:14They can crack open the vaults and move Sewell or St. Brown money around.
08:18We would have liked to see that used to add players to Laporta, Gibbs and branch, but they
08:22could certainly use it to help pay Gibbs, Laporta and branch.
08:27I think the biggest obviously the biggest numbers are going to be your quarterback.
08:31And yes, there is still more room there.
08:33But if they don't want to move that money or years down the road, I think the one that
08:38is easiest to add money to years to that, you know, is going to be around is going to
08:44be Penny Sewell.
08:45Yeah.
08:47If you ask me which player on the team right now is most likely to be playing for the Lions
08:50in 2036, it would be Penny Sewell.
08:54Oh, that's a long time.
08:57Well, 2036.
08:58I might have said 2031, 2032.
09:00And he may be, but I said most likely.
09:02I didn't guarantee the guy's going to play 20 years in the league, but how many years has
09:06he played now?
09:06This is five.
09:07Yeah.
09:08He could be a 15 year pro.
09:09Sure.
09:11Aim.
09:12That's a long time from now, Jim.
09:13I said, you answer the question.
09:15That's a legendary Hall of Famer.
09:17Is that not the expectation with him?
09:18We talk about gold jackets and look what he does and the way he plays the position.
09:23Okay.
09:23Answer the question.
09:24Who's most likely to be here in 10 years from the current roster?
09:28It's Sewell, right?
09:29Probably somebody from this draft.
09:30Yeah, I was going to say.
09:34Blake Miller.
09:35Yeah.
09:37Actually, I wouldn't say that.
09:38I got to see him play first.
09:40Okay.
09:41If you're going to say somebody from this draft, then you just say that for everybody.
09:44Well, we got to see how he plays first.
09:46Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97.
09:48Let it play out.
09:49Classic.
09:49Let it play out.
09:52John, what did you say about these rankings?
09:54We'll get to them coming up at 718, but the coaches poll, it's famously.
09:57We love anything that comes out right now about football, college football, pro football.
10:01It doesn't matter, but this is the most useless poll that we will see all season long.
10:07And I think there's a debate about the poll that comes out after week one, because you
10:12have a whole bunch of teams playing absolutely no one.
10:14And now all of a sudden there's this reshuffling.
10:16Oh, well, hey, you know, Michigan put up, you know, 50 points on Western Michigan.
10:20Well, instead of 16, they should be at 10.
10:23No, there should be no movement until you get to about week five or six.
10:28But we go through this exercise because what the hell?
10:32It's tradition.
10:33Why not?
10:34We love it.
10:34We have it's fun.
10:35And you found one thing that's particularly one storyline from the coaches.
10:39And it may actually be something that is a positive in the path that college football
10:45is going down.
10:46Look at this.
10:47This guy's going to sell us positivity with college football.
10:49We need more of it.
10:50Next 97 one.
10:51Next 97 one.
10:51Next 97 one.
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