00:00All right, three o'clock. Great to have you with us. And I have one prevailing thought about the 53
00:07man. We don't make a secret of it. If you want to, you know, blobbity blue about the 53 man
00:14and his Johnny butt cheeks going to make the team or Petey Pablo or who, what, what try hard is
00:20going to make you go between 6am and 2pm.
00:24We don't do that, but it's not better or worse. It's just a statement of reality. Not interested. So now
00:32that the lions have made their final cut down, we are not going to do, um, obituaries, you know, for
00:39like Frank Dorch or some or any of these other guys, I don't care, but I have one football thought
00:44I can offer you. That's all I can offer you.
00:48I just need to know the Petey Pablo raise up. It just, I, it just came to my mind. So
00:55here's my point. The lions did one surprising thing. They only kept four wide receivers. Now, before you default to,
01:06well, they could add a fifth before the seat. We're sitting here today. They did not keep five or six
01:14wide outs.
01:15What does it mean? Well, there's two things that are interesting. Do what you want with it. One, they don't
01:22have a single guy who fielded a punt in the NFL on this roster. That's interesting. I'm not going to
01:29panic and say it's risky. It's just interesting, but here's the more prevailing thought.
01:34And you tell me if you're buying or selling this, this is Drew Petsing's offense. What did I say to
01:42date a guy got hired? Go look at his usage of 12 and 13 personnel, two and three tight end
01:49sets. Go look at the diverse running game.
01:52This guy wants to run and you go, okay, wait a minute. We kept five running backs, but only four
01:59wide receivers strikes at the heart of the matter. Are we about to see fundamentally a very different looking version
02:07of Dan Campbell's offense?
02:09Where look, when you only keep four receivers, Rico, you've, you have no depth at that position. None. You really
02:17only have three wide receivers. If we're being totally honest, they let go of doors. They let go of noted
02:23lions legend, Thomas Kennedy, but four wide outs. Only three of them are real.
02:29Do you believe that is a big statement about what this team will be, will look like that. This is
02:37truly a new day. Look, I'll go to Sheila's comments. Nine and eight isn't acceptable. We have to do a
02:44self audit. They hired a new OC. What is Dan probably done a little bit too much of? Lear over
02:51the OC. He's taken over play calling twice now in a very short NFL career.
02:56This is now maybe a return to, okay, Ben Johnson. It was your offense. This is drew. This is your
03:04offense. And that's going to be 12 and 13 personnel. Or am I over thinking it? That's the only football
03:11thing I can give you from cut down day.
03:14Well, one was the whole, Billy avocado make the team, the lack of, um, pump returners. You don't have one.
03:22Hopefully you'll figure that out. You still have two weeks.
03:26I was going to agree with you about the whole, this is Petsing's new offense, the 13 tight personnel, except
03:34for the fact you've only kept three tight ends. And one of them's coming into the season injured.
03:42So Laporte is injured, which leaves you Brock Wright and Jackson Meeks. So you don't have a ton of depth
03:49at tight end either, which now leads me to wonder, okay, well, man, you are, you're really banking on no
03:58one getting injured because there's not a lot of depth at either spot.
04:03That's why I thought, okay, maybe you bring in four different tight ends. No, they got three and your starters
04:10already hurt. I don't know what this offense is going to look like.
04:14I think 12 personnel. I think you're going to have two tight ends on the field at all times. Two
04:18by two. That's my best guess. I'm not trying to cut you off. I was trying to answer sincerely, but
04:24the fact of, okay, let's just say that Laporte is going to be okay. All right. I can see that
04:30you could rotate the three tight ends.
04:32If you're going to do that all game long, were you surprised they got rid of Tyler Conklin? Yeah. He's
04:37a pass catcher. That was an addition this off season. Look, they've done some interesting things. I don't overreact to
04:42much because it's preseason.
04:43They said that they were going to make a, you know, all of a sudden the running back is going
04:47to be the workhorse in Gibbs. So then yeah, you need some blocking tight ends. You may need some extra
04:54help because let's face it, that offensive line. I know people want to say, well, it's better than last year.
04:59Last year wasn't good. So saying something was better than last year.
05:02It's not a great statement. It's a low bar to clear that maybe you need the extra blocker with the
05:07extra tight end out there to make sure that Gibbs can become that bell cow that they said he was
05:12going to be.
05:12Now look, it's also interesting is you drafted Tesla, gave up major capital to get him. And if we do
05:21believe you'll get just more two wide outsets, that does limit what he can do for you. That's not an
05:27exclusive thing.
05:28I just look, I want to give people one segment and let them fill in the blanks, but I thought
05:34keeping four wide receivers was kind of weird. It felt like Tom Osborne, 1995, Nebraska, four wide receivers. Okay. Maybe
05:45this is Petsing's offense. Maybe this is going to look a lot different.
05:50Um, I don't know. It's a theory. We're not going to know until we take on the saints. That's reality,
05:55but I'd like to know what you guys think. Um, and yeah, the point about not having a guy who's
06:00ever fielded a punt on the roster in the NFL, that's certainly a choice.
06:04I mean, I, I generally look, you, you have a, you muff upon it'll flip a game. You lose the
06:09damn game. I know it sounds trivial, but no, it's not trivial. Mike, it here's what people will realize it.
06:17And let's hope it doesn't happen, but you're in a kind of a close game against the saints, a team
06:23that you should be favored to beat. And you muffed the punt. Now, all of a sudden you set them
06:27up at the, their own, at your 10 yard line and they score.
06:31Or look, the NFL is a one score league. You give up the ball in your own territory, flip the
06:35field. We'll see who ends up returning punts. But again, you know, I, I didn't think there was much else
06:41surprising. Oh, Kirby's on the IR. Yeah. You think guy's been away from the team for weeks too, by the
06:47way. Yeah. Okay. Kirby, we bet against you and we won. Yes. Uh, branch, same thing. Now again, was I
06:55more interested in what was going on around the league? The commissioner's exempt status for Josh Jacobs.
07:00Something to certainly monitor. That's a guy. If he gets 300 carries, he's getting 1300 yards. He, I don't know
07:07when he's going to play. Um, I thought the Aaron Donald thing again, I'm not trying to short sell it,
07:13but it's weird how people take the name and then it's, they think they're getting the 27 year old version
07:20of that player. Look, I think Aaron Donald doesn't hurt the Rams, but pardon me.
07:25If I don't think that something almost changes at a cellular level, when you haven't played ball for three years,
07:31that, that is an almost unheard of NFL comeback at a position that is very difficult to play.
07:38So I got to see it. Do I think Aaron Donald hurts him again? No, probably helps him a little,
07:44but I don't think this is what it's being built out to be.
07:48So you're saying more like Justin Verlander for the tigers this year where Aaron will show up to work. Okay.
07:55It, where it looked good. Like, wow, we got JV back until it was like, but JV at least pitched
08:00in a stretch drive last year and had a 3.26 ERA over 13 starts in San Francisco. Aaron Donald
08:05had a zero ERA. Cause he was on his couch.
08:08Did you not see the workout video? He's always been a workout demon. And I love the player. I love
08:12him. And maybe he has the most miraculous comeback of all. And it just adds to this spoil of riches.
08:19I just, I kind of laugh because people are acting like he played last year and then they just brought
08:25him in and it's like, all right, hold on. Can we see this guy play? Plus, don't you think there's
08:31going to be some form of ramp up here?
08:32You're not just going to put them out there for 40, 50 snaps. Somebody on this show thinks that. Oh,
08:41Corbin 50 snaps as propaganda. I never said that. Okay. That's slanderous. Yes. Slanderous. No, I mean, I think there
08:49will definitely be a ramp up. Do I, I agree with you. Are we going to get the 27 year
08:53old version? Probably not. I think the version we get of him is still good. Yes. But at the end
08:57of the day, it's just, it's a nice little complimentary piece.
09:01I don't think it's, you know, the ground. I think they were going to be successful this season, whether or
09:05not he was on the team. I agree. Totally. I also would like to say that the Rams finding $20
09:10million of imaginary money underneath their imaginary mattress to sign Aaron Donald is proof. The salary cap is not real.
09:18And I do think it is why there's a number of fans who have a little resentment towards their own
09:27team.
09:28I mean, the lions just don't do stuff like this. They constantly cry poor and the Rams are Scrooge McDuck
09:34diving into their tower of gold bullion. Like what, what's the difference here?
09:38You save all of this money because, Oh, we got these guys that we got them ahead of their extension.
09:44So they gave us, you know, the hometown discount, but you don't spend it on anything. You don't bring in
09:49that difference maker in free agency.
09:51They're off season included signing McDuffie trading for, and lacing him as one of the highest paid corners in the
09:58league trading for miles Garrett, which was hilarious to me because we were made fun of for wanting the lions
10:03to do that.
10:04We were told he would never move. It's impossible. Can't fit him under the cap. Cool. That, that aged like
10:09milk.
10:10Uh, and then they decided that's not enough. Let's unfreeze Walt Disney's head, AKA Aaron Donald. And there's 20 million
10:19bucks all while the Detroit lions did not meaningfully add to their safety core, knowing both guys would be dead.
10:28Yeah. It's okay.
10:29If fans get annoyed by that. So look 53 man, do you think only keeping four wide receivers means something
10:37that it means this will look materially different. And then part two, we can mix the Aaron Donald thing. And
10:43I'm not going to turn the Rams into some unbeatable thing. That's not how football works. Second of all, I'm
10:49not going to do what the morning show did where we are going to do a keys to the game
10:54that may never take place.
10:55And if it did, it would be five months from now. They were breaking down a lions Rams playoff game.
10:59How do you even know he's going to be on the field?
11:04So what were they like mainlining crack? So miles Garrett lined over, uh, uh, Oh, John was already doing a
11:11breakdown of Blake Miller and Aaron Donald. I'm like, what are we talking about? What is happening?
11:17I'm going to go with, um, if that happens, I'm going to go with miles. Okay. The point is you
11:22have two options to dial in.
11:24And I'm not going to turn the Rams into this unbeatable thing. Are they the favorite? Yes. Should they be?
11:29Yes. Do I think you'd beat them in a playoff game? No, but it's football. Like, what are we talking
11:35about? And Rico has a power stat for you. I want you to add that as ice cream Sunday next.
11:40I will too. And I would also tell you my biggest concern with the 53 man roster. My biggest concern
11:46is we're talking about it, but that's okay. I want to hear from you. We got to did Billy avocado
11:51make the team to four, eight. You want to talk tigers?
11:55Absolutely not.
11:55Absolutely not.
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