PODcast: Detroit Lions' Best & Worst Case Scenario in 2026 NFL Draft

0:00What's going on, Lions fans? Welcome to the Pride of Detroit PO D-Casture, home for all the latest and greatest Lions, news, updates, analysis, all the things that revolve around the Detroit Lions. We are here to talk about those things and a whole lot more. There is so much to get into in this podcast. We're going to talk about Rodwood continuing to put his foot in his mouth apparently and continue to rival the fans, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Lions have brought back another part of their secondary from last year that we were all kind of clamoring for. And I think if I'm speaking for myself, probably thought they weren't going to bring back, but they did. And in the second segment of this podcast, we are going to be giving our dream and nightmare draft scenarios because we are getting that much closer to the NFL draft. And at this point in time, this is the closest we're probably going to get Jeremy to doing a mock draft. So let's

1:01just continue to like edge him closer and closer in that direction before. And Ryan, eventually, he won't even know that he's doing a mock draft until he starts seeing the simulator pop up on the screen. But I'm your host, Miko Scott. You can find me over there on Twitter at the Miko Scott join, but like always by my amazing coals, first and foremost, we have your senior editor over at Pride of Detroit dot com. Ryan Matthews at Ryan underscore PO D. Ryan, I think you've gone through more costume changes in like the last 10 minutes than my daughters at a dance competition. I've seen you put on so many different things before we've gone live here. And maybe that'll only happen during the break. So that's another reason why you should be tuned in on Twitter, YouTube. But I'm happy to be here with you guys. I'm excited. The draft is soon. Very soon. Very soon. Yeah. Also joining us is your editor and chief over at Pride of Detroit dot com. Jeremy Reisman at Detroit online over there on Twitter. Jeremy, how you feeling? I feel like I just saw you like not too long ago. We may have talked earlier today. Yeah. No, I'm feeling I'm feeling good. And yeah, just over two weeks away is kind of crazy. It really feels like it's knocked up. It's knocked up on us. And

2:05I think that's just a nature of it being like almost mid April draft instead of late April draft because I think once we turn over to April, it's like, oh, it's draft season. It's like draft season and it's two weeks away. Oh, okay. It's a lot of things going on. I think especially like specifically when you look at Detroit and Detroit sports in general, like there's a lot that are just kind of happening. The red wings are continuing to piss off Ryan. The pistons are pushing their way into the playoffs. And Michigan basketball is making a really, really strong case to win the NCAA tournament this year. So there's a lot going on. And I think that's probably part of the reason why the draft is kind of creeping up on us. But when you have someone like Rod Wood that continues to kind of just say things, it makes me not really want to talk about the lines. At least not in this capacity, Jeremy. Yeah. And so Eric and I did our midweek mailbag and we talked for about 30 minutes about this. So I'm kind of more curious about what your guys' take on it. But I also want to say to our listeners, I know this story is kind of almost a week old at this point.

3:05And I know you guys are probably sick of the bad PR hits. This this team has taken over the past three months or so. But you guys haven't had your opportunity to speak to this. And I think it's important that we cover it because we don't just cover the the sunshine and rainbows here. We we cover some stuff that we don't like or you know, I don't want to speak for you guys. Maybe you guys aren't on the side of not liking what what Rod Wood has done and said. But yeah, I just you know, because we haven't done it formally on the POD. Guess it's probably important that we talk. Well, Ryan, I'm going to go ahead and give you the floor first so that you can kind of I'd rather just follow up whatever you say before leading off on this one. Well, I'll play hot potato with the mic and I'll I'll have the talking stick for the moment. I think when this news broke, one of the first things I said was I can't believe I ever said a nice thing about Rod Wood because it felt like there was so much goodwill that he built up post mega-tron, right? Like after the you know, after the fences were mended with that situation, it really felt like the lines were

4:05on an upward trajectory not only as a franchise in terms of their on field play, but the jerseys got fixed. You know, even the the stadium experience at Ford Field, it's hard to argue that it's not a top five venue when things are when things are just running right along the lines being in Ford Field is one of the best experiences in the NFL. And then you get news that a guy who tried to mid-season come back and suit up for the football team that he stepped away from, you took his signing bonus back from him. How can you be a fan of this? How can you how can you even stand on well business as business? It's like at a certain point, no, it's not. At a certain point, dollars matter a lot less than being a good human being me go. And that's really all I have to say about. Yeah, I think for me specifically when this news kind of broke, it was like, are we really doing this again? I like to to your point, Ryan, like it was almost in that same feeling of like I can't believe I ever

5:06said anything good about Rodwood, but it's just like, how do we continue to make the same mistakes? Because even when this story is making the rounds, like no one else forgot about the Calvin Johnson situation, no one forgot about the Barry Sanders situation. So like when your franchise becomes synonymous with this type of behavior and one person is connected to at least two of these instances, it's just like, is it really like that important? Especially when you're only saving like three million dollars, like is it is it truly that important to your roster to take that money away from Frank Ragnar in the same way that it was when you had that conversation about Calvin Johnson, the same way you had that conversation about Barry where it's like these are guys that truly laid it on the line for you and were like all time like players for this franchise that people will remember for years to come. It's it's really just not a good look, Jeremy. And then I I don't really know how to to Ryan's point. I don't know how you frame this in a way where it is a good thing where you can kind of just be like, oh, well, this is business. Like it's not business that anyone

6:07was expecting to be done though. Right. Listen, I think if I were to play devil's advocate here to be like, well, listen, we've been complaining all off season about how little cap space I have, how tight their budget is, how little they they did in free agency, maybe, you know, acting like this at least gives them a little bit of a breathing room or whatever, but like that doesn't even hold water for me because we're talking about a portion of three of a three million dollar signing bonus. We're talking about probably somewhere around the neighborhood of 1.5 million of a signing bonus and cap space, which is of that minimum nothing. Yeah, it's nothing. If you needed that space, if you needed truly where that desperate, you could do it. You could kick another 10 million of, you know, one of those other contracts into the future. It's, it's very, very silly and petty. And listen, if this is just the line in the sand that the lines have drawn with their policy and this is who they are and this is what they're going to continue to do because it's what they're

7:10always going to continue to do, I guess fine. You want to be that petty. You want to be that unique of a team that does this for for not just like, I think when you recoup a signing bonus, it should very much be player by player situation by situation. But in this case, as you guys lined out, like this is one, this is an all pro player. This is a guy who should be in your ring of honor. Two, this is a guy who tried to come back. This is a guy who the the reason he retired wasn't, it didn't surprise you. Like this was something that he had been discussing for a while. I know he had pushed back on some speculation that he was going to retire, but like this was not a surprise to the lines. And it's $3 million, which is why I think the most pathetic thing about this is Rodwood opening his mouth first of all because as I said on the midweek mailbag for for pride to trade direct subscribers, I think the one thing that can unite all of us is that Rodwood should not have told anyone about this. He should have just shut up. He did not have to reveal this. The reason we don't know how many teams do this and don't do this is because they don't offer it

8:14willingly to the public and we and obviously in other situations that was Calvin Johnson who brought it up. But do you think Midwestern Minnesota nice Frank Ragnar was going to go public with this? We haven't even heard from him since his retirement. He wasn't going to bring this up. If you would have just shut up and not said anything about this, I'd still be mad that you did it if I ever found out, but I probably wouldn't have found out and we wouldn't have had this week of like bad PR. And then on top of that, use these like terrible excuses of like, well, this is the precedent we sent. So you're you're saying like, oh, well, we're just not going to learn from our mistakes because precedent. Well, just just because we've always done it wrong means we're going to continue to do it wrong. It's because it's that's just how we've always done it. And I to your point, Jeremy, just like he could have said nothing and retired. He's on his way out the door. And it's like he just like stuck his foot in the door to be like, oh, yeah, by the way, we're still jerks. Like that, that I get it, Zazoo. I'd get fired up about that too, man. And the one other thing, Miko, that makes me think conspiracy theory tinfoil hat. I know there were some

9:20comments from Taylor Decker about like, oh, everything's good with Dan. Like I still I still love all those guys in locker room. Still love Dan. Who's one of the guys that's in charge of the money? Yeah, I want to pass the buck from Brad Holmes to Rodwood. Let's put all the bad things on Rodwood. I like when we used to do that when we just put all the bad things on Rodwood. Let's put this one last bad thing with Frank Ragnout and then add on anything with the Taylor Decker situation fall out had something to do with Rodwood too. Yeah, I'm all aboard of that. That Rodwood is the reason Brad Holmes didn't return that phone call, right? That he that Brad Holmes was so close to pushing dial and Rodwood came up, slapped the phone out of his hand and said, that's not the precedent we set here. Rodwood was actually, he had Brad Holmes in a meeting tied up for a whole day. That's why you couldn't get back to him. That's just something I heard from Dave and Roseville. I don't know, take it for what it's worth, but I think like shop in your barn. The cake shop. Listen, I think the thing that's that's so bad about this, like you guys pointed out like Rod

10:21didn't have to say anything about this, but it does all of a sudden start to shift attention to like, okay, well, why did he? And who is signing off on these types of moves being made because it's one thing if you were doing it, I guess to Rod's point, if you guys are going to do this to everybody, that's great. But when you continue to do it to your most beloved and your most prolific players, like that's when you're earning the fire of the fan base. And I think a lot of eyes, yes, look at Rodwood, like why the hell are you saying this? Why the hell are you doing this? But also a number of people are probably shifting their eyes to Sheila and being like, why are you allowing this? Why are you like, you know this reflects poorly on the franchise as well? Why? I don't know how much blame do you think she deserves in this situation? Jeremy, it's not zero. And I think we also have to recognize this as a policy that predates Rodwood, right? This is something that they did with Barry Sanders obviously and very publicly. And admittedly that situation was a little different because they got like eight or nine million. And you know, Barry Sanders

11:21retired via facts on the first day of training camp like that's, that's different, right? If they don't even know if I would today be that upset about them doing what they were doing because context matters, which is why again, Rodwood's stupid like, well, what if we signed generic gifts to a $20 million extension and then he retired the next day? Okay, yeah, you'd obviously get all that back. Like no one would argue against that context, context, context. But that all goes to say that like, yeah, Sheila, Sheila should know better. She was, she wasn't the president or the CEO and owner and whatever when the Calvin stuff went down, but she was close enough to see what happened there. She was close enough to see the PR backlash, recognized that Calvin Johnson was estranged from this franchise for five, six, seven years, whatever it was. And she has veto power, right? She can say, you know what, Rod, we tried this once it blew up in our faces. Let's not do it again. I still think it's probably Rodwood's decision that he overall made, but I think Sheila certainly bears the brunt of this. She is the owner of

12:24the team. Everything that happens, especially on the business side of this team is ultimately under her purview. So yeah, she's the blame. And she's been a fantastic owner since she took over. But like she, her name deserves to be in this whatever virtual mob that we're going on right now. Yeah, I, I think as much credit as she gets for doing the right thing, like this is a situation where like, hey, the wrong thing happened. And whatever the, the, the excuse could be, whether it's a, if you get it, if you signed off on this, I have a problem with you signing off on this. If for some reason you didn't have a say in this, why didn't you have a say in this? Like, I think that's something that you should be fighting to have a say in on behalf of both the players and the fan base. Like, this is, I don't, I don't understand Ryan, like how people could have sat in a room, but like, no, the fans will be, fans will be perfectly fine with this. To go back to the last segment, like, maybe this was one of those things, like, all right, we'll do this. We're not going to really talk about it. And then Rodwood gets a microphone and it's like, hey, I got some stuff to talk about. Yeah, I don't know. Who gave him drink tickets at the owner's meetings. I don't know. Maybe that was the problem. But I, I think the thing that did make my

13:27blood boil, Jeremy is what you said when Rodwood pulled out that strawman fallacy and was like, oh, Jimmy, your boobs and stop. What are we talking about? Like, you know, you know, a situation where the lions deserve to recoup money was when camsutton situation happened. Like, that, that was a situation in which lions should have, and I'm pretty sure they did, right? They were able to recoup some of that money or they made an effort to go into arbitration. Yeah. And we didn't get clear of exactly what exactly happened, but yeah, which is great. Please go after it, right? There was a there was a broken conduct policy, arguably. Yeah. Yeah. But like, much like the resolution to that situation, which we never heard about, we never should have heard about what happened with Frank Ragnar. Like, Miko, there's no way that you can look at this and say, in today's day and age two, right? That wasn't worth $3 million for all that negative press that you got because I don't care about the opportunity for nuance or for the opportunity to explain

14:29yourself to say it's precedent to say what if this weird exaggerated, distorted, nonsensical argument actually happened? Like, people see this and people have a reaction and say same old lines, like the lines are doing the same old things. And in this, like, you cannot defend this, like nobody can defend this. And it truly reeks of what this franchise used to stand for. And I'm just happy to see that Rodwood's on his way out the door. Like, don't even run the tape of when we gave Rodwood his happy trails. Like, I feel, I feel sick now that I did that. I'm embarrassed because, like, the whole point of that episode when we were kind of saying goodbye to him was like, wow, look how much he grew. He came in as this guy who didn't know football and he turned this into a franchise that's actually good. And in a matter of one interview with Dave Brickett, he erased his entire legacy of being someone who grew and learned what the football part of this job is all about erased it completely. It also just raises that again, that question of where does the

15:33lines culture kind of stand at this point? Because like you guys said, like, it brought so much negative attention. And I think us other media outlets as well or other podcasts will have been trying to at least like navigate like, okay, the lines culture is still fine. This and the other, but like, you have this most recent situation pop up. You have the Taylor Decker, you know, story that came out. You have David Montgomery's, you know, request for for a trade. You have Alexander Lonnie being very vocal about this and just in general. And then obviously you have the stuff going on with Terry on like, is there is there an issue with the lines culture is Dan starting to maybe lose a bit of the grip that he had on the type of team that this that they should be? I'm not that worried about it. I think I think with a lot of those other examples like Decker, to me, just feels like there's a breakdown in communication somewhere, maybe on both sides. Rod what you heard. Sure. Rod what I don't even if you heard this, but over on the lines collective, Justin Rogers also said he got some new information that like the reason for the

16:34break it down could have been as simple as they had bread homes as old number, which if that's what caused all this, I think that might make the situation honestly worse that that Taylor Decker somehow, you know, the guy who in a lot of ways was like the fulcrum of your offseason doesn't have your new number ridiculous. But anyways, I don't like I think that's that's mistake like that that's dysfunction, not culture, which I know can be a little bit, you know, you're you're you're you're splitting hairs in some sense. Montgomery to me like, I don't even view that as a mistake. I was that was just like that was about as amicable of a divorce as you could possibly say. He wanted a role that you couldn't give him here. And so you sent him to a place that he wanted to go and you got a pretty good deal for him. Anzaloni, I mean, let's be honest, he's being kind of a dick. He needs to unfollow his ex, which is weird. Like why are you still like you're still picking on

17:34like social media stuff, right? Yeah, he's picking on the social media like guy like I you know me there were even people on Twitter saying like, oh my god, you always sign with side with the player and things like this. I'm not signing with Alex Anzaloni on this like they made it pretty clear very early that he wasn't coming back and he didn't come back. And so whatever perceives lights, I think you also have to understand where the lines are at with their franchise. They're they're going to have to say some tough goodbyes. They're going to have to ask Taylor Decker for pay cuts. They're going to have to to make tough business decisions. And that's going to make them look like villains in the way they don't they don't want to look like villains. But it's how you do it, right? It's how you do it. Right. And I think in general, they've handled mostly everything well other than this Frank Racknow situation. And like the Decker situation wasn't great. But again, I think there's probably a little bit of blame on both sides there. Yeah. Like if they didn't update the call sheet. If Rod Wood was supposed to send a fax that he didn't send once again. You know what? Yeah. Rod Wood might have been in charge of like

18:39the Google sheet that has everybody's contact information on it. And he didn't update it. I'm like, I'm like doing a bunch of Nick the Greek bits right now live on the podcast. So that's cool. But one thing I want to say to go away. Good. The only thing I was just going to say is like the part that's disheartening to me is because Rod Wood had a chance to like, I think he bungled it with Berkette. And then he talked to the whole crew about the situation with Frank. And I think I don't think he made it any better. In fact, the disappointing part of it was he was like, he was asking, you know, was he surprised about the backlash? He says, no. Okay. So you did the calculus in your head. And you said bad PR hit worth it for $1.5 million or whatever it was. That to me is disappointing disheartening. But I will, here's the part where I'll play a little bit devil's advocate. Maybe even give him a little bit of credit is that I don't think this is going to affect the lines in any significant way. It's with the way the media run like,

19:40here's the thing, bad PR for a week in March. No one's going to remember in September. No, no one's even going to like, I don't think it's going to affect negotiations that much because players might be like, hey, don't give me signing bonuses. And then you'll be like, okay, we'll just give you an option bonus. It works the exact same way, whatever. Like it's fine. The only way in which I can see it really impacting the way that the lines negotiate with teams is the way that TJ Lane kind of referred to it, which is like, players are just not going to retire under you anymore. They're just going to force you to cut them. And a lot of people, like not a lot of people, but like, even Eric was saying, like, maybe that's what Taylor Necker was doing. And if that's the case, like, it's not going to look good. You're going to, like, some players are just going to make you cut them. And that's not going to look great because you might have to drag it out and it'll make you look like the bad guy. But I honestly think when it comes to like, free agencies and stuff like players aren't thinking that far down the road. They're not thinking about, what are they going to do when I retire? They're just going to be like, hey, give me a big contract. Give me a chance at a championship

20:45and I'll come. That's generally how those things work. And so I'd, so if Rodwood has done all that calculus and he said, you know what? I don't care about looking like an A-hole for a week in March because it's going to make my team $1.5 million richer. I guess Kudos to you for being like the ultimate Scrooge McDuck. I personally, I would hope my, the organization that I throw hundreds of dollars at and devote my professional life to would act a little bit more, with a little bit more, you know, to use a popular term around these, these parts, use a little more decorum. Right? I do, like, I, I agree with Jeremy with the way that in which he kind of broke all of those players down, right? In the sense that like, I think the David Montgomery situation was probably handled as, as well as you can. A player says, hey, I want to roll. You say, now we, that's not how we see us using you. You find a trade destination. Player is traded. It's not even like

21:46drawn out long. Player is still respectful in the media. Like, everything about that situation was done as cleanly and as well as you can possibly ask you to. The Anzaloni situation, dude's been chirping since last season. Like, it's, it's so obvious that he's not happy that it gets to the point where it's like, you just, you're just bitter at this point. And so it's hard to take any amount of criticism, even if it is legitimate criticism, specifically looking at the Frank situation where it's like, that's legit criticism. But the person that it's coming from has been bitter for the last year and a half. I don't know how much weight I can put into that being a reflection of the culture as much as it is similar. Like, it feels like Anzaloni found himself in a similar situation as David Montgomery where it was like, hey, we value you, but we also see another player that's rising the ranks at your position. And we're willing to, like, put our money behind that guy and maybe not you. And you took that way more personal than you should have. Yeah. The, the Terry on situation, like, I don't understand, like, that can't be a reflection on

22:46lion's culture that has to be, in my opinion, of reflection on Terry on Arnold until that situation is rectified that is solely at the porch of, of Terry on Arnold. In the Decker situation, like, that in the Frank situation are probably the worst ones where it's just like, as an, as an organization, you have to be better. We can joke about whether or not someone lost someone's phone number, that shouldn't happen. That should be the easiest thing to do, you know, Dan is someone that you, I think we all kind of expect to be more locked in with his players and be more in tune. And we, I think his, I think his explanation, like we talked about last week, makes a ton of sense from a football, logical standpoint. But I think we all just hold him to a certain standard where it's like, yeah, that can make sense. But we expect you of all coaches or of many coaches to be the one that's going to reach out to his players when they decide to part ways. Yeah, I agree. I think ultimately, I want to say that I'm not overly concerned. Like, if this was on a one to five scale, I'm at like a 1.5, not really that miffed about it. But just at the end

23:50of the day, it was also unnecessary, so unnecessary. Like, even Jeremy, like, I understand, I totally agree with you too. And in the sense that if you're going to drop something like this, just do it in March, like, it's okay. Like, whatever, we'll forget about it by the time the first player not named Fernando Mendoza gets picked in the NFL draft, right? Like, everybody's attention spans or like, okay, the draft started. And, but like, even then, just unnecessary to what end? What to what extent are you deciding that it is valuable enough to do that? So all of it, ball it up, unnecessary. I hope that Frank isn't too upset about it. Yeah. The only like long term thing I would be at least a little bit concerned about is, is if there's just like a disconnect between someone like Dan Campbell and the front office, and this isn't me trying to like, drum up the more more Dan Campbell, Brad Holmes rift stuff like that. I don't buy that necessarily,

24:52but the business side of the of this team and the football side of the team is something that, you know, I think like Chris Beelman has championed as, as, not, I mean, he hasn't said it, but like, people of champion Chris Beelman is the one to kind of bridge that gap. And this makes me wonder if there is still maybe a little gap in between there, between this football culture of being super communicative, of being player first, of, of taking care of your own guys and things like that. And then, you know, the front office that is like, you know, what we're going to save every single penny we can possibly, the CBA possibly allows us to grab. And that just that dis alignment is something that I hope the Lions have now identified and addressed. Yeah. I think, I think that's almost like a must, right? Like, I don't know if there's anything. Like, I think that divide is always going to exist, but you can try to keep that divide smaller, right? Like, especially as the team is getting better. And like you said earlier, Jeremy, as they have to start making more difficult decisions, like, whether it's intentionally or unintentionally, there's going to be that weird

25:54rub of like, okay, we have to cut a guy and we don't want to make it like super awkward. And like, we want to keep its business. But I think it is, I think between the Frank Ragnar situation, between the Taylor Decker situation, I think there is enough to learn from here where it's like, hey, let's, let's make sure that we're sending guys out with more than just a social media package, right? The more, with more than just a highlight, we're like, every team does that. Let's make sure that we're taking care of our guys. And maybe that's not a front office thing. Maybe that is a, hey, Dan, we want to make sure that you're reaching out to guys and at least like bridging that at because I think enough players, Ryan, can understand that like the front office is going to do front office thing. They're going to do business things. Brad might have like a little bit more responsibility because some of these guys, he's maybe drafted or whatever. But for the most part, I look at Dan as the one that's probably be the guy that's like, okay, listen, we're going to make sure that guys get sent out the right way, at least with a phone call. That doesn't have to be public knowledge. But let's try to send as few players away with sour grapes as we can. Yeah, agreed. Now, one player that doesn't have to worry about sour grapes is a fauna

26:58because he's back in Detroit. And this is the guy that I think a lot of us felt really good about going into the off scene where it's like, hey, if the Lions can get a Vonte Maddox back, based on the way he was playing after, you know, he kind of got to take a starting role like, hey, the Lions might be able to be okay for the first few weeks while BB is getting healthier the first few months. You now have a safety room that is that is pretty stacked, right? You have Chuck Clark, you have Christian Izzy and that you added. Now you're adding a Vonte Maddox. How does this kind of like shake out in your guys' mind? Ryan, I'll start with you. And does it give you any type of concern about Kirby's injury and what that may, how that may linger in the early parts of the season? I think I'm sufficiently worried enough about Kirby Joseph's football future. And I think that's like even setting aside the Vonte Maddox stuff. Like, I think Izzy and I think Thomas Harper, I think Dan Jackson, like, I think that there was enough done there at safety in the off season that the Lions have insulated themselves pretty well. When it comes to the safety position,

28:02adding a Vonte Maddox though, lets me know maybe Brian Branch is going to be a take it as he comes. You know what I mean? Like, we're not going to rush the guy and the Lions have never been the team to, at least this regime has not been the team to rush a player back from injury, especially one that they view as a cornerstone of their defense. Brian Branch is that important to their defense. I would say that he's the most, I would say he's the most important player behind Aiden Hutchinson, right? Like, he can make an argument for Jack Campbell. I mean, if Terry and Arnold ends up becoming a number one cornerback, he's super important, but Brian Branch is just so essential to everything they do on defense. And we've seen the difference he makes. So Jeremy, I think that the Vonte Maddox signing just lets me know that they wanted to be stable from August to whenever Brian Branch gets back. Like, they didn't want to rely on, right? They didn't want to rely on Dan Jackson to be a guy for defensive snaps. They didn't want to draft

29:04maybe another guy because I don't know, maybe if you want to read this in a positive light or, you know, take an optimistic view of this, maybe this is like a good thing about Kirby Joseph. Right? Like, maybe it's like, well, we're not going to go into the draft and draft somebody. Like, I'd be hard pressed to see them maybe draft a safety at this point. I mean, maybe, but I'm assuming this is a one year deal, right? Like, safety would still theoretically be a long term need. But I feel like that's just such a, it's such a jammed up depth chart at this point now. Yeah. Well, there you go. I think it'll also be interesting to see once they take the field in offseason, in the offseason program, how many of these guys they view as safeties, how many of you as nickels, right? Because there is a lot of overlap with with a lot of these guys, including Avanti Maddox, definitely with Christian Isian, definitely with even Brian Branch. If you want to talk about Brian Branch, Creary, Creary, right outside inside both Avanti can even play a little outside corner too. So, you know, I think the safety room could look a little thinner depending on where they view all these guys, but it's certainly not thin. And that's that's the good news,

30:08right? You have guys with a ton of playing starting experience now outside of branch and Joseph Avanti has a ton of experience starting. Chuck Clark has what is like 80 starts in his career. Thomas Harper got his feet wet quite a bit last year and played a little bit with the Raiders as well. Isian has about 17 starts worth. So you have a ton of experience guys to go along with a guy like Dan Jackson, who you're probably still going to want to bring along and keep on the team. But I will say this, when they signed Chuck Clark last week, I was like, okay, that probably means they're not going to bring Avanti Maddox back. Yeah. They got a veteran guy who plays, who plays a bunch. Now that they've brought up Avanti Maddox back, I'm like, huh. That's that's you're almost overdoing the depth there. And I wonder why and I don't want to be a negative Nancy. I don't want to be a what blanket here. But if I could put on instead a tinfoil hat here, at all, is it at the NFL combine? Bread home was like, give me a month and I'll and we'll have a better idea of where Kirby's at. And then two week two or three weeks ago on the lines collective podcast, he was like, and give me two or three weeks. And I'll have a better idea

31:11where Kirby Joseph is. And then he signs two safeties. I'm looking at the calendar. It's about lining up with, and I don't know, I don't want to necessarily see the two things are connected because maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But the important part is this because I don't want to pretend to know what's going on with Kirby Joseph. The important part is this is that they are now covered. If Kirby Joseph is injured, they are now covered. If Brian Branch misses a month or two of the season in a way that they have experienced guys out there, are they going to give the same level of play that both those players are going to? No, but you're going to get starting capable talent out of those guys. And that's that's overwhelmingly goodness. Yeah, I think we've talked about it a lot so far throughout those offseason. Like they're continuing to raise the floor at least of this team. Like you said, you're getting so many starting caliber guys that if this is a situation where you go into camp and you're only looking to bring, you know, three or four safeties with you, like you have a good crop of guys to figure out like the best of that group. Again, three or four guys to back up, baby and Kirby when they're healthy. But I do

32:15Ryan like this crop of safeties. I do think it is one of those things where the secondary, the last couple of years has had injuries in some capacity, whether it's the corners, whether it's the safeties. Like we said, last year Kirby, baby, both got hurt. Thomas Harper got hurt at one point in time. Like you have enough quality bodies now where if you want to load up going into the season, you have that if you want to kind of spread the wealth and just kind of figure out like, hey, we just want to take the best of this group. You can do that as well. Yeah. And but I think that's just why I don't even see like room for a literal body. So drafting a safety, I think is like unless it's a very late pick and it's a guy who maybe we'll see if he makes a roster maybe doesn't or maybe that's a guy that pushes Dan Jackson off the roster. I could see that happening. But I don't see any like serious investment being made just from the sheer number of bodies that they have at the safety position. A rocky scene is a guy who was playing safety for the majority of training camp last season. So they they have a lot of movable pieces though. And I think that's the that's the encouraging thing about it too is that they have guys that they can move

33:19around in case injury does hit. So maybe we might be looking at this right now and say they have so many safeties. And it's like, well, maybe one of those guys they view as an outside corner back. One of those guys they view as a nickel back, you know, one of those guys they made just view as he's going to bring special teams for us. Maybe that's Dan Jackson. So but I feel better. I feel better with on vantamatics on the football team, right? Like good, good signing bread homes. Again, you continue to improve this football team around the margins. And specifically to your point, Miko, like you raised the floor on it. Yeah. I think Jeremy, I feel overall just kind of better about the secondary as a whole. Like you said earlier, like because so many of these guys can play so many different roles in Ryan kind of illustrated perfectly. Like maybe only a handful of these are actually safeties. Maybe another crop of these they look more at as nickels. Maybe there's a couple they want to see compete at outside corner. And if you can get this type of collection of talent together, it can again, whether it's the safety room, whether it's the corner room. Like you can kind of just mix and match and find like the best crop of talent

34:22that you're looking to kind of roll out there at one week one. And it's the same way I look at my righteous feeling craft jerky orders. Like I want to make sure I get the perfect collection of jerky whenever I'm going through an order. I'm going to get a couple meat sticks. I'm going to get a couple bags of jerky. I'm going to get some spicy. I'm going to get some savory. That's the benefit in my opinion of shopping at righteous felon is that you just can never really go wrong with what you're looking to get. You can stock up in a number of different ways. And the Pride Detroit podcast is brought to you by righteous felon craft jerky is the jerky that fuels the Pride Detroit POD cast. Each two ounce back of jerky has 16 to 20 grams of protein and each dick has eight grams. Trust me, if it's good enough for the lines, it's going to be good enough for you to. Righteous felon is based in Westchester, Pennsylvania. They use locally sourced all natural black ink as beef and pride itself on superior quality revolutionary branding and unique flavors that go beyond the stereotypical jerky offering. Jeremy and I were talking earlier today and we stocked up and you got the duo pack. Let's see, I got to do one of the things. It's one of the things that righteous felon has rolled out this year and they've had a couple of like this is I think

35:23their second like new flavor or new product that they've had out there. I can't wait to get mine because that's one of the things that I have on my order. I also have I also have the honey heist meat, meat stick, which is absolutely fantastic. And then like I said earlier, they do have just great packages of jerky. I was telling Jeremy earlier, Truffalo Bill is one flavor that we just don't talk about enough. We love to talk about Marilyn Monroe. We love to talk about some of the you know, soul survivor. Truffalo Bill, if you have not checked it out, absolutely 10 out of 10. So go over to righteousfelon.com. Use the promo code POD 15 at checkout to get 15% off your order. Once again, that's promo code POD 15 at righteousfelon.com. And when we come back, we are going to get into those dream and nightmare scenarios when it comes to the NFL draft. And I'm going to say right now, guys, I might be dreaming a little too heavy, right? I might be like having a really good nap when it comes to my dream scenario, but we're going to get into that in a whole lot more right after this.

36:45And welcome back to the product district POD cast your home for all the ladies and greatest lions content. We are starting segment two here talking about our dream and nightmare draft scenarios with the draft only a couple of weeks away. Listen, it's normal that every fan is going to have what they think the lion should do or what would make the lions the best likely contender for a super bowl. But at the end of the day, like the draft never really goes the way we think it will. And so in this segment, we're all going to basically run through what we think our dream scenario is and what a nightmare scenario may be mainly focusing on the first two rounds in the draft because obviously things get into like all type of wackiness once you get past round three. So we're just going to keep it to the first two rounds and obviously the lions currently don't have a third round pick. So that's another reason why we're not doing the third rounds. Ryan, I'm going to have you start us off here. I guess if you want to go through both your dream scenarios and then we'll just or you go through your dream scenario and then we'll just kind of each follow suit. I want to start with nightmare scenario because I want to get the bad out first and I want to exercise these demons much like apparently Dan Hurley does before you kind of basketball season.

37:48He takes he takes sage around the court. I'm taking sage around the first two days of the Detroit lions draft by getting the nightmare scenario out of the way first. My nightmare scenario involves and I feel like I should just shut off the lights and get a get a flashlight in my chin. But like my nightmare scenario is that all of the top offensive tackle prospects go off the board and the Detroit lions are left to choose. Also you see the top edge rushers go off the board and while it's like okay like are all those guys going to go I will tell you that in this draft I think that between picks one and 16 there's going to be a lot of offensive tackles and defensive events that go like historically that's just how it works like I ran a lot of numbers from the past 10 drafts like 30% of the top 10 picks over the past 10 years have come from either offensive tackle and defense event like it's a it's a it's a big number that is pretty disproportionate to the rest of the physicians that are in football. So like if you see a run on offensive tackles you

38:50see a run on edge go and the lions settle for maybe like a lesser edge player like if they settle for like a like a TJ Parker or something and even like Keldrick Falk almost kind of falls into that too because it's so much like well we project him to be a good pass rusher but we didn't quite see it at the college level like in a consistent way but he's a really good run defender and it's just like that's great but I just want another guy who can get after the quarterback and it feel it would feel very much like last season where it's like okay it's end of the first round they take Tyler Williams he's a great run defender but maybe the past rush stuff can come along that's not so essential to the position that Tyler Williams plays but it is very essential to the position that a defensive end would play and so if they settle for a guy who's like a run defending edge defender and you can maybe even make the argument that that guy might not be a starter because you have you have one of them you have Aiden Hutchinson you have Levi-Honzer-Rike if that guy doesn't play a

39:53starter's level worth of snaps on offense defense whatever position it is and then that pick at 50 ends up being another guy who is a role player and is getting situational snaps and not getting a starter's level's worth of snaps but like a significant contributor you walk out of day one and day two without significant contributors and just like part-time guys with upside that would be an absolute nightmare scenario for me can I can I jump in here because I think I think I want to cure you for you of this nightmare because I don't I don't think it's going to happen but I also need more clarification on what where the line is for you particularly with offensive tackle because I guess you kind of outlined the edge like once David Bailey Rubin Bane or is a key messador would that be okay with you I mean it brings more past it brings more past rush chop so like okay so I would be I would be more excited about a pick like that yeah so let's say three edge guys right those three those three are gone and then where where do we stop it offensive tackle

40:58Maui Noah Spencer Fano Blake Miller Monroe Freelink in Proctor like here's the thing I think realistically you can see Maui Noah Fano and Freelink all come off the board before yep 17 like that's a very realistic scenario but but did if there's a team that moves up maybe yeah yeah to take a Blake Miller yeah I'm not sure if it's that guy or if there's a team that fall in love falls in love with Caden Proctor like what it shocked you if the Philadelphia Eagles were like we want a big guy to put on the offensive light right and you talked about this in your in your article today Jeremy but I think that is the line of like those four guys Maui Noah Fano Miller and Freelink those four guys go off the board it feels like I'm interested in Proctor but I just like it feels like too unsure of a thing and then if he doesn't play tackling plays guard and you drafted a guard in the first round right okay but that's that's seven guys you're talking about for offensive

42:05tackles three edge that's that's over your 30% by a pretty significant that's almost 50% of the first 15 16 picks I mean that there's Mendoza right that you're going to put in there too so like that's you know you can assure that he's going to come off the boards yep running back going to come off the board maybe a receiver or two yeah and I will say writing that offensive tackle right writing that offensive tackle article a little bit I was actually kind of surprised by how many teams above the lions don't particularly need an offensive tackle they still might grab the one because it's a good investment but I was a little bit surprised by how few teams above them there's there are significant amount below them that that could jump them and and that but I would be I would actually be pretty surprised if even four offensive tackles were off the board by the lines by the time the lines run I think the one thing that makes me think that there could be more offensive tackles that go off the board though it's just because I think that I think that a lot of teams are going to look at 17 and say we need to get ahead of that team if we want to take an

43:07offensive tackle yep so it's the downside of what I was railing against all off seasons like you don't want to really go into the the draft where you need quote unquote need a a player there now I do think the lions either think or they are trying to project that they think that they are frying with Larry Borum at right tackle and and peninsula left but I don't know how much I actually believe them yeah and I think like what we talked about last week when we were all laying laying out like some of the players that we like the most like you see so many of those tackles and it's like not every team's going to love every prospect but there's enough of them where you're just like to Ryan's point like man somebody might get greedy where they're just like right now sure Blake Miller might be projected to fall to 17 or past 17 but a team that's back there and it's like yeah no I don't I don't want to risk on on possibly missing I don't play like that jumps ahead of you it's one of those things that I think is a nightmare scenario in some capacity I think for all of us in the back of our minds like okay that starts to happen a team start getting a little too

44:08trade happy like what's the pivot for the lion specifically at tackle but Jeremy what is what's your kind of nightmares it's scenario it's a good kind of follow up here because it's very similar but it's kind of the opposite of the spectrum my nightmare scenario is that one of the top two offensive tackles falls but the lions get jumped by one of those offensive tackle needy teams below them the Eagles kind of being the primary one that I'm concerned about because our good friend Brandon League out and is even toss the idea of them trading up to getting offensive tackle and because again like I do think maybe the offensive tackle market isn't that high in the first 16 I think it could happen in fact there are a couple mock like notable mock drafts out there where the lions get a really good offensive tackle at least get the opportunity to get a really good offensive tackle the the two examples that I'm thinking of is ESPN did their like round robin mock draft where was it four guys Melkhyper Matt Miller Jordan Reed field the four guys were just kind of like rotating in their picks and in that situation

45:08the only offensive tackle off the borders was Maui Noah so they could grab literally anyone that they wanted out of there he ended up picking Kuiper ended up picking Monroe Freeling but Fanu went 19 a Yawane was it is not even off the board yet so if you wanted him he was at 20 he went 21st the Hanatra went 23rd Proctor went 24th Blake Miller went 40th Lomu went 43rd so like that's one I mean those guys went way later than than what some lions fans I think are expecting and then the other one is is mean of times where she had Daniel Jeremiah on her show now her mock draft it was a little wonky in its format in that she would just toss two guys Daniel Jeremiah is way and he'd have to pick between the two but in that case Fanu or I'm sorry Maui Noah fell all the way to the lions at 17 I don't I don't know if there was a single offensive lineman that went off the board probably that that one's probably a little bit more unrealistic but I just think I think there is a good chance that maybe one of those top two guys falls to Detroit or at least falls near Detroit it would be a nightmare of to me if Fanu was right there or Maui Noah was

46:11right there and then someone jumped him the closer we get to the draft the more I believe that Monroe Freeling might be the first offensive tackle off the board yeah I don't know how much of that is real like his stock is I think maybe a little bit out of control right now I think it's real but did you see I figured you saw the cassel I don't know he loves Monroe Freeling interesting yeah he said that he's OT see and you're why are you saying that like you're you're playing into my nightmare scenario because first of all kudos to you Jeremy for not just putting trade up because I was so sold that that was going to be your response of just be like trading up my first draft response was that but then I thought it would be more interesting I'll go ahead and follow that sword for you because like this is where as much as we've talked about trading up specifically Ryan and I the last couple of weeks of like hey it'd be really cool if the lion's decided to trade up into the top 10 to go get their guy and I'm still kind of like in favor of that that guy just can't be Monroe Freeling like if you're going to spend future draft

47:14capital whether it's in this draft or in next year's draft it can't be for a guy that's only had 18 starts if you want to take that guy at 17 I'm still not going to love it but I'd feel better about it if you get traded back and took that guy into the 20s I'd feel good about it but like it I think with what the lions need on that offensive line and we saw how discombobulated they were with so many new faces and so many guys getting like their first crack at at starting full time you can't afford to have that at at tackle in my opinion like it's just too vital of a position and I think edge defenders are getting just so good and so talented at the NFL that like you can't afford to have a guy that just hasn't hasn't seen enough football like at a high level to be one of your anchors on your offensive line in that way and then if they compound that mistake Ryan by like getting into the second round and once again not addressing the edge position whether once again because you trade it up you can no longer be aggressive enough to maybe even trade up

48:15higher into the second round and there's not a really good pass rager that's available to you and they decide to go in a different direction like I don't think I don't think this edge class runs that deep where if it's like oh well you can just wait till the fourth round or you can wait till the fifth round like I strongly feel like probably by the third round like you're going to kind of see a good run of guys go off the board and again no no shade to Ahmed Hassanine because we haven't gotten to see him on the like on the field yet but like that's when you're going to end up with that crop of players and it's going to be a lot of projection and it's going to be a lot of like is this player even going to make the roster and it goes kind of to a Ryan with saying we're like you don't even get a guy that's like a prolific pass rager you might get a great bait to good run defender but you're not getting the thing that the Lions truly need going into next season. There's a reason why defensive ends and offensive tackles go off the board in the first couple of rounds because by the time you get to the third fourth fifth round we're talking about developmental projects and players that either have like very very low ceilings or very high ceilings and the

49:19thing for me is like I thought back to last year when you're when you're just talking about defensive and me gun it's like if you wait to the third round and like I remember land in Jackson for the Arkansas razor backs and if you remember him but he was a guy that a lot of people were talking about the Lions could take him the second round and the fact that he made it to the third round he was at the top of everybody's like day two available players including mine and he went all the way at picks 70 picks 72 by Buffalo he played 30 snaps last year in three games and it's just like that was a guy that everybody was like oh he come in he could probably play it's like you have to temper your expectations with any defensive ends that are drafted after round one right like you start to get into the situational guys after round one where it's like that might not be a three down player or maybe he might be a three down player one time but yeah I'm with umiko like I think that and then we keep on talking about offensive tackle and defensive end for the first two picks of the Lions draft it feels like it feels like almost like

50:22I don't know Jeremy like a nightmare scenario would be if they don't walk out with at least one of those guys in the first two picks either an offensive tackle or defensive end that feels like a nightmare scenario in and of itself I think that's probably fair I mean no one's gonna care if they get an all pro at a different position but I mean people still care because people are going to complain about edge until the end of time but yeah I don't know how realistic it is that the Lions are going to walk out with edge and offensive tackle with their first and second on pick I know it's what everyone wants to happen and they're they're too most pressing needs but like I can also use a linebacker they can also use a nose tackle which I hope they don't spend a first or second on pick on the second gear use they could use a corner an outside corner that they trust long term considering we don't know if DJ Reed or Terry Arnold will be on the team beyond this year so I wouldn't mind a dip into one of those other depositions but two in the first two rounds that would be like so we really are okay with DJ Wannum as a three-down guy we really are cool with as you're starting right tackle that's that's the plan okay yeah and I

51:28right and I think like Ryan said like you can't it's I think like we're all saying like it can't be both because like I I'm probably a little bit higher on Wannum than then some people in terms of like can probably just being a more like an upgrade at that edge position opposite Aiden but like if so if you decide to prioritize tackle and then in the second round you dip into one of those other position groups linebacker corner corner nose tackle something like that like I can get behind that exactly like okay at least like I think Wannum will do enough good things but you can't do both right like and I honestly think like not addressing tackle early the closer we get to the draft it's it's kind of the nightmare scenario like you have to have a plan for addressing that as early as possible which is kind of counter to what my dream scenario is going to be but like it is what it is I do I mean I think tackle is still the priority priority for me hopefully it's for the team tip yeah Ryan do you want to lead us off with your dream scenario yeah my dream scenario is pretty simple

52:29even though it requires a little bit of what Jeremy's nightmare scenario would be which involves like trading up but the the top offensive tackle on the lion's board slips out of the top 10 the lions can probably use either the pick they got in return for David Montgomery or they can use their own fourth round pick at one eight at one eighteen and and move up a few spots it's definitely doable and if they can jump you know three or two or three teams to get their top offensive tackle on the board that's a dream scenario to me like if you walk out with a starting offensive tackle on day one and you still have pick 50 sweet nice shot way to go like because I think Jeremy at that point at 50 there might be an opportunity at 50 to move back sure right so you won't get as much in return obviously but yeah yeah you won't get as much in return even if it's like maybe for a future second round pick and like a later like a later pick this year

53:30I'd be a fan of that like moving back in the second round I think makes more sense to me than moving back in the first round especially like after you kind of calmed my nerves about you know all those offensive tackles and defensive ends coming off the board in round one I think it makes more sense to trade back in round two than it does in round one I don't think I agree but that's also because my dream scenario is a trade down but I will say like if the lion's trade up two or three spots to get their guy to get their offensive tackle I'm not going to complain much especially if it only costs them one of their fourth ideally the later of the fourth and as you kind of displayed on your article about trading trading up when you only move one or two spots in the middle of the first round that that's all it could cost you sometimes it's just a fourth round pick and I can handle that it's still not my favorite thing I certainly wouldn't call it my dream scenario like if they get Maui Noah there like I'm gonna have a hard time complaining about that Jeremy you would you would love it because here's what it is it's pick 128 from the Texans and then they also trade one of their

54:35six round picks so it's going to make your day three just that much easier I'm like a seventh they're only seventh that's fine great that's fine no one needs that but but shut it down but for someone like me who has been clamoring about the lion's taking improving their offensive lines seriously it's going to be hard for me to complain too much of it only costs them an extra fourth to get the guy they think is probably the missing piece of that offensive line I think one thing we can all agree is that I don't I don't think Brad Holmes would trade up for the player who's not at the top of his board at some position like and in the first round he's shown no fear in doing that but to your point to Jeremy like if it requires you to move up just a couple of spots how he roseman has been willing to move up lots of spots in lots of drafts so you maybe need to out bid a guy I don't know I'm sorry like if it requires you outbidding a guy then what if it does cost you a future pick if my if my nightmare is that a team jumps jumps them

55:36in the draft for top offense of tackle I think I yeah by by logic I have to be okay with them trading up to prevent that from happening that's called the laboratory that's called sleep paralysis Jeremy all right Jeremy how would you go ahead and lead us off with you or or fall in up with your dream scenario you'll never guess I want him to trade down I'm going to no feeling okay no for the love of God trade down if you can obviously it has to make sense I think our conversations about the offensive tackle class have been very interesting because I think we even all agreed last week all of them have something about them that's like I don't know there's there's there's warrants on all of them even like the very very top guys and if that's the case I'm not sure any of them are homerun swings and I'm not sure if it you know because a lot in a lot of these like national mocks and I'm not saying they're you know infallible they're they're often wrong but we often see the guys that we think might go to the lions being picked at 30 being picked early in the second round and and things like that surprise you on draft day you spend all these times

56:40hyping up these guys and then they're they're available 10 picks later if the lines trade down I would say and I got I got a little piece kind of the the the counter piece years coming in the next day or two about what value you can get in the trade down if you go like the one or two spots throughout it's it's a fourth round if you get go into the more like five to eight to nine you're talking about a third you can you can even get even they don't have right they don't have that's important to consider yeah yes and and so if they like to me an ideal spot is if you move down like seven spots you pick up an extra third now you've got another guy who might be able to give you significant contributions in his rookie season plus maybe still having a shot at one of those offensive tackles plus whatever you do with that second round pick that that to me is like a like an a plus draft I mean if you can somehow get some 2027 draft capital out of it great because as I keep saying over and over and over and over again as the core of this team gets smaller but more expensive you need those rookie deals you need as many of them as you can get and

57:46you need to start hitting on all of your picks sure but if you can get as many as you want the chance that you you're hitting on some of those picks are even higher and so I just I need I'm all about getting as many bites at the apple in the draft especially with where this team is at in terms of their salary cap get some more draft capital find a way so I was I like I said before the break I dream big I decided to kind of I think I'm probably the only person that actually like went with actual players that I would actually want but in in my dream scenario Lee Maui Maui Noah and Fano are off the board and those are like like those are the two guys that I would really love to see falls of the lines if they could at 17 but I'm going to stick with the player that I've been really high on for most of this process and I'm going to go say that the line still draft a key message or at 17 and they get the edge that they need to be opposite eight and that's going to help really juice up that password give them like dual threat guys I can get after the quarterback but in addition to that the lines get really aggressive Brad Holmes gets really aggressive near the

58:47back end of the first round any trades some draft capital in the future to get back into the first round I don't know what it would cost I put a second and a fifth future second and a future fifth again not sure what it would cost to get back into the first round but is able to pick up Kate and Proctor who slides all the way to the late 20s in the lines still have pick 50 and they're able to kind of have a good reset I think that would cost at least next year's first listen I don't even I don't even care man I was you know I was there not too long ago no I was there to hand off the button I was I was there not too long ago with trading a future first to move all the way up and get the top offensive tackle in the draft but we've talked about it and it's just like there's there's there's just too much concern that I have with some of the top guys being well they'd be a power right tackle and if they don't work out there then they move to guard and like the thought of in hindsight trading up to get draft a guard potentially in the first round feels like a

59:51misallocation of resources like sure and I think I think about it now yeah and I think that has to be the caveat that you would have like if that's the caveat that you have when it comes down to Kate and Proctor's like hey he's a future guard then yeah like a trade like this doesn't make sense I think in my situation where it's like no I think he can be a very good left tackle for you like it's it's worth the alley it's yeah it's worth the allocation of resources to be able to be like no like we get we get two players that kind of like both players fit the mold of this team and would be I think impact players for years to come so it's one of those things where like we talk about like again the Lions continuing to invest in this young core which is getting like more and more expensive as the years go by like to the point where it's like I'm kind of fine with giving up a first round pick just so that you don't have another big contract that you have to give to somebody like but if they're going to be picking a 32 next year that's not that big of a contract I mean like the way they would be yeah I mean listen of course getting a first round

1:00:55talent at edge and offensive tackle is like a dream scenario but when you're talking about trading into the first round this year and using next year's capital it's it's always next year's capital is one one round higher than what you're trying to seek right so if you're trying to get a third round pick this year it's cost you a second round pick next year so if you're getting a first round pick next year it's going to cost you a first round pick next year and more like it might be like first and your 50th and if that's the case that's that is too much yeah way too much the kid yeah I agree I think if that's the case it's definitely way too much but I like I said if we're talking about dreaming in the situation if we're talking about having a fantasy dream big yeah I'm gonna dream big I'm not like because I think again and and no shade to your guys is dreams I think you're I think your guys dreams are much more realistic I do think there's a scenario where the Lions could jump up a couple spots and maybe only give up a fourth to get a follow to get a Maui Noah that was starting to slide for some reason and like everyone's going

1:01:59to be ecstatic right and I think like you're still in a good spot I think there's a scenario where the Lions could trade down if things start to like not really look the way they wanted to and they have you know Kaden Proctor or Blake Miller or Caleb Lomu on their list you're like oh this is a guy that will take but we just don't think at 17 is the best place to take that player we're gonna get some additional capital because there's a good offer on the table sure this one is like yeah this is swinging for the fences this is like a hard reset in a way of like hey we're not just going to try and just get the talent that falls was like we're gonna go get our guys similar to the 2022 draft where they were like yeah we're gonna take eight and Hutchison at two and then we're also going to get greedy and we're gonna trade all the way up from 31-32 to get Jamison Williams Jamie well I just the last thing I want to suggest is where would you file the trade that Eric at home proposed on NFL.com like I feel like we should review that because I don't think we've talked about it but like so in that scenario at Eric at home for NFL.com he mocked up a trade

1:03:02between the Lions and the Washington commanders the Washington commanders would get Sam LaPorta the Lions first round pick this year at pick 17 as well as their pick at 205 in the sixth round the Lions in return would get the commanders first round pick and they're at seventh overall they would get a 2027 third round pick and they would get tight end Ben Sinat. Is that a dream a nightmare scenario what I I don't know how do you feel about it. To me it's it's probably closer to nightmare than than dream I do think this conversation deserves a little bit like people have a very visceral reaction to this trade one way or another and I get like your trading way a really good player in Sam LaPorta and you're not even getting an additional draft pick you're just improving your first round pick by 10 spots and then you're improving it's 2026 sixth into a 2027 third and you're getting a tight end it's just it's just not enough value

1:04:02for me but I'm not not like diametrically opposed of trading Sam LaPorta because again like I think Bradholm needs to be a little bit more judicious with how he extends his own players and I think at some point we're gonna hit a critical mass where they are playing too many players high end top tier value contracts even if they're homegrown talent like you want that to be your culture you want to be draft developed resign but at some point it just becomes too expensive I like Sam LaPorta I don't want him to go anywhere I don't want them to trade it trade him away but it is something they should consider if the price is right in this case I just don't think the price is good enough I need like I need an additional first like I it almost feels like you throw a 2027 maybe if that's 2027 pick is a first round pick instead of a third round pick maybe I'm feeling better about that but I just I feel like he is a he's a top five guy at his position and a guy that that Dan Campbell himself was like hey he's part of the reason why our running game collapsed

1:05:05towards the end of the season and I know I know they value him more than a lot of people do yeah I I think this is one when this was like first kind of like posted in the slack I was like oh yeah and like after I like I thought about it for like a little bit I'm kind of with Jeremy in the sense that like that would feel like a steal for the commanders and I feel like the lions would need to ask for more whether it's a whether it's like you're saying taking that 2027 uh third rounder and turning it into a first rounder or getting a second rounder in 2026 like we're getting getting a second rounder in that same draft or something like that like there needs to be an additional form of compensation because I do think Sam Laporta has that much value but at the same time there's also like I can only assume obviously in a scenario like this is like you're jumping up this high to get a Maui Noah like I don't know if there's anyone else that I'm jumping that high and giving up Sam Laporta for yeah that's what I was looking at like according to

1:06:09I mean I'm just looking at pff's big board right but like all the guys all the guys all the guys inside seven are like David Bailey Rubin Bane Sonny Styles like Arvela like all those guys are probably going to be off the board by the time you pick at seven and like unironically their seventh ranked player is Maui Noah and like like I love Maui Noah like I you'd be an awesome pick if he slides the 17 do it if in my dream scenario if he's there at 14 and you can move up and get him do it but it's just like the concern about like is he a guard and if you move all the way up to seven and you get Maui Noah and he's a guard I Jeremy this trade would have been so easy for you if the commanders just wouldn't have released Beatish they could have just put Beatish in there instead of Benson's right you would have been like do the trade send the papers but but I guess the question is like what if what if one of those guys falls what if Rubin Bane falls what if you know the the linebacker falls what if well then it's a really interesting conversation really interesting like conversation yeah like I think it's exciting in the sense of like oh that's but you don't

1:07:13have time you don't get time in that moment you know what I mean like if this was like okay here's our I here's our proposed trade if if your guy is there at seven will agree to it and it's like man you have to pull that trigger immediately like you feel great about that in the moment like trading Sam Laporta I know I don't know if you do but we talk about it all the time with 2023 like how are you going to balance this like how are you going to keep this like all stabilized and it's like you can't give contract extensions to everyone but it feels like you can't with all four of those guys from 2023 so this is a way to mitigate but it sounds like they're gonna try though right it sounds like the way they talk about it sounds like they really want to do it and I'm not saying it's the right or wrong move and it's hard to do the math four years down the line with with capits and when you don't even know what the seller cap is necessarily gonna look like but it seems like maybe doing all four would be financially irresponsible and is Laporta the most tradable of that group that they'd be willing to trade I don't know it's hard I mean it might

1:08:17not even really be an issue because I mean the commanders could always pull a Ravens and just like flag as physical and be like nah trades off so wait so but what would happen though the lines some lines would have to give the player that took that seven back to that's like how it looks the commanders don't know how would you how you would do that after a trade has already happened like if you agree to terms right because like we're not finalizing the trade but you agree that that's going to happen but then Sam Laporta fails this physical the rest of the draft already happened like what do you do I think maybe at that well here's a rabbit hole I think you have to agree to the trade without a physical like I think of that has to be done because it becomes official right when you trade on draft aid that is an official trade yeah I think that they do move up it's not like NBA right me go where it's like you see them put the hat on of like the team that they're actually not going to like that doesn't happen in the NFL like you swap picks yeah

1:09:18yeah right and it's and the whole reason the the the max crossby thing happened was because trades couldn't become officially yet now when you make a trade it's it's it's official when you make it when you want to make it official but if if you're trading draft picks it has to be official then right there and so you would have to I mean you kind of outlined it yourself like to trade Sam Laporta on draft aid that has to be an agreement you make beforehand right that has to be like hey if our guys are at seven let's make this trade and so behind the scene time I imagine like you're sending MRIs you're you're sending them injury reports so that they're sure now you're not going to send them Sam Laporta and say hey go to their facility and do do a physical why don't don't worry about it don't worry because I think that that's the one thing that's like obviously in the in the midst of all this that is like a big part of like why the lines would also consider trading Sam Laporta it's like yes there is the contractual aspect of it where it's like hey he's doing extension he's a top five player who's going to prop who's going to command top five

1:10:18money but he's also like on the on the other side of it's like Sam's have some injury concerns the last couple of years and is that another reason why the lines maybe aren't super comfortable wouldn't be comfortable with a long-term extension where it's like all right it was it was like an ankle like last year an ankle or knee last year this year it was it was the back like that's a couple of things at a at a position where listen tight ends get hit hard and they get hit awkwardly and a lot oh yeah so it's just like I think that's why when the first when the trade was like when I first read up on the trade it was like oh yeah like for me I thought injury like it's just it's a lot of hits that Sam has taken in his early career but Jeremy to your point I do still think that's worth an upgrade at a pick or an additional pick somewhere to make that trade yeah I just I just to me I don't I don't love the optics of not getting literally an additional

1:11:19player you're just upgrading picks and granted like they're obviously massive upgrades going from 17 to seven is a huge upgrade and going from was a fifth round or two to a third is is big but it's just it's not enough for me which is funny because I think all the like negative comments on the article are like why would Washington do this and it's part of it is fair because in a lot of if you're trading for Sam Laporta you are you are trading for him and extending him so he's also going to cost you a ton of cap space yeah yeah Nico coming up I mean the best way to figure out your dream scenario he said isn't a better option just trading Laporta for a late first round pick and getting Nico's dream see people are finding ways to make my dream a reality we can get there guys I thought you're gonna quote star trek there I didn't realize you were tapping our twitch chat all right guys well we've talked about a lot there is a Michigan basketball game that's going to be played here in a couple of minutes and I know a couple of the guys on this podcast really want to watch that so any other things that we need to talk about we got some

1:12:21reviews do we want to hold them for next week or should I I'm cool reading them we can we can come let's real quick we we beg the people to leave us these reviews we're going to give them their five minutes of fame absolutely that's right and they they are going to get famous from us reading their reviews so you know three millionaires speak your name on a podcast like your bounty watch when you walk outdoors make sure you're wearing your best because the popper out so you're going to be there yeah do you want to go first share me sure I have to I think I have to take Fenway eight two fours review uh with the the title of a backhanded compliment way better than expected five stars I'm going to try to read this and get through it all without taking personal offense to it real quick up because it is actually a very nice review and I do want to thank the people who give it says quote when I first found this podcast I was skeptical since there were no regular beat writers on it usually these sorts of podcasts are amateurish and filled with hot takes but I quickly found that the hosts really know their stuff and are serious about the content

1:13:25they try hard to be fair which is unusual for a non beat writers podcast but unlike beat writers these guys freely admit to being fans so when the lines win or lose they underestimate what we're feeling and share our excitement or our pain when they briefly win away I miss them more than I expected definitely worse or so yeah that's that's on me I forgot I messed up your intro Jeremy is a beat writer Jeremy and Eric both are beat writers for anyone who didn't know me a Ryan or just regular guys that you know have some free time on Monday night yeah I'm the senior editor of the website a self-appointed title might I add I was going to say I am has all created right just also I've been writing his title as a writer yeah see yeah also got writer was said so many times in that review it had and I looked it up semantic we'll say this like the harder I get what they're saying the harder review yes I'm a beat writer but I'm also a fan right and that that that is a distinction that is important I think it impacts my

1:14:29work it impacts how we talk about the team here there are there are certain people that think fans are literally not capable of being beat writers I won't name names but air actually it certainly knows one or two that think that way and so maybe that's the distinction they they were making it's like I know you cover the team I know you go to the facility but I'll at the end of the day your fan not to be right yeah that's also the thing that's always made this podcast I think unique in its own right is the fact that we like he like like Fenway says right we find a way of understanding the the fans point of view and being fair in our criticism and our critiques so appreciate it Fenway yeah we despite me nitpicking I that is a very nice and thoughtful review I love to under promise and over deliver next review from Tyler Rosenblit title thank you five stars I became a Detroit Lions fan roughly 10 years ago after my dad stopped watching the NFL my grandfather is a Packers fan and he introduced me to football at least he's got one thing right I got to watch many Packers Lions games and rooting against him was so fun and Matthew Stanford was

1:15:31child hero once I stand for he got auto corrected how do you I'm reading it as it is and there's also only one team in Matthew and I don't know if my pronunciation captured that but I appreciate it once I started rooting for my own team this podcast was everything I learned so much about the lines and the fan base surrounding it the podcast gets me through long work days car rides and everything else thank you guys for caring so much about the team I hold dear Tyler you're welcome thank you guys yeah no again we we greatly appreciate the reviews the feedback from you guys you guys make this fun both the reviews that you guys leave from our listeners and our live audience over on Twitch and YouTube you guys make this so enjoyable so like always if you were looking for any more additional lines news updates analysis any of those things you can find that over at Predatory.com there are new articles being put up every single day multiple times throughout the day also if you want to stay locked in on our video content you can easily do that over at youtube.com slash Predatory or just open the YouTube app because I'm sure a lot of you have it on your phone

1:16:33it's an easy way of just killing some time you know if you're in the bathroom if you're just chilling somewhere wherever also if you are again if you've never checked out the podcast and you enjoy the audio audio yeah you want to enjoy the audio format of that just do that by going over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify wherever you listen to podcasts and you can enjoy this on the go wherever you absolutely want to so once again guys we greatly appreciate you we thank you guys for taking the time to watch and listen I'm Nico he's Ryan he's Jeremy and we will see you guys in the next one