30 Free Agents, 8-8 Record: Who Deserves Brad Holmes' Money? - EP 016

[0:00] All right, today we are breaking down a Lions season that went from Super Bowl dreams to playoff elimination. We're going to examine what went wrong against Minnesota, but we're also going to preview the season finale in Chicago, analyzing which free agents deserve new deals and mapping out Detroit's draft positioning. This isn't about hot takes, ladies and gentlemen. This isn't about hating on Jared Goff and MCDC. We're not firing everybody. It's about understanding what happens next for a franchise at a crossroads. forward down the field. All right, Lions, a great Mains family. Welcome back and welcome back to Dan Keener, who's been out under the weather, but he is back and spry and ready to dive in. Dan, are you feeling a hundred percent or are you feeling a little more a lean McNeil? I mean, you know how it is. You got to use your sickly by the end of the year. It's use it or lose it. Right. So I'm like, yeah, screw it. I'm just going to take off three shows, you know, whatever. Kind of like Marcus Davenport took off his last three games. No. Uh, well, I'd have to just like do nothing right now for the rest of the show. If that was the case, DBC, DBC, uh, Dr. Brent Kreider all the way from DC. Uh, how are we doing, sir?

[1:19] Oh, well, I'd be better if the lines were winning, but you know how that goes. Yeah. Yeah. Folks. Um, we've been, uh, you know, we are the lions gray manes. We've been around here for quite a few. We've been fans and followers of this team for quite a few years. This ain't nothing. This ain't nothing. Right. So, um, there's still a lot to be positive about. There's a lot to be negative about. Let's know. There's no question. There's a lot of building blocks, uh, uh, you know, that we, uh.

[1:48] That we're going to discuss and we're going to discuss, um, what's, what's in front of us, which is the Chicago bears and, uh, what it means for us and, uh, who's going to play, I think is a, is a legitimate, uh, point of, uh, of conversation. So, but I think first and foremost, uh, just to let everybody know the chat's open. So if you are, and the only, the only place that for whatever reason, uh, when the show started, I got a notification that, uh, we are not, uh, going live on X. So, um, that's a bummer. So, um, uh, the man who runs our X channel, who happens to be here, uh, Dan, uh, I think maybe a tweet to let everybody know that, uh, it's, we're not live there and maybe a YouTube link to, to pull over, uh, everybody in case they, uh, are normally watching us there. And we'll, of course we post clips and, and to, to the replay. So even if you're an ex follower, you'll be able to catch the show in its entirety, but boys, uh, I think the first and foremost, we gotta, I don't want to spend too much time on this cause it was just so painful. Um, but you know, obviously the game, uh, the turnover catastrophe in, in, uh, Minnesota six turnovers, this was a team that, you know, we hadn't, you know, we had the, we go into the, uh.

[3:09] The game with the fewest giveaways in the NFL. We hadn't turn over the game and we haven't turned over the ball in like four straight games. And we have six turnovers against a pretty depleted Vikings team. We felt very confident with Max Brosmer, uh, as, as their quarterback. And of course, Max Brosmer wasn't really a factor. It was our, um, our inability to do anything on offense. So guys, um, I'll start Brent, I'll start with you, with you. What does the film tell you about you know what broke down was it was this was it scheme was it execution on the offense or was it was it something else, It reminds me of a Rocky movie where you said, what's your prediction for the fight? Pain. My prediction? Pain. Pain, right? Because I have not seen a game that ugly in a while. That's bad. The good news is that it's over.

[4:05] The bad news is that the Lions are out of the playoff contention and have blown any opportunity to make the playoffs for this season.

[4:15] And when you break this game down and you look at it piece by piece there are so many things that went wrong um the list is is long the offensive line couldn't block the golf was under constant duress we managed to still have you know a couple hundred yards passing um we we went through uh and you know we shut them down except for one long play held their quarterback to 51 yards passing the interesting thing is we didn't create any turnovers but we held them you know pretty much in check except for that one long touchdown run of 65 yards um but but even on that play it was just you know three breakdowns things that should never happen everybody's sprinting to the line of scrimmage hutch doesn't doesn't keep contained on the edge the corner the safety end up tripping each other and off to the race as he goes um so So, you know, in the end, it was just like a like a Abbott and Costello movie where everybody just kept tripping on everybody and, you know, poking each other in the eye. And it was just it was painful to watch. It really was. It really was. And Dan, how much I mean, I kept I keep on going back to this. It seems like this has been a pebble in our shoe all season. And then it finally just became this huge rock, which is, you know.

[5:38] That Frank Ragnow, you know, his his retirement and the timing of that just created these, these, you know, I mean, you saw it in the Green Bay game. And I mean, there were bits and pieces during the, you know, during the season where like, oh, I think we have it figured out. I think we've got things going along. And then, you know, more injuries along the interior of the offensive line. And it just really never gelled all season. How much of this turnover disaster, Dan, do you think it just traces back to the center position in this offensive line chemistry?

[6:11] I mean, at least for the Vikings game, Brian Flores combined with a bunch of inexperienced guys or guys that are playing through injuries, not, not a good mix. I mean, he is just the absolute master of lining 10 guys up and you just don't know who's coming, who's going. And he's very confusing. I'll be very happy to see him leave the NFC North. Cause it sounds like he may be out of here. You know, I'd love to see him go to Dallas or somewhere else. You know, I mean, actually, I'd love to see him go to the AFC personally, but he's a hell of a coach, you know, and, and he's just, he runs a very hard defense. Now we've handled them in the past, but you had a very experienced group last year, you know, with the exception of mahogany, you know, but by the time we played them, he had gotten some experience, but you had Zeitler, you had rag now you had, you know, Penny and Decker. So we were, we were in pretty good shape to handle them last year, but communication this year, you know, between guys playing hurt so that minimizes their ability. The tight end position is something that's not talked about enough. They're part of the old line group and our tight ends are just crap at blocking. I mean, they just...

[7:20] We lost Laporta. Yeah. The Laporta, you know, right. You know, not that they're, you know, writes more of a receiver, but you just lose the experience and, you know, even getting in the body, a hat on the hat, the new guys, you know, first career actually played well. I wouldn't mind seeing them look at me, bringing him back as the experienced guy next year. But yeah, it's just communication issues, too many injuries, too many newbies. It just, it just wasn't in the cards, you know?

[7:53] So we'll see. I, you know, to, to Brad's credit and a lot of people aren't giving him any credit. This guy has tried to get ahead of this. He's drafted Colby Soresdell. He's drafted Giovanni Manu. He's drafted Ratledge. He's drafted Mahogany. So he's spent, you know, for fifth round or earlier picks on offensive lineman in the last two drafts, trying to, get ahead and prepare for the day when Decker and rag now and these guys retire. I mean, I don't think it, I don't think rag now were trying to caught them completely by surprise. Hence the Ratlidge pick in round one, but, you know, trying to lean on Glasgow as a center, which you know out of the three interior positions probably his least effective position yeah um you know he's he's most strength is that right guard and you know over the years he's played all three and the two times he's played center for us and for denver the one year he's he ends up you know he has some good games but he ends up struggling the entirety of the season so um.

[8:58] You know, it happens. So we'll see where we go. You know what's interesting, guys? I was looking at the history of the Vikings versus the Lions.

[9:10] And Dan brings up a good point about Flores. And I give Flores all the props that Dan's given him. But we had won five games in a row against a much better team than the Vikings fielded this year. Dan's previously talked about the quarterback situation in Minnesota. And we, for whatever reason, we just were not able to match up. And I think Dan's on to the main factor, and that is our ability up front to be able to protect the quarterback and create running lanes. Gibbs got no running room at all. I think he had 41, 42 yards.

[9:49] And so, Dan, you're spot on. When we start to peak a little bit ahead at the offseason, I think what we're going to see is we're going to see a whole revamped offensive line. The Bears did it. There's a number of teams that have created new offensive lines by adding a couple of free agents and players that they've drafted, developed coming into starting positions. And I think the Lions have the makings of a good offensive line. When Dan mentioned Mahogany, and he mentioned the rookie from Georgia.

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