Should the Lions pay Alex Anzalone $7.6 million to stay, or let their five-year captain walk in free agency?

Alex Anzalone just posted career-best numbers at 31, anchored a top-10 defense, and wants to retire in Honolulu blue. But with Jack Campbell's extension looming, limited draft capital, and Aaron Glenn circling in New York, Brad Holmes faces a 50/50 decision that could define Detroit's Super Bowl window. We break down the four replacement paths (free agency, draft, trade, or re-sign), debate the linebacker age curve, and reveal what a "fair deal" actually looks like.

Plus: The Grey Manes Hall of the Underrated inducts Corey Schlesinger, the unsung fullback who paved the way for Barry Sanders and embodied old-school Lions grit.

Full article “The Case for Free Agent LB Alex Anzalone” by Dan Keener: https://www.thegreymanes.com/post/the-case-for-free-agent-lb-alex-anzalone

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All right, all right. Today we're tackling two critical topics. The Alex Anzalone contract dilemma that could define our linebacker core for years to come. We have a new offensive coordinator taking on the play calling duties. And of course, we have a new induction into the Gray Mains hall of the underrated for one of the grittiest fullbacks in Lions history. Forward down the field. Busted outside left.

Jameer down to the 10. Jameer to the fire. Jameer to the end zone. Touchdown Detroit Lions.

Hand off. Barry turns to the left side, breaks.

A tackle and he will take it. And touchdown. Touchdown Tornado. That's what I'm talking about. It is caught. Touchdown Detroit Lions. Amon Ross, St. Brown.

Oh, baby, what a play that time. Aiden Hutchinson and blew it up big time. Stand by that defense.

All right, False start. CO Host number 40, Chris Stone. Back him up five yards on. On that false start. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gray Mains Lions. Gray Mains. My name is Chris stone. I'm@cast ahead.net and the other two gentlemen on the screen making me look invisible today for the most part, on the right side of your screen, my man, DK Dan Keener.

And below me on the screen, and for you, just listening in your earballs, DBC Brent Kreider. Gentlemen, how we doing tonight?

Man, I love your sweatshirt. Love the sweatshirt. You know, we gotta be interested in.

We gotta swag it up. We gotta swag it up with some merch, you know? You know how it is. Listen, we're going to be doing some giveaways on this show because people are like, hey, you guys got some stuff. And Brent's out at the Lions games handing out stickers, handed out all kinds of merch. We got all these people like, what about hats? What about shirts? What about sweatshirts?

We got hair from Mike Terry's beard.

You're gonna have to pay extra for that. You're gonna have to like, that's. That's for the special. Patreon.

And I still just. Just for the folks that sit directly next to me at the Lions games in our season ticket seats, I still owe them stickers. I haven't forgotten.

Guys put a sticker on their chair and stick it to it.

So there you go. There you go.

And of course, lion security colonists.

On time. Wanda. Rich. Hi, guys. So expended, so excited, so expanded. I don't know if you're expended or not, Wanda, but I know you're excited to spend the next hour with us looking and sounding awesome. I don't like, okay, we're looking and sounding awesome. I guess the producer, whoever, whoever produces the show must, must be doing his or her job.

But you know, the light gray takes away the, you know, the weight. You know, the dark makes you look heavier.

I thought it was stripes, wasn't it?

Wasn't that the thing versus horizontal stripes?

Yeah, you know it, man.

Don't wear horizontal stripes.

No, I won't. You don't mean to wear overweight, but wear one of those crappy Pittsburgh uniforms. It makes them look like prisoners.

Oh, man, those are the worst. Like bumblebees and prisoners.

You got the bumblebee. I think the packers got a version of it too.

So, yeah, it's like the band striper from the 80s. But folks, welcome to Lions Gray Mains. We're going to break it down. If you've tuned into this episode, you know, we're going to be talking about Alex Anzalone, you know, coming up and, and sort of situation. Dan put a great article up on the site, which is the gray mains.com sort of breaking it down and we're going to pull that apart and have the conversation tonight. So if you are tuning in live, it is a conversation. So if you're, if you're jumping in from, you know, from Facebook, From Twitch, from YouTube, all of the tubes, jump in X as well. Jump in and let us know what's, what's going on.

If you got any questions, any comments. It's been a kind of an action packed breaking news kind of week, so we're going to roll right into the news that just hit. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. And I don't know, did either one of you have Drew Petsing on your bingo cards? Because we didn't even know he was interviewed because the Lions did say they, they were not going to announce everybody that they were talking to, but they did announce that they were talking to Mike, Mike McDaniel. They did not announce that they were talking to Drew Petzing. So, gentlemen, I'm going to roll right into this. I'm going to start with you, Dan, because I know you got thoughts, man.

Yeah.

So struggled in Arizona. Let me, let me, let me, let me set the tables. Petsing struggled in Arizona. Right? And, and, and the, the fan base right now is lighting their hair on fire. This is, this is. Guys, this is one of the things that we, we, you know, love, hate this, this, this fan base because it is just like wake up in the morning and throw a bag on your head. This is the same old Lions and other people, after a while, they kind of think about it, right? He's petsing struggled in Arizona.

Right.

Arizona Cardinals offensive card coordinator. But let's be honest, working with spare parts right now. He's got a Monroe, Dan, he's got Gibbs, Laporta, the rest of this kind of roster. So here's the question. If. Is Petzing actually like a scheme guru or is he about to look like a genius because Ben Johnson left him a Ferrari?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, at first I think just like everyone else, I'm like, who? You know, I mean, I didn't. He wasn't on the radar. You know, no one really talked about him. He wasn't announced. You know, I think the Lions had interviews, so Pet Sing. And then there was two other guys they interviewed.

They also didn't announce it was. Let me see here. It was David Shaw and Tommy Reese, both also interviewed, but were not never announced by the team. So, you know, he kept it under the radar. But, you know, as more information came out, you know, you're like, okay, it's the Cardinals. They just fired their head coach. Obviously they sucked. You know, they've been poor.

But you're like, okay, what. Why. Why did Campbell hire this guy? He. He doesn't fit the mold of a Anthony Lynn, who had some success, you know, briefly, and with some teams, good teams. He doesn't fit the mold of John Morton, who really was never a proact. He was never a play caller. You know, he was a assistant. But then you start digging in all the information that, that folks have been pulling out about this guy.

You know, he's. He's a Hank Fraley. This, you know, they, they played together, they coached together. He was the best man in Ben Johnson's wedding. So he is very familiar with Johnson, his tendencies. He has done his due, dude. Like paid his, his, his. I don't know the right term here, but he's been a wide receivers coach, a tight ends coach, a running back coach.

He's come up through the ranks much like Ben Johnson did. Yeah. And there's just way too many connections going on there. You, you. When you find out all this information, you're like, okay, I get it. I understand why. He's also been a play caller for three years. Not one, not none.

Three. And while the Cardinals weren't exactly world beaters, you know, there's reasons for that. You know, number one, their quarterback is, you know, he's. He's from the Isle of Misfit Toys. I Mean, Kyler Murray is a very much a gadget quarterback. He's short, he's just, he's quick, but he's not accurate. He gets injured a lot. You know, he basically throws an offense into chaos because when he has the ball in his hands, it is chaos.

And you know, looking at some of the information I've seen, you know, Al Carsten, I really enjoy following his work. Yeah, it's a great, he just breaks down, gets great information out there. You know, he was talking about the, the use of personnel, you know, because of course all the Lions fans, they don't know who the guy is, so they're going to all over him. And the Cardinals fans are coming off three years of, you know, mediocre success with a head coach and staff just got canced. Of course they're going to just crap all over the guy, right? Blame him for it. But the reality is he does exactly what Campbell's looking for. You know, he, he's got all the intangibles. He's a leader.

He's an experienced play caller. He is a run first guy who likes to balance his, his team. Prior to this year when James Conner and basically the entire offense was out with injuries, most of the O line, Marvin Harrison Jr. James Connor, they, you know, they were playing with spare parts back there. Running back, I think even Murray, despite him having plenty of shortcomings and that's not even just a pun, he's still their best option at quarterback. Right. You know. You know, so, so he, he still persevered his offense.

You know, I put together a graphic. I don't know if you have it readily available there, Chris.

I don't.

We'll put together a graphic comparing the Lions last three years of offensive end of year position in the NFL versus what the Cardinals were and you know, as expected, two years of Ben Johnson, one year of, you know, Campbell Morton. We dusted the Cardinals every year with the exception of their running game two years ago. And in last year, not this last year, but the year before, they were actually top 10 in rushing. A lot of that had to do with James Connor. You know, he's a heck of a back. But you know, overall the bottom line is this guy cobbled together a decent enough effort from the team with the spare parts he had. It's not great fit, you know, his offense is not a great fit for what they had. And you know, as a result you're getting a lot of negative feedback about it.

But I also see tons of positive feedback as people take a Step back, take a breath, look into it and understand why the selection was made. So, you know, that's kind of my thought. Brent, you've been sitting there patiently waiting. What are your thoughts on the pickup here?

Well, you sort of have to push the either I believe button or you have to say this is the worst hiring in the history of the NFL, which many Lions Lions fans seem to be intimating. And, and truthfully, Dan Campbell has made some poor choices in selection of his offensive coordinators. I think, you know, firing two out of three suggests that, you know, you're, you're betting batting.333, which is hall of Fame and baseball. Unfortunately, in football, when you're hiring offensive coordinators and you're hitting on one and three, you might be missing more than you should be. So a few things that I think are important to note. The Cardinals ended the regular season with 26 total players on injured reserve. They placed 22 of them on injured reserve since the cut down to 53 players. And you hit a few of the players, Dan, that I think stand out to most people.

They recognize the names. Kyler Murray, James Conner, Trey Benson, Amari DeMarcado, Bam Knight.

I mean, wasn't Harrison the receiver out?

Marvin Harrison Jr. Missed? Absolutely. Paris Johnson, the left tackle, the right tackle miss time.

So you know, Christian Jones, Hayden Connor, Will Hernandez, Jonah Willis. I mean, Paris Johnson, Evan Brown, they, they had, you know, so many missed games and we know what an offensive line that lacks continuity looks like this season and having to play second and third string players. And, and so the, there's a lot of reasons to, to say that, that the Cardinals offense, you know, look how terrible it is, it's his fault. But, but remember something, they interviewed some of the best minds in and some of the best up and coming coaches. I don't doubt for a second that if they could have gotten, you know, the head coach of the Dolphins who's looking for a job. Of course everybody knows his name, McDaniel, but, but if they could have gotten him, they would assigned him. I, I mean there's, there's no if, ands or buts about it. However, the, the, the guy's probably looking for a head coaching job.

The Lions wanted, you know, and maybe they met with, with him and said, look, the, the reality is that he is our future star.

Yeah.

And sitting down in that room and you know, having gone on recruiting visits with my son to colleges and you know, you sit down and they start talking about how to, how to design plays, how to run an Offense, how to construct an offense. You know, it could be that this guy is just in, in prime position to lead lines. Back to where we were last year before this season to, you know, top offense in the NFL. We have the players. A lot of this is going to depend upon what we do with the offensive line. So I think, you know, in the, at the end of this, we'll see. I'm sort of, you know, one of the people that should have been from Missouri, the show me state where, where, hey, the guy. I have to, I have to, you know, there's nothing we can do about it to change it, so why not? Let's, let's move on to other topics and see how this develops over the coming weeks and months and what the lines do with the, you know, getting an offensive line put together because skill position players is not our issue.

Yeah, I, I, great breakdown by both of you guys. And I, and there's a couple of things I, I sort of, I want to underline. Brent, you talked about, like, you know, there's two pathways that you can take, and it's either believe or, you know, whatever it was, jump off a cliff. I think it's trust. And I think the trust that a lot of fans have in Holmes and Campbell, you know, just from what we see is eroding. In my opinion. I don't think it should have eroded as much. You know, I think he's proven.

Yeah, exactly. And I think he's proven that, hey, listen, we're gonna like. Do you realize just how many, how much this decision, how much went into this decision? We just, and then all of a sudden we just see a name that wasn't on anyone's radar, and then we're like, who? Like, like Dan talked about, and you just have to go, you know what? These guys get paid multimillion dollars worth and everything is on the line for them. If this is a terrible hire and this is another John Morton, right. Do you think they're going to have jobs? I mean, it's going to be, you know, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to be. The seat is, is warm now. You think if Drew Petzing doesn't work out, it's not going to get warmer? And so I think at this point you just have to go, all right, you know, how much ball do you know and how much do you know about what's going on in the boardrooms of Allen Park? Probably not much. So let's not pretend like we, like, we think Mike McDaniel was the only.

The only hire for offensive coordinator for this team. And the other thing I'm going to add is this, before we move on to the.

To the.

To the Anzalone conversation is that I just feel like if there was any other Name Besides Mike McDaniel, there are. There's a huge portion of this fan base that was just going to act like this when an offensive coordinator that was not named Mike McDaniel was hired. That it was just going to be a deluge of sol BS that was going to hit online because everybody just is like, see, they're just hiring a bunch of no names. And now we have, like. And we're just. And so I don't know. Any thoughts on that before we move along? Dan, I know you were chopping at the bit.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Go ahead. So, I mean, just to wrap it up, I, you know, we've talked before about on staff. I. I just casually threw the name out there, but David Shaw got interviewed. He's the Lions passing game coordinator. Yep. Right. Yep.

And, you know, the guy, the other guy was Reese, and he came from the Browns. He was Stefanski's. One of Stefanski's guys. Right?

Yep.

So, you know, the problem is everybody gets latched on the big names. They don't look at the. The fit. Right. And there was definitely mutual respect between Campbell and McDaniel. I. I dropped something in the window there in our chat. It's a, you know, just a post from somebody out there that, you know, this.

This Russell Wayne, you know, we. He. He follows us, we follow him on X and. But Jeff Darlington's not at the bottom is kind of the key there. So basically, they liked him, they respected him, they interviewed him, but statistically, culturally just wasn't necessarily a match, you know, and. And your job is to go out and find the best people for the role, regardless of their name, their experience, their, you know, whatever. And, you know, my final thought is no one knew who the hell Ben Johnson was before he got promoted to oc. Yep.

That. That's the bottom line.

Exactly. Exactly the point I was going to make.

One thing you said, Brent, you know about this is. This is three of his guys have been canned. Well, he's had five years, but three of those years was stable with one guy. The other two years were half years without the other guy.

So.

And technically, he's only had one year.

He made quick decisions. And guys, Sheila just sent out a note this week. And Chris, you made. You made the point that I was going to make earlier, very well. And that is. Sheila's not mucking around here. She. She is, you know, gotten a taste of winning.

Chris Spielman is sitting there right next to her. And. And the. The bottom line is that the Lions GM and coach are betting their reputations on I'm. I'm going to be successful.

That's right.

So I, you know, look, they've had too much success. These have been the best years of the lions since the 50s. And so, you know, I'm just going to push the I believe button and move forward and start talking about more.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. My. My trust is not in them. If this fails, you know, I'm sure we'll be able to find and point to a reason why. But, you know, Chris nailed it. These guys aren't trying to hire people to fail. They want to keep their jobs. They want to win.

Yes.

You know, they're. They're not doing something, and they thought John Morton gave them a shot last year because there's some familiarity. He helped install the offense. But I think the shortcoming there was, you know, obviously not being a play caller full time was. Was bad. Right. And then, you know, who else knows what. What went into that? You know, the guy maybe didn't connect.

He's a little bit older gentleman. You know, he's in his late 50s. Maybe he just didn't connect with people, you know, that. That he had with, you know, he wants with this somebody in their 30s. So we'll see.

Yeah, it's. It's interesting, too. And a lot of the. A lot of the conversations I'm seeing is, oh, hey, you know, Dan and Brad, everybody that went into the decision for. For bringing in Petsing as offensive coordinator, well, they wanted to bring in someone who was going to stay for a number of years. Right. As opposed to. And listen, one of the best things that could happen is that next year at this time, we have a bunch of teams that want Drew Petzing as their head coach.

That's what we want. Because that means we had an offensive coordinator that was awesome. Right. And that means we had a great season. Yes. You know, it sucks if. If you're so great that your coordinators get poached every year.

But.

But you know what? Teams get better at hiring people you don't like. I don't look at you, Brent, and go, you know what? I want to have a co host on this podcast that just wants to be a co host on this podcast. No, I want. I want this. This thing to be the best it possibly can be. That means this is going to be so great that Brent is going to. You know. You see what I'm saying? It's like they're.

You don't hire these people so that they can just stick around. You hire these people to be so great that everybody else wants them. And, and so I don't know. I'm. I'm venting.

Well, you know what? That, that just, you know, just to wrap this whole thing up. Right. So we move on to our next topic. Sure. The. Everybody wants something, you know, two. Two or three. Three different things are kind of telling here.

We wanted and went and got Petsing. He's our new OC from Arizona. Arizona's wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator Drew Terrell. Got an ir, got an interview with Atlanta for their OC today. Well, geez, why are all these people wanting to interview at Arizona's rain trust from their offense if they suck so bad? Could it be that their player personnel situation is awful, their owner sucks and you know, they've got a bunch of guys that are high draft picks, but there's no continuity. There's tons of injuries. The quarterback situation is unsettled. I mean, these are literally the people that drafted somebody with the third or fourth overall pick at quarterback and turned around and fricking cut the dude and drafted somebody first overall the following year who has just not panned out.

Which anybody with a half a brain could have told you. Both those guys likely we're not going to be. Not going to be successful in the NFL for different, very different reasons. You know, one was. One was physical with the second guy and the first one was just a mental case. So is what it is. I mean, and the last point on that is it's also telling that Arizona might be the last head coaching job filled. You've got four filled already.

You know, you've got five left and they're. They're basically going in order of taking the best coaches and Arizona might simply them and maybe the Raiders might be worse job in theory. But really Raiders are beloved. I mean people love. They love Brady, they love, you know, the ownership there. But yeah, I don't know. I think, I think Arizona might be less like the least desirable job out there.

So yeah, great stuff. And this will be, you know, sort of a residual topic for. For other shows. It's obviously something that, you know. And listen, it's a brand new hire. This is just, you know, this just happened this week, I think, you know, before anybody you Know, flies off the handle and says that this is the worst offensive. I think we got to get. Talk to me in week eight.

Right. And we'll see how this.

When did Morton get fired or demoted? What week was that? Him and Lynn, didn't they. Mike, go look that up.

All right. Okay.

Tell us how long he gave. He gave him.

Exactly. All right, folks, so it could, this could be the reason why you tuned in tonight. And what we really wanted to, to talk, you know, sort of take the lion's share of the. The no pun intended of the. The conversation tonight was, was Alex Anzalone Thor, obviously one of this is a fan favorite for a lot of people. A lot of people cheer for this guy. He's made many plays uh, for the Detroit Lions, uh, over the course of his career. And we kind of saw the tea leaves happening, uh, last season and, and the deal that was given to, to Alex leading into this.

And Dan put a great article up on the Lions or I'm sorry, thegreymanes.com link in the show notes. And so we're gonna roll into this. Dan and Brent, I would love for you to chime in on this. You know, generally, you know, the case for, you know, Alex Anzalone. Dan, you made a number of key points here as far as like the, the case for resigning him, the case for free agency, the case for a trade. I thought this was broken down really well just from a summary perspective. I mean, obviously Anzalone career best in, in tons of, of different categories. You know, snap count was over 90%.

Had had like three sacks, multiple passes defensed, career best 7% missed tackle rate. And so you know all of these things when you compare these numbers. His, he's got like a nine year career. What does this data tell you about his current trajectory? Is he actually improving or is this sort of peak before the decline? And let's, let's get your take. Maybe Dan, give us sort of a, a 10,000 foot view of the article that you wrote and maybe give me a Give, give me a take here as far as how you feel like the line should move on Alex Anzalone.

So summary Franzalone. He's like fine wine. He, as he ages, he's getting better. Right? You know, maybe a nice bourbon that's been sitting around.

Okay, I'm thirsty.

Four or five year window. Right? You know, he's, the longer he's played in this system, it fits him really well. You know, it's similar to what he grew up and learned in New Orleans when He first came into the league, but the key there is that the Lions signed him to a one year deal, then they signed him to another one year deal, then they gave him a three year deal, and then they gave him a little, you know, gave him a shrimp add on for 799 at the end of the, you know, for his last season of 250k to kind of, you know, keep him somewhat happy last year. But when you sit down and look at it, you're like, okay, this guy has played really well. You know, a lot of people want to villainize him. You know, he had some, he had quite a few catches against him at tail end of the season, but holy smokes, the dude was right there in position. He got beat by just incredible throws by some players that were just perfectly placed and there's really not a whole lot he could do, you know, and in the article, I break down all the pros and cons and all that stuff, but the bottom line is I think it makes the most sense for the Lions to go and try and resign him at least for one more year, because frankly, we don't have any linebackers under contract. Oh yeah, we've got Barnes and we've got Campbell and that's it.

Every other lion is an undrafted or, I'm sorry, excuse me, pickups, unrestricted free agent. And I think maybe one of them might be like an exclusive rights guy or something or rfa, but we just don't have any, any backers. I mean, they're all gone. I mean, all of them, they're. None of them are under contract now. Will they be. Yes. But out of that batch, how many of those guys are considered starters? You know, this guy is, he knows the system.

Yeah. He's going to do well. But if, if he decides to take his talents to free agency, we might be in trouble if we do have a desire to sign him and not overpay him. Because the jets number one are going to need linebackers. Their best linebacker is now a free agent as well. And he's nowhere near as good as Anzalone. I called him Anzalone Light, I think in the article, or step down, I think is how I referred to him. He's younger, but his performance to date is just not quite as, as good as what Anzalone gave Glenn and, and Dennis Allen, you know, for those years when he was in New Orleans and with the Lions.

And number two would be wherever Dennis Allen ends up. You know, I left it with the Bears and profiled the Bears because He's there now. Dennis Allen very, could very well could get another head coaching shot or he could leave potentially and become, you know, could maybe move on. I don't know. But if he doesn't and he stays with the Bears, you know, Ben Johnson, they love Lions, linebackers, they get, they've got Jalen, Reeves, Mabin, they've got Ty Summers. They just go. They love getting those guys because they, they know the system that Allen runs, you know, and Johnson's familiar with them from his years here. So, you know, he's going to have two suitors there, and then there's that strong pull as a guy that's kind of getting towards the tail end of his career.

You know, he's 30. I think he'll be 32 next year, 33, maybe. Him and his wife are both from Florida. He went to the University of Florida, she went to the University of Florida. They, he has a permanent residence in Michigan, but he does go back to Florida to train and things. So there are three teams in Florida, including his, you know, more or less hometown Tampa team. Because I want to say, and Brent, you probably know better than I, I want to say he's from like, north of Fort Myers, somewhere down in that area. So, yeah, I don't, you know, I.

Don'T know where he's from, but he, I mean, he's a Florida boy.

Yeah. So. So you got three teams in Florida that could be very, very enticing to him to get back to his home state, you know, and then it could be anybody else. I mean, he could decide, too. He's got, he just had his third child. Right. He could decide, hey, I'm going to take one last big payday for two years, three years and set my family up financially for the, for the foreseeable future, regardless of where it's at. So that's kind of the nutshell there to me.

The Lions need Anzalone to replace him. You know, there's a couple names I floated out there. One guy I do like is Leo Chanel from the Chiefs. He's an unrestricted free agent. Yeah, but, but most of the linebacking free agents are just a bunch of like 30 plus something dudes that are, you know, like Bobby Wagner. You know, the guy still is a big name. He can still produce, but so can Anzalone. You know, he's never was a, he was never Bobby, you know, Bobby Wagner.

But he's been producing and continues to produce. So you have to look. And it's very much the same factors Montgomery, you have to look at the replacement value, right? It's going to cost money to, to get him to keep him. You know, they could probably do like a three year deal where maybe the last year is some funny money, you know, just to, to up it and spread out that signing bonus or whatever. But he has a void year I think right now already on the books that if they get him resigned before that voids in, I think it's February or March, then I think they can roll that into the new deal and it helps spread it out some more. But that's kind of where it's at. You know, the article, I kind of put my heart and soul into it. Hopefully y' all read it and if you haven't feel, please read it, you know, let me know.

It's an outstanding breakdown and I, you know, two weeks in a row. So folks, if you, if you want sort of that deep dive, you want to, you're like, you know what? I want to, I want to, I know, push my cranium into the world of salary caps and compensation and bonus money and what sport track says and what. Well, go to thegreymains.com and check out the article here and also the article on David Montgomery. James Hicks is in the building. We appreciate you joining us tonight. James Hicks has a lot to do with the show, ladies and gentlemen, a lot to do with the design of this show. James, I appreciate you man, and you know, a Steelers fan, but we still love you, man. We, we still love you.

And, and you know, it's kind of a bummer that your, your coach, I guess decided to step down. But I don't know if that was a deciding to step down or if you know, how, how all that went down. But you know, I know it's, it's too soon maybe to talk about Tomlin, one of my favorite football coaches for sure. But thanks for joining us, James. And we talked about the article about Anzalone that we are talking about now. But we also had, Dan, you put an article up on David Montgomery, which got a little, little action on, on the social media. And the two fans joining us and says, I saw that Monty responded to last week's analysis on his future. That's.

Here we go.

This is, this is what we do in live and this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna talk about this stuff. So the two fan, we thank you for, for joining us. That's amazing and a testament some of your reach within the lion community. Do you think you did enough to Keep him in Detroit. Well, listen, you know, our intention is just, is. Is to talk about what we know. We're fans.

And you know, when you put out a. I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump in here for a little bit. When you put out a 59 second clip on the tubes, you're going to get people that are going to react a certain way because they think you're saying something when they don't know the full context. And that's what happens. Ladies and gentlemen, we put out something last week which was a clip which is an excerpt that, you know, Dan was talking about how he feels about how David Montgomery, the Detroit Lions should handle the situation. And I think, to be clear to a man, everybody on this screen wants David Montgomery to play for the Detroit Lions next season. And I don't, I don't think I'm speaking for, you know, out of turn for anyone.

We all want Demo to, to play for the Detroit Lions. But there's a lot of people that saw that, that clip and thought that maybe we were saying that we didn't want David Montgomery on the Detroit Lions, and that is not the case. But David Montgomery, thank you so much for paying attention to this little show. And we love you, man, and we'd love to see you continue to, to plow through linebackers, safeties and defensive linemen for the foreseeable future as a Detroit Lion. Anything else you guys have to add to that?

You know, I'm a, you know, I'm a huge. Oh, sorry, Dan, go ahead.

No, you're fine. Go ahead, start. I'll wrap it.

So you guys know I'm a huge Bonnie fan and have been an advocate for him starting all year in. And in all honesty, the, the reality is that these players have a very narrow window for their careers that they can make money and, you know, they have very little choice over where they get to play. And so, you know, for, for a guy like Monty, who, who is 28 years old, doesn't have a lot of tread off his tires like some of the backs, like as Dan likes to talk about, you know, the tread's completely worn off of Saquon's tires and he's done. And, and Monty is not in that situation. Monty is, is a young 28. He's taken fantastic care of his body and I think he is the hammer. You know, the word hammer was used earlier and I think Monty is our hammer and I would love to see the Lions put Put Gibbs in a position as. As Ben Johnson.

Any. Anybody want to debate? He's arguably. He was arguably the best offensive coordinator in football. And how did he use Monty? He used Monty as a hammer to wear down the defense so that when Gibbs and his. His number of touches was roughly the same. Right. He had a slight uptick in touches this year, but it wasn't. It wasn't statistically significant.

And so use. Use money as a hammer, wear the defense down, and then that makes Gibbs even more explosive. And frankly, it saves tread on the tires in the long run for a guy that's arguably one of the best running backs in the NFL. So, you know, the way that the Lions choose to use him this year, I think is. Is important as anything. And if Monty is in Detroit, I am. I'm going to be, you know, as happy as any player in Detroit that. That we have over him being here.

Yep. You know, and I, I made the statement. They came off as a bit harsh, a bit brutal. Honesty, you know, there about, you know, just telling basically to sit down, shut up and. And. And play. But mainly where the, where we were going with that is it's like, don't make a rash.

Excuse me.

Excuse me, Dan.

Not. Not. We don't make a rash judgment about your future, you know, based off of playing time or something like that. There's other factors that really need to be considered, and you can't get too worked up or enamored about one or two things. But as you know, at the very end of the clip, what I did say was we're just speculating. We don't know the Lions could have come in and demanded or said, hey, you need to take a pay cut. So we just don't know his reaction could be for that. You know, we're completely speculating.

You know, and. And the bottom line is we all want Montgomery here. We think it's best for the Lions. Think it's best for Montgomery. You know, he's very complimentary to this offense, you know, this offensive coordinator. Let's be honest, there could be. There could be help. You know, this could be part of the.

The off. The reaction to last year of not using the backs the way we have been the years before. Right. Meaning when Jamal Williams was here, he was getting plenty of carries. He filled that role that Monty took when he left. And Monty's actually played it better than Williams did despite 19 touchdowns. So. But last year, we lost our way.

And this guy, we bring it in, Petsing. It really looks like he's Being brought in to revitalize that running game, get the balance properly used with the backs. Again, you know, to. To Brent's point, you know, he's absolutely correct. You know, Monty, the year before, he started almost every game, you know, he kind of basically greased the skids, went in and. And put a licking on people. Then Gibbs, they kind of alternate. Gives us a rookie, you know, two years ago, whatever, right? Then they were alternating series a little bit, and then Gibbs would kind of get the middle part of the game to, you know, kind of tire them out.

And then Monty would come in at the end of the game and just beat him in the submission. You know, we didn't have that last year because mainly we weren't. We were fighting for. Excuse me, fighting for our lives at the end of the game to try and get back in it almost every game, because we were getting behind.

Game flow was a huge part of it right now being gone. I mean, when you've got. When you've got a better offensive line, I think it's. I think it's a little easier.

Agreed.

You know, when, you know, for both, you know, and it allows the game flow to go, you know, the way it. Way it goes. So, you know, listen, we have a key. Hopefully we have a better offensive line. We, you know, we kind of get the center position, you know, really the middle of the offensive line sort of, you know, sorted, you know, what's going on with Decker and all of that, to get that in. You know, it's not a question of whether or not David Montgomery is talented or not or, you know, he has tread on the tires. He's young enough, can still play, can still play at a high level. Gibbs, obviously, you know, fantastic player.

It's really just game flow. And you guys have eloquently put this together. It's game flow and, you know, just our offensive line just, you know, not really being cohesive all year long and able to communicate and do, you know, like what we had with Ragnar. Guys, let's get back on track for Anzalone. Brent, I know you have a comment, but I wanted to ask. I want to roll this, Brent, to you. I'd love to, because this is your forte. I mean, you got a doctorate in this, so this is your lane.

And I wanted to talk to you about this as it relates to Anzalone. And then I know you've got some other points as well for Alex. So Anceloni lost the green dot to Jack Campbell. Jack Campbell, right now. What's that?

He Got Wally pipped. He got Wally.

He got Wally pipped. Yeah. And Jack Campbell said this is mine and you know, first team all pro and well earned. And Jack Campbell, obviously you guys talk about the Hammer being demo on the offensive side. The Hammer on the, on the defensive side is clearly Jack Campbell. And, and you know, love that we have that player for hopefully a long period of time as a Detroit lion, but Anzalone continue to play at a high level. So, you know, I wanted to talk to you more about sort of the leadership sort of standpoint. Like, I think this is a factor in Alex Anzalone.

Like if Alex comes back and he knows, you know, it doesn't have the green dot, how much value do you think like Holmes, you know, puts on sort of these, you know, culture setters versus sort of the pure on field metrics? You know, is there a way for you to kind of like maybe quantify the leadership? I know this is a lot of speculation, right, but quantify the leadership in Holmes decision making on whether or not Anzalone stays a Detroit Lion.

So the Lions, let's talk first about the money part of it, right. Which Dan outlined. But I think the most important thing is every NFL team prepares for the eventuality of a player leaving. There's, there's not one player that stays with the team for more than 10, 12 years by exception, a very small percentage of players. The question that you have to ask yourself is knowing that Anzalone wants to stay in Detroit, is he going to take a hometown discount? So, so, you know, in the end, we can't pay Anzalone more than, than the cap hit last year was, I think brands only. Yes, 7 million, you know, for, for his cap hit. So, so the, you know, the most important thing is how do you manage that cap? And, and, and does Anzalone give a hometown discount or not? Right. Because if, if the.

He knows his value, he knows his worth, he's made that clear. He posts on social media as much or more than any player on the Lions. And so, you know, he, I don't think there's going to be a question about whether he stays with, whether he wants to stay with the lines or not. He made that clear. So second is, I don't think Anzalone cares one iota about the green dot. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that's going to say, oh, didn't get the green dot. You know, I don't think that's even a factor. I think Anzalone is a, is A warrior.

I think Anzalone is a great teammate, and I think Anzalone would be the first one to tell you that the future of the Detroit Lions linebacking corps is 100% Jack Campbell. And, and, you know, to talk about money, Jack Campbell's coming up on a big payday. And so, you know, in addition to laporta and branch, etc. So, so the Lions, and we got to fill a couple offensive line positions. We've got to restock the defense. The guys that are those fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh guys on the roster. Let me, let me read you their salaries from last year. 1.038 million.

1.108 million. 1.708 million. The Lions can find street free agents to play those depth positions. And frankly, I could see Trevor Nowski, Grant Stewart, and even Rodriguez coming back to the Lions for just a small raise in their salary. And so, you know, let's not, let's not act like the sky's falling because we only have two guys signed on the roster. It's not that big a deal. We can draft a Lion linebacker. We can resign a couple guys and restock the COVID quickly here.

And the future is Campbell Barnes is signed for a couple more years. So I'm not, I'm not overly concerned about that as much as I am fixing the offensive line safety is a huge concern. So do we, do we go on the free agent market? Do we have to pay a premium to be able to pick up a safety? So, you know, it's much, it's much more complex than just saying, you know, it's X dollars to resign him. It's X dollars towards the salary cap because it's, it's part of a much bigger chess match than it is just a checker's match of, you know, pay jump, you know, go to your. Go to your next position kind of thing.

Yeah, the, the only issue with that is, well, number one, you. You touched on leadership. Anzalone has been a captain every single year he's been with the Lions.

He'll be a captain five years next year. Yep, he'll be a captain, sure.

If he's still here. Right. Which hopefully he will be. But, you know, the dollars, they are what they are. And I, I get what you're saying, Brent, but you can't have just depth guys at linebacker. You're going to be. Your team's gonna suck. You gotta have four guys say that.

Right? You literally just said that you could just go fill in the entire depth with just guys off the street, you gotta have four guys that can be considered starters on your, on your defense. And then the other two, three, four guys behind them can be those depth guys special that can start in a pinch or play minutes in a pinch. Right. You can't go in. And we had that last year. You know, you had, you had Anzalone, you had Barnes, and you had Campbell, and then you had Stewart, who filled that fourth role, which in the past Rodriguez has filled. But he's coming off a major injury, obviously, you know, as a guy that is a starting, capable linebacker. So, you know, you got to have that first four roles.

Three, three solid starters and one guy that is good enough to be a starter. And then you fill out, you know what you were saying there? But here's the thing. You know, we have some cap, I'll just call them issues. They're solvable because of the way home structures, contracts. All these guys have the ability to kick money down the road because they have high base salaries. You know, Philadelphia, they like to go in and they cut to the bone right off the, right off the gate. Gate. And they don't have any leeway once these guys get out to the end of it.

They got these massive signing bonuses from day one. Very little base salary to work with to try and give relief to the team. Well, Holmes is the opposite. He's got these bloated bases and then he can use them and kick that money down the road as need be, you know, to make sure that he's got, he's got plenty of fluidity with his cap. So. But the biggest issue is that, you know, I looked at your buddies over Spotrack, I looked at otc and they're basically saying that Anzalone's play this year has earned him a contract anywhere from six and a quarter to seven and a half million dollars apy. And that's where. That's very close to what he got this year.

I think he's around six and a half with the extra money. Right. So, you know, it just says, it.

Says 7 million flat.

Yeah, I mean, he's playing at a high enough level that he's earning it. But the biggest issue we have is going to be with Barnes because his big base salary, you know, which again, it can be, you know, can be adjusted. Right. Barnes is ready for a bigger role and he's got a bigger salary this year. That basically eats up his new base and new and new cap number for this year basically eats up the entirety of what we would have needed to pay Anzalone. So if you take the three of them last year and the three of them this year, Barnes and Campbell alone are using up the same amount of cap space as what the three of them did last year. So that's where we might have an issue. But again, we can kick some of his base down the road if we have to.

It's not. It's not undoable. I think it is. But the question is, is you got to be able to fill a starter, quality third linebacker, and you either got to get it from the draft, you got to get it from the free agent market, which is going to cost you just as much as resigning a guy you know and are familiar with, or you got to resign the guy you already know can do so.

Yeah, yeah. And restructuring his. His deal, I mean, that's absolutely what I would suggest they do if they want to keep them.

You're talking about Barnes and Zaloney.

Yeah. Restructure.

It voids here in the next few days. Right. So he's done with the current. Unless they resign him.

If you want. If you want to resign and restructure Barnes.

Yeah.

100. All right.

Guys, girls, you're both pretty. No, I'm kidding, you guys. We're picking knits on. On this, but, folks, as we. As we're moving forward on this, we've got a hit, ladies and gentlemen, which is a brand new segment we started last week, and maybe it's more fun for us than it is for anyone else, but we hope it's fun for you. And we're about to hit it. So here we go. All right.

This is the Gray Mains hall of the Underrated. And for those of you who have not seen this yet, we had the very first induction to the Gray Mains hall of the Underrated last week, and that was the amazing returner, Mel Gray. But what this is, is, and what qualifies for the honor that is the Gray Mains hall of the Underrated is that these are Lions players who. Whose contributions, like, far exceed their recognition.

Right.

These are culture setters. These are glue guys, foundational pieces, players that are sort of overlooked by, you know, mainstream, you know, Lions history. They may not be in the hall of Fame, you know, and probably aren't in the NFL hall of Fame necessarily. But for us Gray Mains, they absolutely mean the. The world to us. We grew up watching these players. We grew up rooting for these players. Even if the Lions went 0.

16. Yes, we had one of those seasons. These were. These were players that we rooted for. Each and every week. So the, the new induction, the second induction into the Gray Mains hall of the underrated is the one and the only Corey Schlesinger. Corey Schlesinger was a fullback from 1996 to 2006. This was a unanimous decision for all four of the Gray Mains.

There was, you know, the first ones that you're going to see were ones that we all said, we need to talk more about this chorus. Lessinger is an absolute fan favorite, but to, to be honest, doesn't get enough, enough accolades, you know, and enough kudos from, you know, not just Lions fans, but like fans in general. So let's talk a little bit about Corey Schlesinger. I'm going to roll it over to you guys. We're going to talk about stories about this, this player. I'm going to hit the tail of the tape and we're going to, we're going to roll it over to you guys. Corey Schlesinger, 6 foot 1, 247 pounds. If that doesn't sound like a fullback, I don't know if you're alive.

The man made three Pro Bowls, 2002, three and four. Is a member of the Detroit Lions 75th anniversary team. He's a member of the Detroit Lions all time team and also was a Bobby Lane offensive MVP and a Mike Utley spirit award winner. Now when I talk about these career NFL statistics, you're going to go, what? That's nothing. But you have. And this is what we're going to talk about, gentlemen, is this position, the fullback position and what Corey Schlesinger did for the Detroit lions. Listen, rushing yards, 473. His average is very low.

Only five rushing touchdowns. Had 197 receptions, 1445 receiving yards. Was, you know, somewhat of a, you know, red zone, maybe threat in terms of fullback coming out of the backfield. Caught nine touchdowns. Was drafted in the sixth round of the draft, 192nd overall by the Detroit Lions and was also a national champion for the Nebraska Corn Husker. For the Corn Huskers and obviously an amazing Lyon. We want to definitely start, you know, talk about Corey here, guys. Has, has given so much to the city of Detroit and Lincoln, Nebraska.

I'm going to talk about one thing about Corey and I'm going to, I'm going to roll it over to you guys and let you take the, the rest of the show here and that is Corey Schlesinger. National champions for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Beat the University of Miami and you know Scored two touchdowns in that game and then didn't even know he was going to get drafted, right. Sixth round, brought into the Detroit Lions. Really didn't do much in his first year, second year, kind of brought in to mostly special teams, right? Started and then they started, you know, bringing him in, handing him the ball every once. This is not, this is before Mike Allstot was Mike Allstot, right? And fullbacks weren't necessarily being handed the ball as much. But he was such a key cog to the Barry Sanders thing. But what a lot of people don't know is that when he first started in the NFL he always had a vision for what he would do after the NFL.

So he was going back to Lincoln, going back to Nebraska and doing substitute teaching, you know, going and teaching and wanted to eventually become a teacher after he had retired from the NFL. So that's what he did for a number of years at Nebraska, became a professor and a teacher, got his doctor, all that stuff over at there. And then once he retired from football after he did not make the Miami Dolphins for the year that he went to training camp, his body was just broken by that point. He's been a teacher now for 12 plus years in Allen park where, you know, the same city in, in Detroit where, where the Detroit Lions practice facility is. He teachers, teaches drafting, computer aided design, all of those things there just, and, and gives back to the Detroit community a lot. And I just wanted to kind of talk about that because I think, you know, he's just, hey, he just has a heart really for, you know, for, you know, the kids and, and teaching and giving back to the community. And I'll let you guys talk about the blood and guts and the broken face masks that is Corey Schlesinger.

Yeah, yeah, he, he did an interview, I think it was with Fox Sports Mid 2000 teens, I think, you know, and, and part of, you know, part of the ugly side of football is that he did admit that, you know, he does have some memory loss as he's gotten older, you know, and part of it, you know, during that interview he said I, he's like just in the NFL, he believes he's. He broke upwards of 200 plus face masks from the violent collisions because yeah, he, he played the game right. None of this, you know, dipping your head, hitting with the crown nonsense that you see nowadays from these knuckleheads out there. He just went in face mask to face mask, face to face, head to head, shoulder pad to shoulder pad with these guys, these linebackers, these Safeties, these D linemen. And he just hammered it up in there. And you know, as a result, you know, you, your body, your head takes a beating and so does your equipment, you know, and it was always a pleasure to watch him do the dirty work, you know, and clear those holes. And the funny thing is he overlapped. He played 12 seasons for the Lions and he blocked for 7,000 yard rushers.

Right? Oh, four of those years he overlapped with Barry. He made Pro Bowl, All Pro or Pro Bowl. I think it was Pro bowl three times. Yep. None of them were with Barry. He blocked for he in 2002, 2003, 2004, three straight years. 02 Jimmy Stewart, 1020. Had just over a thousand yards.

Yep. 2003, there was some injuries and we had. And Stuart left. We had a.

Just a. Kevin Jones maybe.

Language. No, no, no, no. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I got it. We just had a show at line at running back that year. Sean Bryson, olandis Gary and R2 Spinner were our top three running backs that year in 2003 and he still made All Pro. Bryson had 606 yards. And then 2004 is when we drafted Kevin Jones and he had a thousand yards.

So. But you look at the people he blocked for, you know, obviously Barry, and the best is when he blocked for Vardell. I mean, how the hell do you stop that train coming through there, right? Schlesinger going through the hole with Tommy Vardell. Touchdown Tommy behind him. You might as well just put Refrigerator Perry blocking for Kaden Proctor back there. You know, I mean, holy smokes. But some of the guys he blocked for over the years, you know, I mentioned a few of those names, but you've got Arlen Harris, remember that guy? No, you know, I talked about Avion K son, he was more of a pass rusher. Lamont Warren, he blocked for him.

Mario Bates, Ronnie Rivers, Cedric Irvin, you know, so Greg Hill, he was our leading rusher in 1999 with like 540 yards. You know, I mean, some of these names, just names from the past at running back, you know, and then there's times where some of our best runners were our quarterbacks. He didn't really block for those guys except in pass protection, but, you know, so. But it was amazing to watch him. He just consistently, no matter who was behind him, you know, Barry didn't really need a full hack, let's be honest, you know, but some of these guys, they need him. And I think he really helped James Stewart and he really Helped Kevin Jones, you know, play well while. While they were out there. But, you know, unfortunately for Jones, he.

He had some injury issues, I think, and the Lions were very much down those several years.

Yeah.

But, yeah, it just. He consistently didn't matter who was. Who was behind him in that backfield. He. He just blocked every single time with all his might. And you just take. Tip your hat to the guy. You know, he's a great guy.

You know, I know Brent met him before, and I'll turn it over here a second. I don't know if it was at Silverdome or Ford Field, but I know you met him and talked to him. You know, his background of where he did after football is just amazing that he's able to, you know, be smart. A lot of guys, they just go out and they end football. They don't know what the heck to do with their life. They blow their savings, and then, you know, they're just kind of meandering through life. You know, this guy, he knew what he wanted to do, and he went there. He did it on the field, he did it after the field.

And, you know, salute to Corey and honored to have been able to watch him play and. And where he's at now. So, Brett, I know you got a lot to say about him. You love the guy, so let you just go and have at it.

So. So Corey is a very special person. You know, the first couple guys on the list, Mel Gray and Corey Schlesinger, as Chris alluded to and Dan talked about last week, we did this random selection of these players, the hall of the Underrated. And, you know, he made it. He made a few Pro Bowls. And if there was a Hall of Fame for fullbacks, I think Corey Schlesinger would be in it first.

Corey Schlesinger. Yeah.

First ballot. Right. I mean, there's so few fullbacks who have had, you know, the reputation that he's had is just a good guy.

Yeah.

And if you pop the picture up, Chris, of when I was standing next to him, frankly, he's got the biggest head.

He's such a huge head.

He's got a huge.

He's like. Like you're standing next to a PEZ dispenser. It's amazing.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not a small guy, right? I'm not. I'm not tiny, and.

No, you're not. I. That's why I think it's so huge. Yeah.

Yeah.

Awesome.

But our big rival when I was growing up in Riverview was not Trenton or Southgate it was Alan park because people like him came from Allen Park. Tough, tough people. And I remember one year playing him in the, it wasn't called Pop Warner back then, but in the, in the Downriver championship game and it was a, it was rain, sleet, snow game. I had a, I had a bruised chest that was, you know, it was hard to breathe because of the, the fact that those guys are just so physical. And so when, when we were doing the research for this show and realized that he was in Allen park all these years, it made perfect sense to me. Tough community, tough people. And you know, he, he, he was just, he epitomized the, the what it meant to be a fullback. He never found a body he wouldn't hit.

He, he was always willing to run into anyone to create lanes for the run of it. And you know, frankly a lot of what Barry's dad talked about, you know, that Barry doesn't run behind a fullback. Barry ran behind this guy and, and he created a lot of holes for Barry to run through. And so, you know, those, those. I think it was overhyped, right, that Barry's dad made those comments. I think it was more just the angst towards Bobby Ross than it was that Barry didn't run behind a fullback. But, but Barry, Barry had a great fullback to run behind in the first few years of his career were successful simply because of what this guy did. So my, one of my favorite all time Lions.

We're going to get into a couple more of the ones that we unanimously selected for the hall of the Underrated. And I'm sorry, every time you play the hall of the Underrated, I have to laugh. I don't know why it's.

You know.

Hall of the Underrated. I love it, absolutely love it. Great job, Great job on the, on the animation and everything there, Chris, putting that together because it truly is a respectful tribute to these players that we, we grew up watching and love. And hopefully those Lions fans here that, that are younger have an appreciation for these guys. They may or may not have ever heard of or they were growing up in 5, 6, 7 years old or whatever the case may be. But Mel Gray, Corey Schlesinger and the ones to come just absolutely happy as heck that we could, we could do something to honor their, their time with the Lions.

I love that. That's a great way to wrap that up. And, and Corey Schlesinger is, is a fan favorite. I still go guys, and when you go to the games and you walk around Ford Field, you will still see number 30 out there and those, those, those are jerseys. When you see them, you walk up and you're fist bumping because you, because you know, like, you know, you know the Anvil, right? And you know, there was a number of nicknames for him. The Anvil was one. Slush, Sledgehammer, Sledge Sledge and Sledge Sledgehammer was another one of them. And you know, and Dan, bringing up that, you know, Tommy Vardell as halfback and Schlesinger as the fullback.

When you line up, you know, it's like you are going to get trucked. It is not, it is not. It is not going to feel good. You are going to feel that now and definitely in the morning. I also read another thing and we'll will, will end with this apparently. And I think Dan, you mentioned this. He broken over 200 face masks is, is what he felt like over the, over his career. And apparently there's a collection of Corey Schlesinger face mask, broken face masks somewhere.

I don't know, I don't know if he's got them or if they're, you.

Know, who's the equipment guy?

The equipment guy or whatever. But man, man, I might pay, I might pay something for, for, you know, I know, Brent, you would probably pay.

A little bit for getting some sheet metal from a NASCAR race. You hang that puppy on your wall, right?

I mean, yeah, let me just hang that on the wall and somebody walk up to it and say, what the heck is that? I was like, that's a Corey Schlesinger face mask that was broken. You're like, okay, that's awesome.

Most people would say who? Most people would say who, right?

That's it.

Unless you're a Detroit Lions fan.

Smack junior SEO right in the kisser from face mask.

There you go.

And there's a reason why Tommy Bardot was called Touchdown Tommy Bardell. It was because of people like back in those days, the fullback was so important. And when Touchdown Tommy was at Stanford, I believe it was. And then he came into the NFL. He played for the 49ers and the Lions and he scored. You know, he was just a prolific touchdown scorer because of.

Yep.

Guys like Touchdown Touchdown Tommy benefited from Corey Schlesinger's physical nature. We'll call it.

There you go, Mike. Mike says Corey has the collection of broken face masks that is, that's, that's amazing. And spoke. And also Brett, you said who and folk. We've got folks chiming in in the chat. Donkey Kong, thanks for joining us. How about this name. Ryan Broyles donkey Titus Young was an all time best pick.

Wow.

Yeah. The two fan. Thanks for joining us. Go alliance in the. In the French Go. Always. Always great for you you to join us. Reversion to the mean.

Thanks for. Thanks for joining us as well. Helpful Chase. Uh, we appreciate uh, you with your Anzalone comments. Sorry we didn't get that to that earlier. We just are kind of running, you know, we're running at the mouth. Usually during this show we, we try to compact all this information into a nice neat thing for everybody. But we run at the mouth sometimes.

That's, that's, that's what we do shows like Kyler Murray. It's controlled chaos.

That's right. And we bring it right back to our offensive coordinator. I love it. All right, folks, this is Detroit Lions. This is Lions Gray Mains. We, we dissect the information. We don't just react to it. There's not going to be a bunch of hot takes.

We want to talk about it with you guys. So until next time, remember, you know, stay loyal to this Lions team. Don't take a hot take. Let's let this new offensive coordinator situation kind of play itself out. See what happens. Talk to us in week. What did we say? Week four.

Week four, six.

Yeah. And we'll see if we still have the same offensive coordinator. But folks, as always, we love to say at the end of our show, go Lions. Bus it outside left.

Their to the left side breaks a.

Tackle and he will take it in. Touchdown. Touchdown. That's what I'm talking about. It is caught. Touchdown Detroit Lions. Aven roll.