The Lions Off Season Program Begins!
Today the season officially kicks off, The Lions offseason program begins. Players will be in town, talking to reporters, being notable, and most importantly, doing football related things for us to discuss. The beginning of the Lions offseason program isn’t exactly two practices a day in the summer heat, players fighting for jobs every second of every day, and coaches yelling at the team as the players break each other. The offseason program is four hours a day of activity, only two of which are scheduled, specified activities. It’s like when the company you work for brings in a couple new employees, and rolls out some new efficiency program; everyone has to watch the power point presentation about how great the new program is going to be, and how they have to change what they do. But THERE ARE LIONS IN THE JUNGLE….. I REPEAT…… LIONS IN THE JUNGLE! Today is a good day my friends.
The Freep starts their coverage of the Lions offseason in a typically negative manner with a paragraph about Calvin Johnson not being there, two paragraphs not about Calvin Johnson, then a paragraph about Calvin Johnson not being there, then the article gets in to some things Glover Quinn said………….. Before getting back to the point of the article, that Calvin Johnson isn’t playing for the Lions anymore, and that’s not good. These kinds of articles are really making me hope Marvin Jones goes for 1400 yards and 13 touchdowns.
Think that Darius Slay owes his rise to a single offseason with Rod Woodson? Tony Oden would like a word. Given the development of Nevin Lawson, and Quandre Diggs; and the team not coming completely apart on the back end as the players they leaned on as their starting corner, nickle, and strong safety were either injured or simply not up to the task last year; that players were being brought in Monday to play in games on Sunday at one point in the year; it’s very difficult not to have some respect for the position coach at the corner spot for the Detroit Lions.
The Lions said “We’re not going to be flashy in free agency.” then they had the audacity not to be flashy in free agency. The next article I’m writing is going to be about late signed free agents that made a difference, and how many players are left as free agents that could be signed to help the Lions roster after the draft in the event that they do not draft starters to fill every hole on the team. Kyle Meinke was nice enough to go into the reason behind his 8-8 prediction after looking at the schedule. I can’t say I think his reasoning lacks a grain of truth, but looking at this schedule against last season’s schedule, I have difficulty not being a bit more optimistic. I often wonder if the guys covering the team are just feeling betrayed after their optimism last year. The link is worth a click.
The North is strong. The Vikings look as good as they did last year; the Packers did nothing (Jared Cook is not much of an improvement), as usual, but they’re starting from a pretty good place while getting Jordy Nelson back; and the Bears have continued to improve their defense and remake the offense this off season. Did the Lions do enough in the off season to not only maintain but to improve their position? To me it comes down to this: How much do you believe their offensive coordinator and brutal schedule hurt them last year? Would you say that this schedule is one win better, and the coaching change is one win better? Then you take away Calvin Johnson and replace him with Marvin Jones. That likely removes one win from the schedule, but you get DeAndre Levy back on the field, clearly the team’s best defensive player, and I’d say he makes a one win difference by himself, given that the inability of the Linebackers to cover last season was a massive part of the early season struggles for the defense. In case you’ve lost track, In my opinion that puts the team at 9-7 headed into the draft. As Case said, such predictions are worthless before the Lions offseason program has even started, but I think the negativity buzzing around the Detroit media regarding the team resembles a guy in his thirties who went out with the twenty-somethings at work, in the morning after. They’re never going to drink that Kool-Aid again.
Here at DetroitLionsPodcast.com, we will continue to consume as much Kool-Aid as the team will let us, for as long as the team let’s us. When the tap runs dry……. well…….. let’s just say I would not want to be anywhere near Bryce if the tap went dry. That Kool-Aid is a hell of a drug, and when one crashes from it’s lofty heights, one is sure as taxes and death, to burn white hot, even if the flame is blue. Even I have no idea what I’m talking about at this point which usually means I should wrap it up. @a5hcrack for more nonsense like this, /r/detroitlions to participate in the ongoing history of Detroit Lions fandom.
