Good Morning Pride, Episode 8: Lions draft class superlatives, with Ryan Mathews
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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Good Morning Pride. My name is Eric Schlitt. This is episode eight and we are going to welcome in our original first guest, Ryan Matthews. Hey buddy, how you doing? Hey, I'm great. I'm glad that I'm back here with you. Full circle. I tell you, the podcast has gone off the rails since the last time I had you on. I

We had these nice short podcasts that you and I were doing, or we tried to do and, uh, short for us. Yeah. Short for us. And, uh, and apparently that's not what people want. People want more content as fast and as long as possible. So, uh, no timer, no time limit. We'll talk till, uh, we're done. So, uh,

We just had the draft. I'm sure that's what we're going to talk about today. So as always, I will allow you to tell us where this conversation is going. So Ryan, where are we going?

We're going to go where we normally go, Eric. It's back to the games. It's back to the game show. It's back to the superlatives. It was one of my favorite things that we always used to do on the podcast was do NFL draft superlatives. But I think it's a good way to kind of highlight

And we talk about this all the time, right? Each player is kind of superpower. So I tried to kind of come up with these superlative questions with that in mind so that we can kind of get at who these players are and what they excel at and maybe how they fit with the Detroit Lions. And I know you said that you did some talking with Jeremy about day one and day two, and hopefully we can get to some of the day three guys. Okay. I'm going to pre-warn you on superlatives. Yeah.

I always default to the number one pick. I don't know what it is, but like, so I'm going to try not to.

I will add in where I think like he's far and away the top choice, but I've found like when we do our write-ups on, on a prior to Detroit, I found that I will very often just be like, well, I'm just going to go with the obvious choice because it's obvious. And I don't want to take the oddball choice because, and feel like I'm trying to stretch, you know, some thoughts in here. I'm just going to take the obvious choice.

For this medium, I'll try and stretch it a little bit. I'll try and give you some broader perspective than just the easy out, which is typically what I take in the written superlatives that we do. I think some of these are going to twist your arm a bit. So hopefully I can pull you in some directions here. Good, good, good. Let's start with an easy one. And this might be a little bit of a softball, I guess, but Eric's favorite pick.

Oh, all right. From a team standpoint, it's, it's again, I, I default to Arnold. I think that that's like, it's just, it's an incredible value to get him where you got him. He was the number one corner on my board. I, as a, from a team perspective, it is the guy I'm the most excited to see. That being said, my redraft is,

one of my pre-draft crushes was, uh, Sione Vaki. And that was the guy that I was looking at. Jeez, pretty early in the process. Um, I don't know what it was about his game or about his style, but like, I just, I thought he fit perfectly. I wrote, he was in my pre combine watch list. He was in my post post combine, uh, uh, winners list. Uh,

He was in a mock draft that I did. And ironically, in that mock draft, I traded a fourth round pick from next year. And it was the Eagles pick to the same exact pick. So I traded that pick to get back up into the fourth round to take it. Now, I didn't take him at the exact spot.

that the lions ended up getting him. I think I got him. I think I traded up to pick one 20 instead of like, uh, what one 32, I think is where they actually, I think so. Yeah. But I was pretty close to where it went to, to what I thought. Like, I thought this is a guy who's going to fit in that fourth round range. You're going to love them in that fourth round. And I can see them dealing a fourth round pick next year to, to, to move up. And that's exactly what they did. Um,

Like I said, missing numbers, but the guy, it just, he, he just screams lions. He just screams Dan Campbell, the ability to play safety, the ability to play running back special teams, everything he does on special teams is going to be, uh,

I, in my opinion, I think is going to be very impactful. You're going to be able to use him as a kick returner in the new kick returner scheme. You're going to be able to use him as a gunner on punts. If you want, my guess is they're going to use him as the personal protector on punts, give him that old CJ more role because he's got running back vision and good speed. And he's a real tough guy that you can snap the ball to, and he'll get you, you know, three yards on, on a fourth and one. And so, um,

I'm really excited to see how he plays because of the dynamic ability that he has and how he fits into so many like little nooks and crannies of the team and how many roles he'll fill. And so I think that's the one I'm most excited about personally, even though I think for the team success, the answer was probably Arnold.

Yeah, I guess the question I want to follow up with is, you know, when he first comes on your radar, is he a guy who, OK, like the Lions, they probably need some safety depth. This seems like a guy who kind of fits the bill of, you know, a safety, but also more importantly, and the Lions obviously covet this, but just a football player who will play special teams, you know, day in, day out.

Certainly. Yeah. Like, so what, what initially drew me to him was Utah runs a split zone on their backend like that. And, and I liked Cole Bishop as well, the other Utah safety. And so Bishop, I think was in my top five of just pure safeties in general. And then I had Baki a little bit lower on the like safety scale for me, but from a football player standpoint, he absolutely fit the bill. And, and that's really, that's,

I think what started to plant the seed for me, right? Like I really liked,

what I saw from him at safety, but there was plenty of other safeties that I liked better at the safety position, but the intangibles that Vaki had the, um, the toughness, the, like you said, the special teams ability, all those nuances to me just said, this is exactly the type of guy that they're trying to bring in and they can probably get him on day three. And I,

And I don't think they will wait on day three to get him. They're going to, they're going to want to try and get him in the fourth. And so it makes total sense. Uh, now that we like have seen it unfold, but, um, he's going to be, it's really the football player in him. That was, that was the most appealing. Uh,

Um, the more you dig in, the more you realize, oh yeah, he was a running back and slot receiver in high school. Uh, his statistical output as a running back in his like, you know, 52 carries or whatever it was is like astounding. Let me, let me, I'm going to, I don't want to speak out of turn, but let me, uh, did you see that stat 42 college carries? 42 college carries 20 broken tackles. Yeah. Yeah.

That's lunacy, right? It really is. Like he's got 56 total touches. 42 of them are rushes, 14 receptions. Do you know what his yards per route run are? Not just yards per reception, yards per route run.

the average, I don't know, like, like, okay, well, sorry. There was a, you shouldn't know. That's an oddball question. I was, it was more rhetorical. Like I was trying to like set myself up. Sorry. I didn't phrase that properly. A lot. Yes. Okay. So the average yard per route run for a, even the upper, like,

echelon of running backs yes just under two yards like it's uh 1.96 i think was the highest in this class and that was by uh the new hampshire kid who had like 80 receptions or whatever it was um the the next closest guy was like 1.7 right and

Vaki's yards per route run 7.51. Like, like it's just, it just, it's just silly. And again, it's, it's a small statistical number, but every time he got the ball, it was, he was doing something like creative with it. And it's, it's to be able to do that on top of playing special teams on top of playing a full-time safety starting role is just remarkable to me. And like,

And that just, it just, it makes total sense why Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes are in love with them. Yeah, that was a question that I was actually thinking about asking you for one of the superlatives was, well, what player has the most creativity to their game? And

And what you said right there, like that, I think that fits into a T like he's, he's a creative player in a sense that he's a sandbox, right? Like there, there's a lot, there's a lot to what he can bring to the table with, with his athleticism and his ability to, you know, just be a football player, which like you said, fits this regime to a T. So, so yeah, if he stuck at safety,

I don't think he would have been a pure safety. My comp for him was Josh Metellus, you know, like with the Vikings where they move him like everywhere. So that was, that was what I saw when I saw him. I'm like, gosh, he, he can play high. He can play in the box. He can cover these tight ends. And I'm like, he's not a one position player. Even when it was just safety that I was thinking about, it was like, I'm like, he's going to be everywhere.

And now we're just going to see that, but more on the offensive side of the ball. Like I almost want to create,

a new like category for him. Like, I don't want to put him fourth or fifth on the running back step chart. I want to just create like a, you know, like we have like super back and stuff that was like, that was the name they gave him. And I almost want to be like weapon and then just like put them under weapon and just put them on it in his own separate category by himself. He's a, he's a grit back. It's a dude. I mean, like I'm, I,

I honestly think there's going to be two back sets that you can use him. You're going to be able to bring him out and then drop him in the slot if you want to. I know we don't want to overwhelm rookies with a ton of different things, which is why I think they're going to stick with him on offense only to start.

As running back in this system, you're going to learn a slot. You're going to learn how to run routes. You're going to learn. And I think he's going to get a lot of those things on a day to day basis.

Where he's really going to thrive, though, is he's going to be Dave Phipps' pet project, right? And he's just going to be – he's going to learn everything there is about special teams, but the day-to-day training, where he's going to do his film study, all that's going to happen in the running back's room, and he's going to get slot. He's going to get wheel routes. He's going to get Texas routes. Those are things that he found success with.

Those are options. Those are all options for him. And they're going to take it slow with him on offense, but they're going to throw him in the deep end of the, of special teams. So I know the idea is, can he play safety too? Can he contribute in there? I'm not,

I'm not buying that, like not as a rookie, as a rookie, I expect him to be offense only and special teams only. I don't expect to see a lot of safety out of him. So I, you know, he, if he, I don't think he's gonna be playing two ways. Let me put it that way. Right. Yeah. So, but he's a, he's an interesting cat. That's for sure. And it's, it's neat to have a football player, you know, that you can watch what happens with them.

Yeah, I'm hoping, I think the thing for inside the den, the thing I'm hoping for the most is for Dave Phipp to have his Antoine Randall moment when he came into the room after they moved up and got Jamo. I want footage of Dave Phipp after the Vahki pick. So the next superlative I have for you, Eric, is the draft pick who will take the longest to contribute. Oh, well, that's the other fourth rounder, right? That's Manu, Giovanni Manu, right? Yeah, let's talk about him a little bit.

huge right he's huge massive human being when i read that he played basketball i i thought like how did that look have you seen him like with like like without like he looks like a basketball like player there's like there's no fat on him or anything he's six seven and a half 350 and he's just like he's looks like a huge beast yes right like it's when you see like sewell

versus like some of the other offensive linemen. You're like...

He's just rocked. He's got muscles for days. He's not like a receiver where you can count his abs. He looks like you couldn't push him over if you wanted to. If they were like, hey, if you can push Panay Sewell over, I'll give you a million dollars. I would not win that. He's just a solid guy. Whereas you look at...

I don't want to name names. There's, if you look at a couple of the other offensive linemen, you're like, I bet I could maybe, you know, you got a fighter's chance. Yeah. You're still not going to, but it doesn't matter. There's something different about Sue. Right. Right. You think there's maybe, maybe no, but yeah, but this guy, even on your best day. No, no, let's be, let's be serious. But yeah,

But he's, this is, this, this is what this guy looks like. This guy looks like he plays basketball and, and three 50 is, it's a lot of weight. That's a lot of weight, a lot of weight to carry up and down that court. But it's hard to really get. Okay. When you're evaluating him, it's very difficult to get a actual analysis of his technique because

Because all he basically did was grab everybody and throw them to the ground. It has a lot to do with the level of competition, right? Exactly. Toughest part of his evaluation has to be. It was Michael Orr in The Blind Side. The movie. Like the movie. Not like reality, but like the movie version. The fictionalized, yes. Exactly. It looked like that. Where he just is like, hey...

I'm not joking, man. Some of these guys, some of these DNs that went up against him looked like you and I, like they, they just, he just was like, Hey, and he just like knocked them over. They were handsome. They were handsome and small. They were average human beings, but very handsome. And yes, they, it was, it was, he just threw him around. Like it was,

So from a technique standpoint, you don't get a whole lot. But what you do get is you get movement, you get movement, you get strength, right? You can, you can pick up on some of the athleticism. And so you look at those things and you say, okay, I get the appeal because this is a massive man with crazy, what looks like, you know, untapped potential. And if you get him into a offensive line group,

that has a really good offensive line coach, then, you know, he'll have a chance to be successful. I guess his coach or his, I don't remember if it was coach or his agent. One of them was like, yeah, I was really hoping he would go to Detroit or Philadelphia because those are like two of the best offensive line coaches in the league. Right. And so it's always great to hear praise about. Right. Right. Yeah.

And I look, let's, let's not be mistaken here. It's this could take some time. Like this, this could take a couple of years. Maybe it takes one. Maybe it's a quick learner. Maybe you put him in Sewell's hip pocket and Sewell teaches him everything. And all of a sudden it's a year later and you're like, Holy cow. But he sure looks like a project. We'll know more when we see him in person. Like, I think that'll really tell us the true story.

the true readiness when we get eyes on them. But for now I'm being highly cautious and saying it could take a couple of years before, but I,

They believe the upside is big enough that if you, if you do tap into that and you do get him to where he wants to be, he could be the next great thing. And so they want, I think they can keep him a tackle. They apparently want to play him inside a guard. He has the movement skills for guard. He has the strength to play a guard. But yeah,

It's he's awfully tall. You know what I mean? Like, again, it's workable because I think he has the athleticism to get the bend. Right. Cause he does bend, he bends properly, but being tall, it, it, it allows you to get leveraged by lower level by lower guys. And that's, that's hard. It's a hard thing to ask a guard that's over six, five to get low because it's just, their bodies just aren't built like that. Right. Like,

If you're over 6'5", you better be an elite athlete if you're going to play on the interior, right? Oh, yeah. Frank is an elite athlete. That's why Frank is so good at what he is, even though he's like 6'5", and a little bit of change, right? But if you're over 6'5", and you're not an elite athlete...

you're going to get leveraged. Look at Dan Skipper, right? Like that's what happens with Dan. Like he's so tall, he can't get low and he gets pushed out of the way. And you're like, man, how can a guy that big get pushed? Cause he just, he gets leveraged because he's NFL defensive tackles know how to get under you and push you around.

So for Manu, that's going to be the, one of the hardest things that he has to learn. Well, first of all, he's going to go from the left side to the right side, right? Cause he played left tackle. He played left guard. So now he's going to shift over the right side. That's going to take some time to get that down. Once he gets that down, then he's going to have to really get used to being the guard. Now he does have some guard experience, so that's going to help, but he,

He's going to have to learn how to adapt to that higher level of competition. So now you add that extra layer of competition. That's going to take some time. If you can teach him to be low and you get that athleticism, the dude can be scary, but there's a lot of work to do, right? Like there's, there's, there's things like last year, for example, with Colby Sorestal, they switched him around so many different times. And whenever you pushed him over to left guard, uh,

He had a hard time with it because he was so used to playing on a right-dominated side. He could play right tackle fine. He could play right guard really good. But left side, it was a learning curve for him. And he was getting better, but he still struggled at it. So now, again, it's going to take at least a year to get used to that right side, in my opinion. Some people, it goes smoother, right? Some people, it goes smoother. Some people are penasal. Yeah.

Some people are where it takes them up preseason to figure it out. Yeah. It's ridiculous. Like Graham Glasgow is real good, right? He can play both sides. Right. But that was, I, in my opinion, that was because Graham played center at center. You get used to dropping left and dropping right to help your teammates. And so that allows you to become accustomed to play both guard spots. Anyone who plays just tackle or guard, and then you ask them to flip sides, it takes time. So you got to flip him.

And then learning curve, all those things. And in my opinion, it's, it's, it could take a while before he gets up to speed. So he's a project, but I mean, this is a, this is a pattern we've seen with Brad, right? Third round picks, fourth round picks to him. That's where he uses his high upside projects. That's Broderick Martin, Penn and Hooker, you know, and, and he wants these guys to, to,

that he thinks has, you know, the potential to be something better than what they currently are. And he's willing to take a risk on them in those third and fourth round ranges. And so this is another example of that. They wanted the guy with the upside and they went and they got him.

Yeah. And something I found pretty interesting were Howie Roseman's comments after the draft where he was talking about how, you know, some of their great sixth and seventh round picks that they've had since he's been drafting for him have been Jason Kelsey, who's

who was an athletic freak and Jordan Milo who I think a lot of people are kind of making a one-to-one thing where it's like, okay, like you get another guy who, you know, had zero football experience was a professional rugby player. And now he's a super important part of the Philadelphia Eagles and their incredible offensive line. And see,

Seems like the blueprint though, right? Because he's another guy who's massive, like six, seven, I think. Yeah. And that seems like the blueprint. He was a seventh round pick, so maybe that's the difference between him being a fourth round pick with Manu, but...

I see it. I understand it. Cause Howie Roseman's comments were basically like, you know, if you're going to go big on day three, like you need to go unusual, like you need to get an unusual dude on day three, because why not roll the dice on a guy who's six, eight and three 50, right? Like why not? So his, his athleticism for those who may be curious about it, his RAS was 8.84. Yeah.

And really the thing that kind of dragged him down was his three-cone.

Um, his three cone was on the lower end. Um, you're basically looking for with like tackles, you're looking for like a seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, something like that. Right. Um, his was like an eight to nine, I think. Right. So he's, his three cone isn't what it is. Well, what's the three cone is essentially a rapid movement, which means, uh,

His pulling maybe isn't going to be elite right now. It's something he's going to have to work on. Just another added layer. Sure. And that's a footwork thing, too. That's a technique thing. Yes, 100%. There's so many things, right? Like you have a huge ball of clay, Hank Fraley. Like there's a lot of molding. And for a guy who played left tackle, you're not pulling your left tackle often. So he's not something he's really had to do a ton.

Um, but his, his, uh, short shuttle, which is you want in like the four, seven sixes, he was at like a four, eight. So it was just a tick off. Like I think he was right at average. I think that line's actually like a little bit fat, better than average, uh,

but he's right where he needs to be. And the lateral movement is that side to side, that short shuttle where you're moving side to side and you're shifting out and kicking out. And again, that speaks more to the tackles because you're doing your kick slides and stuff like that. And so for that, he's right where he needs to be. And you keep in mind that he's right where he needs to be, but he's also like two inches and 50 pounds heavier than the rest of the guys that are running these times. Right. And so like,

He's just so much bigger than the rest of them. Like to be able to hit an average time, that's good. And then his jumps, like he has a 33 and a half inch vertical. Like that's stupid. That video was silly. That was the first video. Right. So that I was like, how is this guy a basketball player? And then I see the video and I see the vertical leap and it's like, oh, wow. Normally those guys can only jump over a textbook. Right.

Um, the average vertical leap for those who are curious is right around 28 inches. So he, he, his is about almost six, half a foot more, uh, average broad jump is around, uh, eight and a half feet or a little bit under eight and a half. His was around nine. So he was a little above average on his broad jump as well. So, so we're painting the picture of a very explosive big man.

Average 40 time is 5.27. He ran a 5.06. So again, speeds there, explosiveness is there, side-to-side quickness is there. Pulling needs some work. But again, it's a raw ball of clay, like you just said. So I like what I see. I'm hoping I really like what I see in two years.

Right. That's because that's, that's kind of the, the projection timeline I've put on it. Maybe it, maybe I'll be wrong. Hopefully it'll be sooner. Yeah. I mean, Brad Holmes always talks about that third year too. Right. Talks about how important that is. And yeah, there are some guys who Fatima Fonwu, right. Even Derek Barnes, right. Coming into their own in their third season. So, all right. This one isn't going to be about a Lions player. No.

the player you wished Brad would have selected was right there, but the lions didn't take them. Was there anybody that you felt like, Oh, that was one of my guys that got away. Okay. So I've actually looked into this because, um,

When they did the Manu pick... Okay, so I chart. As we go through the draft, I start... I log into... I input the pick and what round and what pick number it was for every player that gets drafted. And I do it live as the draft is going on, so it gives me an idea of who's available and everything, right? When they picked Manu...

it threw me off because now I went into like, Oh no, I have to like research everything. Right. So I, um, I basically just stopped inputting who was getting picked when, and I was totally focused. And then they had Vaki right after that. So, um, you know, the Monu pick was one 26, the Vaki pick was one 32. So six picks later, I'm like all of a sudden, Oh my gosh. Um, so I got behind real fast in trying to do my work. We had, you know, we were, we had, uh,

Zoom meetings with both those guys during that time as well. And so I basically just stopped inputting the players that were going in. And so I kind of lost track. So a day or two after the draft, I went back and I started inputting where everyone went and I started looking at like, Oh, okay. I liked that guy. And so I've kind of already gone through this. And I tell you what I've noticed is that most of my tiers end at

right before the Lions were like at the point where they were going to make their pick. Okay. So for example, for example, so with Manu, let's just use like pick 126, right. As, as kind of an example, my, my, the last receiver in like the tears that I would have liked went off the board at pick 113 at tight end. It went off the board at 123 and,

offensive tackle 114 and then of course that's where mon that's from that monu group um the last interior offensive lineman i liked was pick 86 except for mahogany who was sitting there and i was like that would have been nice like i would have liked him at that spot but we'll we'll probably talk about it we'll

Like, it's weird because I'm like the one guy that I would have liked in that offensive that was left in that interior offensive line group was the guy that they end up getting anyways a couple of rounds later, which is weird. Which is one of those cool things that people can do, Eric, where they're like, oh, well, if you really would have got mahogany up where you draft Manu, it's like, okay. Yeah.

Um, my last defensive tackle that I liked in that tier went off the board at 109 edge, 93 linebacker, 98 safety, one 24. Every one of these positions with the exception of mahogany all went off the board before the

pick 126 so like that kind of tiered system where i was like these this is where the drop off is this is where i kind of had the date this is where you're all day three guys after this

it pretty much went chalk, like how I expected it. So like when they traded back up into one 26, I didn't really know exactly where they were going because, and I actually, I don't know if I said mahogany at the time. I know I said mahogany when he was at Wingo's pick, but I didn't, I didn't really know where they were going. So like, I don't think there was another guy again, other than mahogany that I probably would have been like,

that's the guy I would have wanted at that spot. You know what I mean? Because they really were all my tears were kind of off the board. All my top tiers were all kind of filled up. So I don't know, like what,

Maybe Mahogany. I think Christian Jones stuck around on the board a little bit later, but he was not in my upper tier. He was in that second tier range or that day three, the beginning of day three range, and I think he didn't go to the fifth round. So maybe Christian Jones. Probably on my board, I would have preferred Christian Jones a little bit more, but for the most part, I think Mahogany.

Where they traded in was kind of like pretty close to the right spot where it was like, okay, all the guys who are probably going to make an instant impact are gone. And so now it's time to gamble.

Um, it's very interesting. Like Malik Mustafa, the safety that went at one 24, I would have loved him. Like if they took him at one 26, I would have loved that. That would have been great. If they took Vaki at one 24, I would have loved that too. Or one 26. I mean, yeah, I would have been more than happy, but it's so it's weird. Like the couple of guys that I had like, kind of like pegged either went right before or ended up on the team anyways, in another fashion. So, um,

Yeah. My, my long form answer there is essentially, I don't think there was a guy. I think when they kind of traded into that spot, it was right where I expected it to. And I mean, to be honest, like if I go through and I look at like, okay, like if I, I, I wanted a receiver and I look at my, let me look at the board real fast. There was not a receiver. So like that was past 61. Yeah.

that would have been available like at the rake straw spot that I would have liked. Right. Like that was the other position interior offensive line. I probably would have went okay with guys like Cooper BB or Christian Haynes. I probably would have been okay with those guys at 61. Sure. I liked them quite a bit, but I was also, I had rake straw higher than those guys. Rake straw was in my he was, he was in my top five safeties or corners. He was my fifth corner.

I liked the interior defensive tack or interior defensive line. I thought defensive tackles would be good. There's not a guy that's there that would have been there at 61. I wouldn't. So like, even at 61, it's like a couple of the spots that I was looking at, like positionally where I liked guys, they were all kind of off the board. So it was an unusual draft in the fact that I don't think there was anything where I was like, Oh, they should have took this guy instead of the guy they took.

I felt like the guy they, they took most of the time was, was, was pretty good. Now, Monty was, you know, he's early on everybody's board, but I can understand it, even though I maybe would have liked, like I said, if I would have liked, I would have liked the Valkyrie Mahogany, but heck, they ended up on the team anyway. So I'm, I'm, I'm kind of okay with that. So,

I'll show, because I didn't give a good answer. I'll throw that question right back at you. Like who was, did you have a guy that you were hoping for that, that didn't end up, uh, that was might, it was available when they were on the clock that you didn't quite, you know, get. No, I don't, I don't think so because by the time day three hit, I'll be honest. I mean, I knew a handful of names. I didn't know a ton of names.

um, that probably speaks to like how quote unquote less research I did, I guess. Um, but also like the lions had a weird set of picks. So it was, it was kind of weird to, yeah. Like you had to look at, it was almost like how we broke it down on one of the, the first, um, shows that we did where we talked about, you know, okay. All right. These guys are for sure. First round picks. These guys are for sure. First round picks can going like position by position. And, um,

I don't know, but I think the one... Obviously, there's two names that come to my mind. There's one obvious one, and that's Zach Frazier. I wish he just would have fell a little bit further. 61 is incredibly greedy to think that he would have still been there. But that was definitely...

I was going to say he went at 51 and I was wondering if they were going to trade up for him at that point. Yeah. And, and I thought what hit doubly hard was the pick before that, Eric, like that was the name I was hoping was going to be at 61. If you look at who was drafted at number 50.

I don't remember. Help me out because I was. Mike Saints drill. Oh, yeah. So those guys come off the board back to back and it's like, oh, man, those were like the two names I was hoping would free fall. And I wrote about that in the, you know, the 10 best prospects available for the Lions on day two. Right, right.

I put Mike in there because it was, and I wrote it up by reasoning. It's like, you know what? If Brad Holmes is going to double down on a position, it's going to be a position like cornerback. There's a clearer path to those guys playing right now. The whole room is getting reworked. And that's why the rake straw pick. I don't think it was so surprising, but that was the guy that Eric, everybody was talking about being the pick at 29 until he runs a four or five. Yep.

With a groin injury, right? Yeah. Yeah. I love Mike Sanders. So, but for those people who have my board, they, they also know that I had rake straw one position ahead of rake straw or a Sanders. So they're in the same tier and I had rake straw one position ahead of Mike and I love Mike. So, Oh yeah. Yeah. So I was, I, again, I was pretty content, even though I was very disappointed that they missed out on Mike and,

I think Rakeshraw is going to be something really good. And it's going to be interesting to see how they use him. Now, it sure sounds like they're going to give him a shot outside, but it wouldn't surprise me to see them shift him inside to try and get him

on the field, right? Like to, to, to drop branch back or to put branch into a different type of role and then try a rake straw up against, you know, more of a, of a slot receiver or, or,

maybe kick him on the outside and you shift Arnold. And I think there's some options there, but I don't think these, I don't think rake straw is just going to be on the sidelines. I think he's a guy who they're going to try and find ways to get onto the field because he screams, uh, you know what they want in the secondary. Uh, one of the things Jeremy and I talked about when we were reviewing Arnold and rake straw was like,

They're basically like, they're very stylistically similar players. Arnold was a little bit more favorable in, in the, like a handful of categories, which is why he went in the first round. But rakeshaw was like, he's right there. They're both, you know, they're both press man. They're both really good tacklers. They're both, they were the two best tackling corners in this class. They both ran around the same time. They're both have a pretty close to the same frame. Like they,

there's there's so many things about them stylistically about their game about what they the way they play i'm like they're just they're just they're exactly what this defense is is looking for and it makes sense why they in hindsight you know when you're in the moment it's always hard but it makes sense in hindsight why they're like let's just grab him because he he's a perfect fit for us yeah

All right. Well, I'll throw one last superlative your way. And it seems like I'm going to know the answer, but it's the player most likely to do a keg stand for their touchdown celebration. Who do you think on the Lions has the best chance of doing that? That's the guy who's already done it, right? Like that. That's right. Let's talk more about him because we haven't talked about him a ton. And I'm

really intrigued by the the quote-unquote dirt bag so where where do where do where do we like it from the beginning so okay so he's he's a he's a uh

Boston College runs a gap scheme, primarily gap scheme. And for those who aren't familiar, it's essentially you're just creating gaps in the line and you're using your offensive linemen to create gaps in between the offensive linemen. That's where you create the hole. And you can create this gap in a variety of different ways.

When you use like outside zone, which is really one of the more popular blocking schemes, you're creating movement with your offensive lineman and the movement in our, you're getting the defensive line moving laterally. And when you get them moving laterally, you're waiting for one of the defensive lineman to fall out of their gap. And then the offensive lineman tries to seal that seal that player down, which then creates a running lane. And the, in the running back just has to pick the running lane that shows up for him. And so, um,

You need these athletic guys in outside zone and college because you're running these high fly offenses. You typically are running a lot of outside zone. And so, um,

Most of the interior offensive linemen that come into the league are coming in with a heavy amount of outside zone experience and not a lot of just straight gap power experience because they're not asked to just block the man in front of them and be able to grab them, power them, and turn them. And the pros, though, they run a lot of gap. They run both gap and they run...

they run that outside zone as well, but you need to be able to run the gap. And for a team like the lions who are a power running team, they want offensive linemen who can run gap. And so when you look at offensive linemen, specifically on the interior, you're looking for teams that run a lot of gap and are successful with that. And so for me, I,

Um, you're looking at like Michigan, you're looking at like Kansas state, which is where, um, which is why I like Cooper BB so much. Right. And then, um, you're also looking at Boston college runs a lot of gap power. And so mahogany was a good fit right off the bat, just from an experience standpoint, because he's a guy who's going to come into the league and

with a base of gap experience that's going to put him ahead of a lot of other offensive linemen with the Lions. That's why he fits the Lions so good. If the Lions were to draft, let's just say, I don't know, I'm not going to pick a name, but if they pick the guy with less gap experience, you would have to teach them gap. It would take them longer to get up to speed. It takes them longer to get them into the mix. Like, okay, like...

Manu, right? Like Manu is going to have to learn how to gap. Okay. With mahogany, he's already got that gap experience. And because all college system runs some outside zone, he's going to have a little bit of outside zone experience as well, but he's, he's more heavily gap based.

he should be able to come into the line scheme. And as long as he picks up the play calls quickly, he should be able to really adapt to what they're asking him to do very fast, which means he's a guy who in my mind could immediately be on the second team offensive line. Like you could just plug him right in and be like,

And now he'll probably start on a third cause he's a rookie, but then he, I could see him working his way up very quickly because of his knowledge base. Now you add in the fact that he's a bully and he plays right guard, which is what they want. They want their right side of their offensive line to be bullies. Well, that's him. That's the dirt bag in him, right? Like he's a guy that wants to grab you and he wants to, he wants to push you around. He wants to, he wants to bury you. And so that,

translates into what they want. So you're looking at right guard as a potential filler that you're going to have to replace maybe a year from now, depending on what happens with, with a Zeidler. So I was looking at prospects who could play right guard prospects who are gaps oriented in, in prospects who are mean and, and,

That's everything that mahogany is. There's a handful of these guys, right? Like, uh, Jackson powers, Johnson, Zach Frazier, Hooper BB, those guys kind of fit the bill too, which is why I liked it. Mahogany was right in that mix. I had him in, in the, as a third round type of grade for me, he was a guy who, um,

I think in the consensus board that I have, he was early fourth. Um, but in my mind, like I, I thought he's, this is a guy you could take in the third and not even blink about it. Now you get them in the six and it's incredible value, right? Like you're getting him 117 picks. I think later than what, um, Arif Hassan's consensus board had him at, I think Arif Arif's board had him at 93. Um, uh,

So you're getting him massively later. You're getting a guy who should be able to step off of onto the training field and just be able to go. And that's an awfully fun thing to get out of a six round pick because, and I think that's why a lot of people thought he'd be, he'd go earlier, right? Because he's, he's just more pro ready than some of the other guards that are out there.

And in my mind, he's going to be, he's going to be a guy that you're going to see in the competition by like week two of training camp. Like he's going to be in that fighting for that second line, that top reserve role. And he's pretty talented. Like he he's, he's got some left guard experience as well, which will help in him getting cross-trained, but he,

He's got that bully mentality, and apparently he can do some cake stands too. I love offensive linemen who can play fullback.

um that's i i love defensive linemen who can play running back we we need christian mahogany and a lee mcneil backfields is what you're saying right now right why not put them both back there right but let's let's let's run let's run a five-man front let's run a six-man front with uh with um

with um mahogany and a leem in the backfield and we'll just wildcat it right to jameer gibbs and uh and let's just let's just see what happens um see the humanity move um but yeah like

He's, you know, for those who haven't seen the clip, like there's a clip of him at where he gets a handoff at running back and runs it in for the end zone. And then it does a spring game, right? Yeah. And then does a keg stand with his teammates. And, and so, you know, if you're not athletic,

You're not going to be able to do that. Like you, they're not going to give you the ball and they're not going to, they're not going to put you in the backfield if you can't move his Raz, his Raz is 9.63. Right. Like that's it's he's pretty athletic. Right. His, all of his scores are basically in the positive range.

except he's, uh, he's only six, three and a half. So he's technically a little undersized, but that doesn't really matter, especially for an interior player where you want to be low anyways. Uh, and I think his three cone is average, but everything else is above average. And so athleticism is check, check, check. And, uh,

experience check check check bully mentality check and it's like all right let's go let that i think that's why people are so excited about like what he can do uh with the lions because he is a legitimate could be a starter a year from now type of player um and now all of a sudden

And now all of a sudden you're like, Oh, we have Colby Sores though, who you drafted to try and be in the competition. Now you just drafted mahogany. Oh, you drafted Manu. Cause you want him to play right. You got all these guys now that are going to be fighting for interior snaps. It's a great problem, right? Like that's a great problem to have. And, uh,

I'm starting to notice some patterns like that with this, with, with the, the way that they've added guys is they're kind of just throwing a bunch of guys at a problem and saying, that's as many dart throws as we have. And let's see if one of them can, who comes out to the, on, on top, right? Yeah. You throw two darts at corner and with your first two picks, you throw, you get two right guards in the fourth and sixth round.

But undrafted, you get three undrafted centers. You know why? Because you're like, hey, who's going to come out of camp and potentially be on the practice squad? You know what I mean? Like for Frank Ragnall's backup or whatever, right? Yeah. Not all three guys are going to make it. There's no way, right? Like it's let's take three centers and let them all fight it out. These are three dart throws. Let's hope one of them hits. And I don't know if this is just –

a pattern that I just haven't noticed before, or if it's just more noticeable this year, but it's a lot of, we need to fix this problem. Let's throw a lot of darts at the problem and see what we can, what we can come up with. And it's, it's a, like I said, I haven't noticed it before. So it seems like a little different strategy as far as roster building.

Yeah. With, with the thought process being something's going to stick. Right. Like, right. Yeah. Hey, and if it, if it doesn't work, we'll just go to free agency and get DJ reader. Yeah, honestly, like it's or, or, Hey, you know what? Cornerback didn't work out for a variety of reasons. So we'll trade a third round pick for Carlton Davis and we'll sign a meek Robertson.

And that's the thing, right? That it's the draft. Yeah. They got four guys, plus basically Mosley's going to be like a fifth. That's almost like brand new. When I wrote up the 90-man roster article, like what does a roster look like after the draft, I pointed to the fact that Dorsey, Vildor, and Gilmore

All three of them were on the six deep roster at corner last year. All three of them are maybe competing for the, for one spot at CB six. Right. And so that's, that's what you're hoping is,

That all of that translates, right? Like you're hoping that all of this, that arsenal of players that you've put out there is that you've upgraded and you've taken your three of your bottom, you know, three of your corners and look, Vildor was starting, starting at the end of last season. And if he's now cornerback six, then you've done a good job of trying to rebuild that room. Right. Right.

So I would say so. Kindle Vildor played in the NFC championship game, Eric. I remember. He started at corner. Okay. So there's one last player we need to talk about. So this is a guy that I was probably the most looking forward to talking about. Yeah. Kind of widely considered and regarded as one of, again, a steal of Brad Holmes, especially with where he was drafted. But yeah,

Let's talk about Makai Wingo, who, I mean, everybody wants to point out the elephant in the room and I'm glad that he was really quick to kind of dispel it in the interview he did with Kay Adams about, you know, Oh, like you're an undersized defensive tackle. You're Aaron Donald, huh? And it's like,

he's like, yeah, Aaron Donald's great, but Aaron Donald's great because he can do things that other people can't do. And, um, I liked his answer of him saying, you know, I like watching guys like Kalijah can see, or what about Grady Jarrett, you know, and another guy who's, you know, barely six feet tall, um, but has had a really successful NFL career and earned himself a second contract with the Atlanta Falcons. So, um,

Let's just talk about Wingos. I mean, let's talk two things. What's his superpower and how does he fit initially with Detroit? So he is, like you said, undersized. And part of that being undersized, you would think would impact his RAS score negatively. And it can, it does impact it negatively. For example, he's, he's,

He's just over six foot, six foot and one quarter, but he's only 284. That's undersized as well. That's very small for an interior defensive. Right. His, his arm length is only 32. That's low. And then that, and in turn, his wingspan is also undersized. So he's undersized in all four of those categories, but as the rest of his athletic traits are all above average. And that's why his Raz is 8.78. Okay. Yeah.

His one six, four, 10 yard split is pretty stupid. Average for an interior is 1.76. The top 30 defensive linemen in the NFL, their average is 1.72. He ran a one six, four. So first steps there, right? His four, eight, five 40.

Also very solid, right? 40 yard dash is usually like around five for the elite players. Again, four, eight, five, really good score. It's it has to be because he's, like I said, he's, he's undersized, but he also has an elite three cone and he has an elite shuttle, right? Speed, quickness, ability to change directions, speed,

You have to have all those things to make up for being short and light. And he has them right. And he has those things, which is why he was drafted. If he didn't, if he was missing one of those things, he might not be drafted. Like in all honesty, because the, because if you're, if you're undersized, you have to have all those other intangibles.

but he understands leverage, right? And he can turn that leverage into power. Even though he's undersized, he, he has that quickness to get into the gap and then hit the guy low and move him off his spot to create enough of an opening to then detach and then pursue. And so Wingo's superpower is really just his ability to disrupt. And Wingo,

he may not always like get to the ball because maybe the ball goes away or whatever. Right. But like, he's always looking to attack the one gap attack, a gap. It can be a gap, B gap, whatever. He's a one gapping attacker and his is because he's low. He gets a better angle on the leverage. The strength is going to be limited because of his size and,

But there's enough of it there, and when you combine it with his ability to leverage, it helps. It helps him find success. Now, he's not always going to be able to pinball off these offensive linemen like he did at LSU, but his quickness is going to give him opportunities. So he's not going to be a guy, in my mind, that you're going to just say,

Let's put them out there with our number one run stuffing unit and expect him to be a contributing run stuffer. Yeah, he can, he could, he can exist in that element, but he's not going to be out there primarily for that. Primarily he's going to be asked to disrupt. And that's really what he should. That's really all they should really focus on with him right now. It's just let them disrupt, let them disrupt. And what's interesting is that you can actually kick him outside and

on pass rushing downs. If you want to stay big, like if it's third and short and you can, you can kick them out. You can have them blitz from the five technique.

That makes him interchangeable with John Kaminsky's and the Josh Paschal's who you will want to get inside and get up against guards in certain situations. Even Aiden, you can kick Aiden inside if you want to, like, if you want to kick Wingo to Aiden's spot, kick Aiden inside, you can get a better bench up for Aiden that way too. And Wingo has enough athleticism to keep that tackle honest where he can't just double team Aiden and not worry about like you have to account for him.

So you can run out of base. You can run a base front out there and then go into a sub package formation. Right. So you can disguise with, with, with Wingo. Now that's something you couldn't necessarily do before, because if, look, if you run DJ reader out there and you kick reader out to the five technique, the tackle is just going to be like, okay, cool. I got an extra half a step to double Aiden.

And then I can still reach reader. You can't do that with Wingo with Wingo. You have to account for them. So that quickness, that disrupting ability, that's his superpower. And that's where he is. I think really going to be featured. This is all stuff they wanted to get out of Levi that they haven't been able to tap back into since. Right. And so this is,

This is hopefully the disruption that's been missing or the disruptor that's been missing for the last couple of years on the interior. And I think the thing that was most striking about this pick and had me thinking was I was a big proponent of Johnny Newton at 29 if he's there. Sure.

And the thing that stuck, the thing that stuck out to me about Newton's game was something you just talked about with Wingo and his ability to line up five tech. He can, you know, be right over that tackle and he can be just as disruptive out there because of some of the stuff we were talking about when it comes to, to, to Manu is you get a guy who's six foot lined up across from a tackle who's six, seven,

that can be a problem. And I think Lions fans should be privy to that because that's why you like James Houston so much. It's his low center of gravity and his ability to leverage himself that way. What I'm most excited about with Wingo, Eric, is the idea that

Terrell Williams can throw a change up every once in a while. Oh yeah. And, and I think so much of football is rhythm and so much of football is what you're expecting to happen. Right? I mean, these are plays they're drawn up, they're designed. I think you get some sub packages where you get Wingo out there on first down with a lean or net or next to DJ reader. And it's,

okay, I'm so used to going up against DJ and Aleem that I build up this rhythm and this tolerance. And then you get a guy who is a penetrator, right? And that's something I loved about Newton's game too, was man, this guy just gets in the backfield, like hands so violent and getting Wingo in the sixth round,

feels like they accomplished what they wanted to do. And I think that's such an interesting point you bring up about, you know, they wanted this with Levi. Like that was the plan for Levi is that Levi was playing out of position at Washington as a nose guard. He's really a guy we like at the three tech and we want to see him be a penetrator at the three tech. And it just hasn't worked out for one reason or the other. I really like the idea of Levi

doing this in the sixth round. And I think that's why so many people like this pick and valued it, Eric, as they did as one of the most valuable picks in the draft. I had him ranked ahead of three, one, two, three, three players that went on day two. So, I mean, for me, I thought he was, again, like...

uh, like mahogany. I thought he was a late third, early fourth rounder. And, um, I thought this is a guy that you can, that you can get and play in a specific role, which I can't, I think I probably would have liked him on day three, like, because he was more role specific as opposed to round three. Um, but again, he was on the, on the, on a reef's consensus board. He was, uh,

109 and he went at 189 so that's that's incredible value to get a guy two full rounds plus later than what he should have gone um it's a it's another one of those where when i was inputting the uh the uh the numbers after the fact like the draft picks after effect i was like

Yeah, he's definitely was sticking out like a sore thumb. Like I can understand why, why Detroit was looking at him and like, okay, we got to grab them because it's just both, both him and mahogany were just like, they were so far up my board compared to anybody else that was there. It was, it seems very logical in hindsight, like to see,

That to make sense that they would have been the easy selections. And I think that's really what it was. I think they were pretty easy selections to get these guys, both good fits, both character fits as well, which just,

happens to be you know pretty ideal like for like with like with wingo for people who don't know wingo wore uh 18 at lsu which is like their coveted number um that's what they give to like their their leaders and um and he was definitely one of their leaders he was a captain almost kind of like the uh the tom harman deal right with michigan in 98 yeah yeah yeah certainly

And there's a bunch of... I think... I forget which... Jeez, I used to know a lot of these numbers. That was like that, too. I should probably look them up. It would probably be valuable information to know ahead of time, right? To be honest, it really should be something I pay attention to. But Wingo just...

a very gritty mentality, right? Of a leader, a captain, like it just, it's all perfect. A team captain who played at Missouri just two years ago. Right. You know, like, right. Excuse me. Yeah. He, he,

And then, like, he hurts his leg or he gets injured and he should be – and they're basically like, oh, your season's over. And they're like, just start – most people would just be like, oh, I'm just going to start preparing for the draft. And he's like, no, I want to work my way back so I can play in the bowl game so that I'm with my team one more time. Like, he just very – That he dominated him. Right. Look, like five pressures, two sacks. Like, oh, okay. All right.

It's, it's, it's very weird. So like, so like the grit index, I think there were 14 players that landed the highest tier tier one. There were 14 players in this class that had a tier one. Wingo was one of them. Vaki was another one. So that's, I guess it's not surprising that they ended up with two of two guys in that 14. But yeah,

He just, he has a lot of those intangibles. And it's really weird to me that like both mahogany and Wingo, we're still sitting there really when they shouldn't have been. And both of these guys are like, they fit the lions so perfectly. They just, it just seems like very fortunate to be able to grab both of these guys in the sixth round, because realistically they,

They shouldn't have been. I think, again, if you play the game like you talked about earlier, if you would have told me ahead of the draft that they were going to go Arnold Breakstraw, Wingo Mahogany,

And then Vaki and Manu, I'd be like, all right, yeah, I get it. That makes sense. You go, that's where all those guys kind of fit. Yeah. Hey, I I've seen that before in a mock draft simulator that somebody sent me. It's like, yeah, yeah, no, that's how it plays out. And like, and like, but that's, that's, that's the beauty of the draft. Like you don't, when it comes to day three, you're,

These GMs all have different priorities and they all have different players that fit in their system and they don't care what anyone else's board looks like. They have a specific guy that they want to go get

or guys. And then it's like, let's just take them. I don't care. Like in the first and second and third rounds, you're, you're playing the value board. You're looking to trade down. You're looking to gain assets or you're looking to move up and, and without giving up too many assets. But once you get to day three,

I think these guys don't care. Like they're like, Oh, he, he was like, yeah, we had him as maybe a player that we would normally get in the sixth round, but he's there in the fifth and we don't have a six rounder. So let's just take them. Like who cares? Like once you get to day three, you're picking specific guys to fit specific types of roles, specific guys that fit your mentality. And so they just, they had guys and they, the four that they got, I think are really good.

Or potentially really good. We'll find out about Manu. But I know three of the four are really good. We'll see about Manu and what he turns into. But that's great. It's great value. On the consensus board, they had great value. Across the board. All five of their six picks were all like... Or no. I think Vaki was actually considered a reach by a little bit. But they ended up with...

quote unquote, the best value play for their players, uh, in the NFL. Right. Like I, that was one, I wrote that article earlier in the week where it's, it's, uh, you know, they shouldn't have got Arnold where they did. They shouldn't have got rake straw where they did, you know, and then, and then manga Wingo and, uh, keep Wingo and, uh, a mahogany. Again, we just, we've gone on about that too. So it's like, I know they gave up draft capital, uh, and that's part of it, but, uh,

You have to look, when you look at this, I've found, and I think a lot of us have maybe come to realize this, when you're looking at Brad Holmes draft classes, you need to look at the totality of the draft class and not like who went where and how he acquired who and what, just what did he walk away with? And he walked away with six guys, five of them that are going to be, I think, in the too deep.

uh at at each of their positions in my in my opinion i think all of all five will be in the two deep and then uh and then monty will be the uh the project that that's a it's a really interesting way to look at things and the one tinfoil hat thing that i have right now is how carlton davis fits in to all this um long term because i think we're having a much different discussion about carlton davis before the draft

And I think with acquiring him and Amik Robertson, that almost assuaged a lot of people's concerns with cornerback in the here and now, right? Like I think that there was a much less vocal crowd about cornerback at 29. And I think people just became cool with whatever Brad Holmes was going to do. And to see the way that he doubled down,

Not that I thought that was the plan. I don't think that Brad Holmes went into day two and thought, I'm going to come out with another cornerback. I think that rake straw was there, and it was, there's no way I can't leave the draft without this guy as part of our draft class. I'm with you. And the tinfoil hat thing is like, kind of to what you said earlier, kind of sparked it, but the idea that when it comes to these day three picks, whatever, because...

the Detroit lions are going to start playing the complex game. And there's part of me that depending on how, how Terry on looks and how rake straw looks. And I mean, how, how, how this entire, you know, defensive back room is going to look in 2024 is vastly different than it looked at the beginning of the season a year ago. It doesn't make you as reliant upon having to pay for Carlton Davis. I think, I think it gives Detroit some, some security and,

I agree with you. It's very strange. The perception of him was they restructured his contract as a step towards giving him an extension. That's what it looked like, right? And now that extension didn't come. And now you draft two guys in the first two rounds and you're like, now the extension might not come, right? Because of how the draft happened to play out. And maybe that was part of the plan. I don't know.

Um, maybe the plan was let's get him into a cap friendly number now. And then, and then now we have the option if we want to, and let's see how the draft plays out and then look at how it does. And now you're not pressed for it. Um, it's, it's an interesting way because like I look at it and I'm like, man, they invested a third round pick in him. That means they like them.

And then I look at the rookies and I'm like, oh, they invested a first and a second round pick in the rookies. So they have actually invested more in the rookies than in him. A first, a second and a third. If you want to include what they used to move up to get Terry on. Right. Right. Exactly. So like they love those guys. They they gave a meek a non, you know, non consequential number like that. Like they gave him a nice payday.

They like him too. I think they like all these guys, Eric. Yeah, no, I, I, I agree with you. And I think, I think the reason they gave a Mika two year deal is because they like them that much. Like even, even if I think a year from now, they're still going to want him on the roster. Like they're still going to want him competing and pushing. And, and I, I, I'm not counting. I, I don't want to count him out of this competition. But like,

it's uh he's gonna have to work obviously but like yeah i do i definitely think there was a reason they signed him to a two-year deal and not just a one-year deal like he's another guy who fits the mentality and then if cj mosley actually turns into something well watch out because like if he if he's actually can return to form and return to health he might be the best of the bunch which is the craziest thing like right now right now like the best like it's

It's very interesting to see where it goes and it's a good problem to have at the same time Davis and Mosley, they're on one year deals, but you're actually prepared for that now with two rookies and a meek under contract as well. Like you don't have the field of pressure to make that, to make that move if you don't want to. And it's not an incredibly expensive room, right? It's not an incredibly expensive room because you have the rookie deals and

And I'm not trying to run Carlton Davis out of town by any means. Right. But what I'm saying is they, they get to see him playing in a contract year, Eric. I think, I think they afforded themselves that luxury by restructuring it the way that they did. I, with the draft happening, how it happened. I think what they're going to get is they're going to get a highly motivated Carlton Davis contract.

And that's probably where he's going to be at his best because you get a guy who, you know, he thinks he's a, he's an outside Island corner. Who's a shutdown guy. You get them on a contract year where he's motivated by having to go and earn that contract. It's a great spot. The lions are in Carlton Davis, his contract cap hit right now, 4.5 this year, a meek 2.8.

Terry and Arnold 2.6 Mosley 2.1. Brian branch 1.8. Malafon Wu 1.4. Kirby Joseph 1.4. Rake straw 1. Less than 1.2. Like those are just the top guys. Not a, not a number over five. That's that's nuts. Considering you have five guys that all are legitimately going to be competing for two spots. Um,

And maybe a little bit inside, but yeah, it's a, it's a lot of, it's low numbers for that room and, and they've, they've acquired a lot of talent at a reasonable cost. And, uh, and it, it's how you, it's a great way to rebuild the room, right? Again, lots of dart throws. Let's see what sticks, let them fight it out and, and, and see what happens. What's a more competitive term than bloodbath, Eric?

Because remember, that's what Kelvin Shepard called the linebackers room. A hundred percent. And look what happened to the linebackers group. I know. Right. So like, what, what is this? Because it feels like almost like all out war. Right. It's a, it's definitely like, like Holmes used the bloodbath term again. Right. Like he was like,

I'm not going to say who he, who he used it, you know, in response to, but actually he used it first and then, um, and then it was brought up a second time. Yeah. Um, it was very clever by the way, when, when, when, uh, our buddy responded very fast to that. Yeah. But, um, bloodbath it is, um,

I think that's just what I'm hoping for from now on. Every position of need just becomes a bloodbath the following season. You need an offensive interior offensive guard, bloodbath. Like, and they kind of have that on the guard too. Like the reserve guards, there's just a ton of them right now. Yes.

The only one we don't – I want to see some receiver bloodbath. That's what I'd like to see coming up next. Because everywhere else, like running back, you got five guys that are competing for maybe four spots. It would be interesting to see if they end up keeping five because of the new kickoff rules and stuff like that. Like if they end up keeping a little bit more at five instead of more linebackers, if they keep more running backs type of thing. I thought it might –

I was going to say, especially if they're core, you know, special teamers, right? Like you can, you can put Craig Reynolds out there to block in this new scheme, right? Like that's where I think Craig Reynolds would be really valuable. So the beauty of Craig is that he can do those dirty work things on special teams and also be RB three, right? Um, Zonovan Knight, uh,

has some kick return ability, right? Which is why he was in the mix. But I think they actually liked Zonovan a little bit more on offense before he got hurt. I think he's going to, he's got a good shot at making the team too. And then, I mean, is Vaki RB5? And yet, you know, he's not, I've seen people say, oh, they're going to, you know, why are they trading up for these guys? They might not even make the roster. Folks,

They're not trading for guys that aren't making the roster. You can write it in pen. Even if he's RB five, he's making the roster like, like,

I don't want to say Jason Cabinda is expendable, but I'm sorry, Jason Cabinda. You have a lot to prove this offseason. Yeah, he's not coming back, I don't think. I don't think they're going to resign him. I think he's seen his day. I think they have shifted into a different direction. Like there was very much a role for him. On the 2021 team.

Yes. Yep. And it started getting phased out in 2022. And then last year when he got went on IR, they were like, well, we can live without them and we can, and we found other ways. And the idea of needing to keep a full back is gone. And I think that that's a position that there's still a few teams holding onto it, but it's, it's going away because the,

You can keep four tight ends. You can keep an extra running back. And if they can do like that kind of H back type stuff, it's going to help you put mahogany back there apparently too. And you can Joe doll them like you can, you can just let him run it. Oh, I had from fullback. Apparently he's, he's got those skills. So good job, Joe doll. Yeah. I love Joe doll. Underrated player.

um yeah bob couldn't head away with offensive lineman eric he really did in the draft he really did but we give we give a bunch of crap but he he really did um that's neither here nor there the i guess it's interesting it's like they just they seem like they're they've blood bathed it up this whole year it's

We need like, and, and you've seen like these, you saw it kind of last year at linebacker and then you saw it play out where they improved. You've seen now you've overloaded corner and you're hoping that can, they can play out and you're no, you're always going to look for more depth and you're always going to want one more of this or one more of that. But yeah,

They're in a good spot. I think there's there. So they've got with, with their potentially 15 free undrafted free agents that they have that haven't been confirmed yet. But if you add in the draft picks and those 15 unconfirmed free agents, they still have four spots open on their 90 man roster. And so with those four spots, I hope to see some veterans. If I had my, my choice, I S I'd want, I,

a veteran receiver, a veteran offensive tackle, a veteran safety, and then the kicker for the Michigan Panthers. And I'd be okay with those four. And then we'll call it. And you're done. We'll call the 90-man roster good for now. I'll see you in July. Honestly, that's kind of what I'm looking for. So, yeah.

I feel like I've talked the majority of time, so I want to make sure you have, if you have anything else that you want to say, please say it. No, I thought we were, I came into this with the intention of being like, no, you know, we said we're going to keep these short. And then I blinked and it's been an hour and 10 minutes almost. All right. I'm not paying attention. I've stopped paying attention. I've been yelled at so many times for paying attention to the clock that I'm trying to

People, people have, have scolded me, said, Eric, we want content. And my goodness, I didn't, I was tired after the draft. The draft is really long. It's really cumbersome on us. It takes a lot of energy out of us. And like, so peek behind the curtain just a little bit leading up to the draft, trying to get my board done, trying to get all the articles that I have to get done for the draft, trying to get all the draft days up.

I was sleeping up about four hours a night. Maybe sometimes it was like three and a half for that whole week leading up to the draft itself. I wasn't. And then on day one, I was in Allen park till three on a, on Thursday night. Right. And then I had to wake up. It's I had to drive home and then wake up my, with my kid at six. So I got two hours that night. And then, so like,

By the time that 10 day stretches over of me getting like four hours or less of sleep, I was kind of tired. So I needed to like recharge a little bit. So I didn't, I think people, I think the machine said it. He had to recharge. So I gave myself a few days to like write a couple articles that I needed to for the website and just kind of like breathe. And then I think people gave us that grace and,

But then like the last two days, it's been like, Hey, where's the podcast? You guys got a podcast? You guys, where's the podcast? Cause I've been getting those and I'm like, I'm trying to get my energy, my, my batteries charged again. So, Hey, I've, I've been asking that question to Jeremy. So, Oh, well we got to get that going too. Yeah. Steps are moving forward, but it's, it's, uh,

It's more of a shuffle at this point. That's kind of what we thought, right? We, that's kind of like that. I mean, we, we warned people that it was going to be a slow process and, and sure enough, it is a, it is a slow process. It has taken its time. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I've been, I've been talking too much in Slack.

Like every time I do that, I realize like, oh, this, this is what I usually do, but I just do it on a podcast instead. So I'm glad I could come on here with you and share. No, I tell you it's, it's, it's easier. It's easier to talk it out because you know, when you write an article,

You got the grammar police all over the place, right? You got people on Twitter correcting my tweets. I got people in the chat on my articles telling me I put a comma in the wrong place or something. Like, okay, I get it. I'm trying. It's free. Enjoy the free content that we're giving you. Yeah.

surely not one of the articles I edited though. That's for sure. No, that's it. It's not a hundred percent. I doubt it. I'm kidding. But, but like it's, it's, I don't have anyone commenting in the podcast. Eric said this word wrong, which I surely do every episode, right? I get too excited and I start saying words that don't make quite, quite make sense.

But I think you did call Emmanuel Mosley, CJ Mosley, but you have it because there, there is a CJ Mosley who plays linebacker. I tell you what, man,

Uh, I was trying to remember some names of free agents during the draft and I couldn't remember like my, the names, the names are so jumbled in my head right now. I need like, I need to like just completely reset. I need to, I need to turn the machine off and turn it back on. Like I need to unplug it, take the battery out. Yeah.

Cause the names are definitely jumbled. CJ Mosley. See, look, I told you I did make, I did make a mistake. Every, every time I talked to Jeremy, we remind each other that Marcus Davenport's on the team. You know what else I've, you know what I've done? Uh,

There's so many M's like Manu and Mahogany. And then Makai Wingo. I keep calling him Mingo or like typing Mingo. I think I typed Mingo or might have said Mingo. Like Barcavius? Yes, exactly. Like Barcavius, 100%. And I'm pretty sure I've typed it a couple of times by mistake because like when you're in that

You're thinking about day three and you got M on the brain, apparently, because that's all like half of them are M words. And I get them. I get the mingo wingo thing. I've messed that up a couple. So I probably said that wrong on the podcast, too. But I don't know.

this is this is the charm of uh of me i guess i i'm gonna make mistakes but you kind of get the gist of what i'm talking about yeah well and we're both handsome right so we we settled that earlier too that's why people allow it right all right all right buddy well i appreciate you coming back on um i appreciate you having me we definitely uh

We definitely used up our time this time. I hope people enjoy it. I know they've been missing it. I'm very excited to hopefully get a few more of these going once I get the batteries recharged and stuff. Next week is...

is a schedule release. So that's, that's going to be an interesting, I, we're going to have to have, I'm going to try and get some, another podcast in before the schedule release, uh,

and Joe's been on vacation this week. So I'm trying to get, I'm going to do another show with Joe, but I wanted, I know Morgan has sent me a message about wanting to do something. Well, another product is with him, but then like that schedule release is going to be fun because people always have some fun hot takes on that. So there'll be plenty, plenty of stuff coming up. And then after that, it's Ricky mini camp and it's just gonna like, we're going to keep going. Like it's, it's not slowing down here.

We've got another six weeks, I think, before things slow down. So we'll keep pumping out content for you. Ryan, thanks again. And until next time. Of course, buddy. Until next time, let's go Lions.