January 30th, 2024 at 1:12 PM ^
This is excellent. Now get the Goff extension done!
February 1st, 2024 at 12:44 AM ^
Goff likes Ben Johnson and credits him for his development.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:12 PM ^
Was Jim trying to poach him too?
January 30th, 2024 at 1:34 PM ^
I'm feeling the same vibe as when Zinter, Keegan, Corum et.al. decided to come back to win a National Championship. Washington was all set to hire Johnson. But Johnson comes back because unfinished business.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:52 PM ^
Aaron Glenn's business needs to be finished. I don't totally blame the defense for Sunday night, but teams cooked our pass defense all year and once he finally figured out the secret sauce (blitzing) he went away from it.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:57 PM ^
Aaron Glenn is not going anywhere unless its a Head Coaching gig. He's been behind the eight ball from the beginning due to the talent level he has had. The roster Holmes/Campbell inherited was a disaster. They have spend three years getting the offense right, which makes sense because the NFL is an offense first proposition. My guess is they will now conclude that they have the offense where it needs to be and will invest in defense this off season. I believe in Brad Holmes.
January 30th, 2024 at 2:12 PM ^
They did draft Campbell and Branch last year. They just need to keep adding pieces and building depth.
January 30th, 2024 at 2:32 PM ^
Yes he is working with tin foil vs what they have given the offense.
You have Hutch, Anzalone which half this fan base was shrieking they resigned, Alim, and Branch it seems as the foundation pieces. Hopefully Campbell can be an Anzalone in time. Joseph regressed hopefully a sopmore slump. Iffy might be something but it has taken him 3 years and a position switch and has shown for 6 games. Barnes turned it up in year 3 but lost first 2 years. Assumed starting safety Walker barely plays now. Their other big money on defense is on Cominsky who is a "glue guy" and Sutton who is a CB2 thrust into CB1. Both Okwaras and Harris (who did take a pay cut) can be found on the side of milk cartons. Gardner Johnson I can see why he has moved around from team to team despite having a good amount of talent - between his ears its a lot of strange.
Meanwhile ALL Pro RT, All Pro WR, big sums of money spent on center and LT, looks like a future All Pro at TE, $34M into a QB, paid a RB $6M, drafted another top 15, etc.
I have no idea how good AG is - he has been given kitchen scraps compared to Johnson. For that matter cannot imagine Hutch if he actually had a decent bookend - forget a stud type. Just someone "above average" fergodsakes. The problems in the secondary can be mitigated with a pass rush. Their 2nd best pressure man is a DT and no he is not a Chris Jones level.
January 30th, 2024 at 4:34 PM ^
He said fergodsakes...
January 30th, 2024 at 5:31 PM ^
Spot on take here. Glenn's hand is kind of forced due to the roster constraints. They run a fairly high risk/high reward kind of defense to overcome their shortcomings. Even then, they still looked right there for most of the season and the metrics showed they were at least an average defense (getting home on third down was their biggest issue IMO). With a few more players, they could become a very good defense.
It should be a very compelling offseason. There are some high level FAs at edge and CB this year. It would be great to shore up one of those positions (CB1, Edge opposite Hutch) through free agency and then focus on defense (and OL depth/replacements) in the draft. If Glenn has some more impact players, it could end up being a very good unit.
And while I'm discussing offseason, I am also very interested to see what happens with Goff, Saint, Jackson, and potentially Sewell this offseason.
January 30th, 2024 at 2:53 PM ^
They should be able to address it in the draft this year. They need a stud DE opposite Hutch, probably upgrade OLB and of course secondary.
Pass defense was questionable but I felt like the biggest weakness of the team was in facing mobile QBs (and Purdy beat them there too). Too often Hutch gets doubled or goes too far up field and the D line loses contain. They MUST get better at containing QBS.
January 30th, 2024 at 3:45 PM ^
I don't know why anyone would downvote this. It is highly accurate.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:13 PM ^
Wow. I cannot believe this. I thought for sure he was gone.
Super Bowl next year.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
The best kind of good news: unexpected.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:14 PM ^
warde's failure to deploy the money cannon to poach ben johnson from the lions is all part and parcel of his apathy for michigan football and is the most damning indictment yet of his failure as athletic director.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:18 PM ^
It does speak volumes that the Detroit Lions have the ability to retain its highly sought after staff. They seemingly provide a work environment that its employees want to be apart of. Warde doesn’t even know what a money cannon is. He’s too busy trying to be Dave Brandon 2.0.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:22 PM ^
speaks more volumes that Harbaugh wants to win a Super Bowl and he can’t do that at Michigan
he took the job here with the understanding he wanted to go back to the NFL.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:34 PM ^
What speaks louder volumes and time and time again is. Harbaugh said he wanted to be somewhere where he was wanted. WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS?
Warde clearly hated him. Warde backs a coach who assaults other coaches but won’t financially and supportively back Harbaugh. His allegiance to his ego is no different than Dave Brandon’s.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:40 PM ^
what do you think “they don’t have the Lombardi trophy in college” means?
you can’t make someone stay at a job when an opportunity for a dream job comes up
you seem to be one of the very few posters on this blog who just can’t get it through their head he wants to try to win a Super Bowl before its too late.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:58 PM ^
He left to not publicly shit all over the place he grew up and adores. That was his excuse. Warde is doing the dumping for him just slowly.
January 30th, 2024 at 4:05 PM ^
damn dude you’re having an emotional meltdown across multiple threads.
its a game my man. played by 18-22 year old. not life or death. not that big of a deal. I would suggest you relax a little and enjoy the national title but you seem to be incapable
January 30th, 2024 at 6:06 PM ^
Nah I just don’t wanna see Michigan regress back to 2008 which is where this AD is taking them. There’s no emotional meltdown lol. I’ve donated a lot of coin to the school NIL and was thrilled to see a National Title in person. The issue is I want multiple not singular. And Michigan seems to be content with going back to 9 wins. Always pushing for more to be better tomorrow than I was today. Tired of settling for meh and it’s okay.
January 30th, 2024 at 2:19 PM ^
Let him go he's the doppelgänger for a Goblin and uno, dos, tres, quatt-you know!! He has an axe deodorant to grind!!!
January 30th, 2024 at 4:29 PM ^
What do you think it means for Harbaugh? No matter what Michigan did, it was never enough. How about we put it in Harbaugh's own words two-years ago after he didn't get the Vikings job.
“I called Warde (Manuel, the Michigan athletics director) and I asked him if he wanted me to be the head coach. And he said, ‘Yes, 100 percent.’ And I said, 'OK then. That’s what I want to do.'
“And I told him, ‘Warde, this will not be a reoccurring theme every year. This was a one- time thing.”
Won't back Harbaugh? When this whole Big Ten suspension came down, do you think Michigan hired some law firm they saw on a bus stop bench? They hired Williams & Connolly. It was the attorneys not Warde who wrote the TRO and filed it. It was the attorneys who couldn't get the TRO signed.
Whether Warde is the best person to be the AD isn't the question. IF Harbaugh wanted to be at Michigan, he would have been. There is plenty of love in Ann Arbor for him. He decided that he wanted to be in the NFL more than at Michigan. Blaming Warde is the wrong person.
January 30th, 2024 at 6:09 PM ^
Everything has a price. Hiring a law firm was chump change that was gone and out of sight the next week. This has nothing to do with the TRO. Everything to do with with Warde failing at every turn baseball, hockey, basketball, and now football. Everything this dude touches gets worse. He’s a cancer.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:29 PM ^
I think the key phrase is “highly sought after” in conjunction with “Detroit Lions”. This is not a common occurrence.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:53 PM ^
Funny....
But if Warde was Lions GM, I'm sure he would have fumbled Johnson extension.
The Warde hate here may have jumped the shark, but the apologists are just as exhausting.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:56 PM ^
real talk - I'm not an apologist. I'd be MORE than fine with replacing Warde for bungling the Pearson saga alone, plus a half dozen other things.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:16 PM ^
Once the Commanders saw that run play called at the end of the game they wanted no part of Ben Johnson anymore.
/s
January 30th, 2024 at 1:16 PM ^
Pretty shocking news. Great for the Lions.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:17 PM ^
Maybe he can figure out how to score in the second half.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:19 PM ^
Yea, he totally shouldn't have called the fumble and drop wide open passes for big gains plays.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:25 PM ^
I would have called “touchdown left” instead of “fumble up the middle”
I also would have called “interception” instead of “miraculous bounce off defenders face mask right into the hands of the receiver”
January 30th, 2024 at 1:29 PM ^
To be fair I think they only ran 5 or 6 times in the second half and one of those was Gibbs fumble and the other was St Brown when Montgomery was gashing them. A learning half of football for everyone on that team.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:50 PM ^
Yea, but he called a great game. 2 drops and a hell of a lucky bounce cost them 100x more than play calling.
January 30th, 2024 at 4:24 PM ^
Bad breaks happen. When you are up 2-3 scores, a good gameplan can make up for that. Ben Johnson channels his inner Harbaugh/Moore and we win that game. Instead he went all Ryan Day.
January 30th, 2024 at 2:16 PM ^
You don't sound like any fun at all - just another guy that wants to win in boring ways...
January 30th, 2024 at 1:53 PM ^
We were pretty much the worst 3rd quarter team in the league all season. Not just a one game aberration. And it was the offense that was the prime offender.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:19 PM ^
maybe his boss will figure out when to send the kicking team out and take the 3pts.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:30 PM ^
He got there by being himself. If they had scored we would be singing his praises.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:52 PM ^
being aggressive on 4th down is understandable and it has served them well.... but at some point you have to use some common sense instead of just going for it on 4th down because that's what we do. in the 3rd qtr when SF cut it to a 2 score game, kicking the FG puts it back to a 3 possession game. The probability of making that FG is substantially better than making a 4th down conversion and then going on to score a TD.
IMO, i understand others disagree, passing points to go for it on 4th, cost them the dallas game and a superbowl appearance. Not hindsight, I was yelling, "KICK THE GD FIELDGOAL" i guess they either didn't hear me or don't value my insight.
Onward, Go Blue!
January 30th, 2024 at 2:22 PM ^
I'm good with going for the it in the 3rd. They still had the lead, were moving the ball pretty well, and the wheels loose but hadn't fallen off. Stick to what got you there! The second time, in the 4th, when the wheels had come off, they should have kicked the GD FG. At that point, stanch the bleeding and go from there...
January 30th, 2024 at 1:25 PM ^
Detroit's drives in the 2nd half ended as follows:
4th and 2 drop by Reynolds at San Francisco 28
Fumble by Gibbs
3rd and 9 drop by Reynolds
4th and 3 incomplete pass from Goff at San Francisco 30
Touchdown
What about that do you put on Johnson? I guess a better call on 4th and 3? Sure, the run was extremely risky on the last drive, but really the game was almost certainly over either way.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:39 PM ^
3rd and 4. St Brown runs between the tackles for 2 yards. Next play, failed 4th down. A RB averaging 6.8 yards a carry is on the bench.
January 30th, 2024 at 1:58 PM ^
Okay, but you can't just say "failed 4th down" and not note that Johnson called a successful play that Reynolds botched .
January 30th, 2024 at 2:39 PM ^
Reynolds was horrible. If he catches 1 of those the Lions probably win.
January 30th, 2024 at 3:19 PM ^
I understood the Amon Ra run. They were hoping that the defense would assume it was a pass play and loosen things up. If not, as long as it put them in go-range.
Once again, this is a bunch of people complaining for sake of complaining.