The Rise Up, See Red podcast
2024 Cardinals opponent preview: Detroit Lions with Jeff Risdon
The third show in three days of our 14 in 14 to preview the Arizona Cardinals' 14 2024 opponents continues with the Detroit Lions, whom the Cardinals face at home in Week 3.
Jess is joined by Lions Wire managing editor Jeff Risdon to talk about the Lions' 2023 season, their moves in the offseason and big expectations for 2024.
- Duration:
- 50m
- Broadcast on:
- 11 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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USA Today, NFL Wiresight that covers yours on a Cardinals, and in the midst of our opponent preview series, again during this series, I'm numbering the episodes because they're not being recorded in any particular order, although my attempt is to release them as the Cardinals schedule goes. And so while this is I think like my 10th show, it will probably be the third that I release that'll get released later this week. I am on the line with Lionswire managing editor, Jeff Risen. Very familiar to the show is as the Cardinals and Lions play often, and I think also once you I had you on when you were to talk to talk Browns one year, I think as well because Jeff, I believe so. Jeff does a lot of things. He's covered a lot. He's had a lot of hats here on the wire, covering draft wire, covering the Browns, covering the Lions. I mean, you haven't covered the Cardinals. I think that's about it, right? I have not. Yeah. Yeah, it's I have worn a lot of hats of my years here, but I'm originally from Cleveland, but I am not a Browns fan, so I moved on from that. I've been a Lions fan for for a very, very long time. And covering those two things makes you come with a draft. It's finally paying off. They both made the playoffs last year, which was wild to me. I'm not sure that it happened in my cognizant lifetime. So it's been a very good time. It's a good time to be me, finally. It is. You know, the Lions coming off of a fantastic season. The Cardinals face the Lions in week three at home. But let's talk about what we've done in previous years. We'll look back at last season. We'll look at what they've done in the off season, and then kind of what the hopes are for the coming season. And in 2023, it was if you could have drawn up kind of the roadmap and kind of the three four year plan for Dan Campbell when he got higher, they followed the script almost perfectly. They they progressed from a not so great team to a a wildly fun team that that almost made the playoffs. And the last year, 12 wins, winning the NFC North, and then making it to the NFC Championship game and really giving San Francisco a run from the for their money, especially in that first half coming within a half of the Super Bowl, which I think could Lions fans have sort of like, could they have survived making it to the Super Bowl actually? I'm not sure the Las Vegas as a city would have survived the Detroit Lions fan influx into it for a Super Bowl. But we got we got our taste, you know, we got our beak wet. Now we now we want to dive fully in and it's there for man. That that that championship game was so frustrating. So I was in mobile for that for the senior bowl. And I run a Lions podcast, Detroit Lions podcast, and we were we're watching it together in our hotel room. And the first half, we were worried that we were going to get thrown out of the hotel we were in because we were being so loud and watches. And then so I'm a person when I get frustrated, I get very, very quiet. And I didn't I'm not sure that we talked in our room in the entire second half. It was it was rough, but but it was it was a magical year, you know, coming off of the the uprising from the year before, where they started one and five and then finished very strong, just missed the playoffs and the technicality. And then, you know, beating Green Bay, Kirby Joseph intercepting Aaron Rogers last pass and Green Bay Packers uniform was it's a lot of fun that way. But yeah, the season starting off, you know, season opener Thursday night, going into Kansas City, spoiling their their season that that kicked off a fantastic season. Last year was one for the ages man. It was the best season in Detroit Lions. I'm in my 50s. It was the best season of my lifetime. No doubt about it. You know, they were they were they had a top five offense. They were number three in yards, number five in points. And they had an okay defense defense. It statistically was 19th in yards, 23rd in points. And but like what can you say about what they did offensively? And let's talk Jared Goff because they will get to the the big contract. But what has Jared Goff is Jared Goff was completely cast off. And I think I asked you when the trade happened that year, if if you all felt that golf was an asset or a liability in that deal. Because if if because I think felt the Rams were kind of trying to they felt that golf was a throw in. Yes, yes, and the Lions absolutely did not see it that way. Okay. And it took so it took some time for us as collective Lions fans to realize that Jared Goff was going to be an asset for us. We we knew we knew at the time of the trade that the GM that they really liked Jared Goff like they wanted him and they wanted it to work. But that first year he was he was a little rough. He's doing you know the 360 no still throws like stop doing that dude. But you know he and new offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. They put together an offense built around what golf does really well, which he makes very good decisions with the ball. Aside from the that thing, he reads the he reads pre-snap very well. He's very good when he can distribute the ball to multiple targets. And that's something that they've we've we've got plethora of receiving assets, which I'm sure we'll go over. They got him a fantastic offensive line is the best offensive line of football. I will not accept any arguments otherwise. And because of that, Jared Goff has become a pro-book quarterback who earned a massive contract and he's earned it and he has earned the love of Detroit fans. If you go in Michigan, just to random places, I live in the Grand Rapids area. We have a minor league hockey team here. Jared Goff chance broke out in every it's Grand Rapids Griffin's game. Every Griffin's game had Jared Goff chance. It's crazy how quickly we've embraced it. Straight sports fans, Detroit that's Detroit fandom is something different because that would literally never happen in the Phoenix area. That's that's wild to me. Yeah, well, some of it is the fact that the other Detroit teams, I guess the Tigers are okay this year, but like the Red Wings aren't doing very well and the Pistons are just atrocious. So you got to have some it's been a very long time since the Lions were the best team in Detroit. I'm not sure that's ever happened either in my lifetime. So it's it's wild. Yeah, I mean offensively weapons everywhere. David Montgomery rushes for over a thousand yards. New Jameer Gibbs nearly gets there. As of which by the way, the Jameer Gibbs pick was kind of the surprise of last year. It will kind of Detroit going with the hey, we're going to surprise everyone in the draft by taking a running back and a lying backer and you know the two non-value positions for the draft that they go first round for that. Ammon Rice St. Brown has it has an all-pro season over 1500 yards and you get Sam Laporta as well. So I mean my goodness the the production across the board and you had you know you have Josh Reynolds getting 600 yards you've got almost 500 yards from Kelly for Raymond. So you had production kind of across the board led you know you had three guys with over 1100 yards from scrimmage. Was there any disappointment at all in how the offense played and you you said as well because they you said the best offensive line of football because you've got Taylor Decker. You've got Penne Sewell who's looked fantastic early in his career. What was there not to like offensively? They would have occasional roles and this is more of a Ben Johnson thing than anything else. He will at times try to show you how smart hitting creative he is and sometimes it's brilliant but there are other times where they just throw away a series or two and that actually happened in the in the NFC Championship game against the 49ers where they they gave away a couple of possessions that that where they could have done more with them. That's probably the biggest complaint because you know skill wise they're there. You know the balance of finding Jameson Williams we got to talk about him because he was the first round pick in 2022. He hasn't been there yet. It's coming. He's looked a lot better this spring. I was at some of the practices. He looks good but he's going to be a guy familiar with Will Fuller when he was in Houston. Vertical field stretcher incredible when he makes the catch but doesn't always make the catch doesn't always get where and when he needs to be very similar but I covered those Texans teams. He used to wear it and he made everybody else better by his presence on the field and Jameson Williams is getting to that point and that's that was probably the biggest fan disappointment last year was the JMO just didn't really go off because I mean Jamir Gibbs was phenomenal. Samuel Porter had the greatest rookie tight end season ever. There's a whole lot to like with it. So you were sort of picking this when we're talking about what didn't work but there's there's always room for improvement. They scored first very well. They were very good on third down by the for the most part and some of that is fact that they go four to fourth down a ton and they're very good at it too. So they do a lot of things that other teams don't do and that makes them more difficult to prepare for. You'll see it in week three when we get together. Well and you look at like in that kind of bit them in the butt in the in the second half of that title but like if you look at those failed plays they didn't fail because it was the wrong play call. The players they called upon to make the plays just didn't do it. You had Josh you had Josh Reynolds drop a pass. You had what was it was it. I can't remember was it was a pullback that that had the other fourth down play that I can't. It was bad there. Jamir, you had a pull that was like yeah. People were criticizing like why didn't you go with it like but look at the play. The play was there. It was there. They were there. It wasn't a bad play. The execution now and and you had you decided to go to one of your other bigger names perhaps. I mean you wouldn't have been able to make that play because they were the focus that those plays were open and so defensively. I mean you got to say that Aidan Hutchinson has been everything and more that that what you could have expected and I you know like Jacksonville is Trevon Walker's talented but like how could you have gone wrong with Aidan Hutchinson and then you know to end up with the Michigan guy in Michigan playing with his with his pants on fire which is the way he plays and to be as talented as he is how like how good was he last year and would you say he is sort of the the strong point of the defense. The defense could have been better but you know 51 tackles 11 and a half sacks 33 quarterback hits. Was was he essentially like the the leader of that defense? Oh absolutely and you have to factor in the fact that the on the opposite side the other edge was Charles Harris, Romeo Okora, Julian Okora. Two of those guys are probably out of football now. They just didn't have any counterbalance to Hutchinson. He did that all himself and did it in for a variety of ways. He can win inside, outside, hand in dirt, standing up. He can drop into coverage. He's a great great player. Really emerged as more of a 18 focal point and leader in his second season too and big things are very much expected from him going forward because they didn't get a lot out of anybody else. So Lee McNeil in the middle of the defense defensive line, he's pretty good and I don't think he gets enough national recognition. He's a very talented guy. 320 pounds and if you if you watched him play like you'd never guess and he's that happy. Very he's a definite rising player but they got to get more out of everybody else around him but man Hutchinson last year. There were some skeptics from from local like oh you're taking it because he went to Michigan like he wasn't that great in Michigan like he had all those people around him. I think he silenced those people pretty well. Like well that which was weird like I thought I thought Jacksonville was over thinking things when they took Walker that that Walker's not not going to be great. I'm like just right yeah it's like Aidan Hutchinson was like you know what he is you see what he play how he plays like there was no doubt there was no doubt like the floor was super high with the high ceiling and that's what yeah and he's worked out perfectly and like let's face it like like he's a perfect match for Dan Campbell isn't he? Absolutely you know a guy who eats Breeze football a very high football IQ very high desire to win a hatred of losing but you know just that that's Dan Campbell in the shell a guy who's you know going to be fiercely competitive but also really football smart and that's he not just in two. What did you get out of Jack Campbell as a rookie like looking stat wise I think he's a guy I liked coming out of college I see 17 he played in all games 12 starts 95 tackles two sacks solid rookie season is there do you expect more from him moving forward? Yeah he played a bunch of different roles they tried him the Lions only ever played two linebackers that's sort of the base defense you might see more three-man looks this year because and part of that is because Campbell has emerged as a guy who's going to take over one of the inside rules he played some Sam which in in Detroit is a pass rush almost exclusive pass rush role he never really got comfortable doing any one thing he's a good player he's gonna do do better this year I think everybody expects that again high football IQ high intensity guy good tackler there's some things he's got to clean up he tends to start plays flat footer a little bit he can get a little bit confused if you've got a lot coming at him but some of that's just been a rookie in the NFL too you know you see that with with rookies they they learn these things they will understand how to prepare better for it he's a really good player I'm not sure he's ever going to be an all-pro or even a pro-molar but he's going to be a guy that's going to be a really reliable good starter for a long time and that's in this defense that's what you need he and Alex Aisling next to each other are a very good combination so we're we're we're pretty optimistic about what's going on there with the jack cable would you say that last year even with the the disappointment of of the second half loss in the championship game would you say that they probably capped out what they could have done like obviously they could have beaten San Francisco they were in control of that game but if you look at like once you move away from the pain of that loss would you would you look at that team and say you probably capped out what they were likely capable of doing or is there a little bit of saying hit up on a championship yeah there's definitely that because we hit beat in Kansas City in Kansas City in week one but you know finishing in the final four making it a competitive run at a very good San Francisco team a very well rounded San Francisco team there's no shame in that and I think most people are like and and this is one of the reference that I've I've said about on the radio show that I do and on the podcast that I do last year's Weinstein was probably the worst edition of the lines that you're going to see for another couple of years and the fact that they made it where they did is something to be very proud of but it's also something that leads them a little bit hungry because they they do feel that they could have done a little bit more I think given the the fact that you know they're starting secondary in that that final game was the starting quarterback's work off one of the starters in that game can build or might not make it NFL team this year that's that's how shaky that was he's like number six number seven on the line of Zepstra right now you know that that's it's pretty impressive the way that they got as far as they did with with what they did and with no real history of winning that's you know in retrospect as we look back yeah that that's pretty darn good accomplishment yeah yeah it was let's look at the off season coming out exit arises here at podcast best our Cardinals talk on the movies move on and talk about the off season that the lines have had because they've made some additions that's coming up next on rise of sea red we're back on the rise of seared podcast best our Cardinals talk on the web we'll get to the draft where they were they added secondary help but like talk for agency did did they lose anyone uh that's going to be like Jonah Jackson ended up signing with the Rams were the lines ready to move on from Jonah Jackson were they in they were already in position to take care of that weren't they yeah they were um and for the price side that he got from the Rams got blessed man um he probably had won really good season um which wasn't 2023 it was 2022 into a 10 million dollar a year contract good for him he's a good player and he'll do well with the Rams but the lines were not ready to pay that for what they did um so you know losing him losing Josh Reynolds um you know Josh Reynolds was sort of a security blanket for for Jared Goff coming from the Rams together um he is a good guy um and he how they replace him is remains to be seen but he's certainly a replaceable player as is Jonah Jackson as good as he was and as important as you want to have continuity on your offensive line uh that they were certainly prepared for him to go anyone of anyone else of note that that left is that leaves a little bit of a hole so Cam Sutton didn't really leave him for the agency uh yeah uh his play steadily declined and so he was he's a prime free agent that signed him he was you know 12 million dollar year contract um and he started out pretty well it didn't end well for him some of that um i'm going to give him a little bit of a pass he was hurt and didn't let on that he was as injured as he was uh but uh nobody's really sad that he's gone just the manner in which he left uh with the weird suspension i mean he's now suspended as is he signed with the Steelers for a domestic assault incident that uh the season that's always yeah so um he won't be missed from that standpoint but it was still weird to see him go the way he did um and he's the only other real starter that that went away um but i mean the other edge spot which you know Charles Harris Romeo, Cora, Julian, El Cora those guys needed to go um that they were fine um especially Romeo, Cora guy who um you know builds his career and he's right after washing out quickly with the Giants. Great great player was a great guy good luck room asset but they were ready to move on there too they didn't really lose anybody else of consequence. Editions and free agency the names that i see that the the most significant ones they added they added size in the middle with DJ reader very talented player and uh they added a veteran in the corner back room of McRobertson they added a little punch to the edge with Marcus Davenport though he hasn't been you know he hasn't lived up to everything and then of course the biggest name perhaps is is adding Kevin Zeitler uh at the guard and at a not bad deal it's been like 34 years old he's still really good but only have to pay him six million dollars that's not a bad deal at all oh yeah for a for a one-year plug-in uh that's absolutely great um and i i covered him when he was with the Browns his his play to play snap to snap consistency is fantastic he just doesn't have bad plays he doesn't have a lot of great plays but you never see him like getting whipped and that's uh that's important in an offense in a precision offense the way that the line is running that there's a lot to be said they might be the best thing that you can say about any offensive lineman is is it if you eliminate the bad and all you are is what you need the team to be you don't have to be dominant that you'll you'll play a decade and more in the NFL as an offensive lineman if you do that absolutely and he's he's he's made a career of that um and that we're we're very happy to have him in um they did they did draft a couple of potential replacement for him in the long term but if he's a placeholder for a year um i'm not worried about that spot at all um reader coming in i think it's probably the most important addition because that other defensive tackle spot next to Ellie McNeil was a real sore point last year went from Isaiah Bugs to Benito Jones um just a lot of guys who are very regrettable um it just you know they brought enticing alu alu basically out of retirement sort of NFL imposed retirement at the end of the season that they were just desperate to get anything at all out of it um reader um readers the guy that I covered with the Texans um in his younger days he's a really smart solid player um if you try to single block him he's going to destroy your run game and you do not run um one gap against him so he's he's definitely needed now the lines the lines run defense last year was fantastic they were the best run defense in the league against running backs quarterbacks that ran um it's a different story they they allowed the fewest yards per carry um and fewest first downs to running backs of any team in the league um and they did that without having DJ a reader in there so we expect that to augment it uh where hopefully he shows up is that he frees up William McNeil to get in the six to ten sack range and he said that potential and the defending running quarterbacks is a problem because it's really it's really hard to do it's really hard to do it is it's incredibly difficult to do because you could have everything locked up and and if you if you missed step one some quarterback like kylumber is one of them like he will make yes he is he is a problem because like like which do you do do you keep him in the pocket where he can make plays or do you let him get out where he's gonna beat you and he's well honestly he's gonna embarrass you on the field yeah and you know there's hope that Jack Campbell's progression into his second season will help some of that uh but uh this Aaron Glenn is our defensive coordinator his defenses have struggled since he's been here with mobile quarterbacks Justin Fields has had probably the three best games of his career against the Detroit Lions uh they don't they do not spy maybe that's something that will be an adaptation maybe it'll be something where they do go to four three linebacker sets um and Jack Campbell or Alex Hanseloni can be a spy on Murray we'll see I don't know it's uh that that that's that's certainly an area when we when we get to talking about the match with the Cardinals that is definitely worrisome because uh you know Marcus Davenport is the other initiative he talked about he doesn't do anything in his opposing quarterback so he doesn't try to sack them um and he's the guy that is same fans will tell you and Vikings will tell you that he didn't contain very well on the outside and that's that that's if there's one area where Aidan Hutchinson can get a little bit better he can do a little bit better at playing that that contain rush um that's just not something that he's done all that much of yet um because he hasn't been asked to do it so you know that's that's an area where we're looking at where hopefully it gets a little better like like I get paid for sacks so I want sacks it's the run game run game oh simian rice like but like simian rice drafted by the caught me in the clock in 25 years ago he was literally that like he would just he would especially if it was a pass play that was might have been a rush to begin with he would get out of his lane just to get to the quarterback because you know he made a fantastic career on it but it made him he made him not particularly helpful on the Cardinals defense when he was here oh yeah part of some really good players that weren't that great for them so sometimes they just get guys at the wrong stages of their career too not and now simian simian i remember watching simian rice at Illinois back in the day he was uh he's a wrecking ball but yeah in the draft the first two picks they they add cornerbacks and a couple of pretty good one and let let's be honest um defensive players ended up being value picks late in the first round because yeah how many offensive players went there i you know mock drafts you you know terryon Arnold was viewed by many as a top 10 pick and you get him at number 24 you did have to move up to get dallas but dallas was uh we we saw on the cardinals uh flight plan where they took us back there that dallas was trying to try out of the pick the cardinals almost moved up but obviously got the better deal from from from the lions you get terryon Arnold and it was was Arnold i know he was some people's cornerback one but pretty much across the board he was one or two and to give him in the in the mid 20s that's he's should he be good from day one yes absolutely he will be starting from day one um there's there's no question about that he's got the right blend of swagger and humility um and it's tough to describe how you know that but you just you see it um we had darius sleigh and it's right for a very long time and he Arnold coming in reminds me um of sleigh on the field but he's got a little bit more swagger to him um as he he goes about it but he's also a guy um he he gets it like he's coachable he's not somebody who's going to go out and freelance on his own on the way some braggadocious cornerbacks do uh he's he's a he's a very good fit for what they want to do which is press on the outside um take away the timing disrupt uh because they haven't really had anybody that's done that in a while so since sleigh was exiled to philadelphia um but by a prayer machine we're still we're still not over that we should be but yeah he he's gonna be i i expect him to be a very serious contender for defensive rookie of the year um and that's you know he was he and quingon mitchell were one a and one b for me as a draft evaluator and i actually think they both went to the best situations that they could you know with my quingon going to the eagles to basically replace darius sleigh uh i i i think both those guys are gonna be fantastic and i'm very happy to have him in here interesting that you with the draft prayed had the lines not going up and gotten terry and harle one of the guys that they were very seriously looking at us in arizona and uh in terry's robin's and where we're excited about that pig around should be round two well it was another it was robinson's teammate uh in mrs uh uh um uh a guy that if i recall he brings a little bit of mean doesn't he yes he is a very much in your face press corner he's um i don't know how much he's gonna play as a rookie uh because they used to their ground one of their third-round picks to trade to get carl and davis we'll get that second but rick's draw is a guy they're they're trying to figure out where he fits um they tried him some in the slot he's coming off of uh core muscle sports hernia surgery for what that would be uh what you're not supposed to call up in this what it is um that's what we know it is so he's getting nursed in a little bit but uh he's he's a scheme fit i wasn't the i'll be out straight up i wasn't the biggest fan of his i actually like his his uh college teammate christina was drained a little bit better as a an NFL prospect uh but rick's draw fits the press corner mold and as a and as aggressive guy um and he will come up and he's very good against run defense and that's something that the lions really want from the corners is to attack the run because that very will uh so he he was a guy that um i bristled against as a potential first-round pick and he got he got mocked to the lions at 29 a lot um very happy that they got him at 60 where they did because that's a much better value all those mock drafts with the being those cornerbacks ended like there were lots of cornerbacks mocked in the late first round that just got pushed that just got pushed out of the first round with all the other players um and the the rest of the draft you get you get the the Canadian guides Giovanni Manu tackle uh Sione Vaki running back at a out of utam kai wingo dt out of lsu and boston college guard christian mahogany um of those guys are there any is there any of these guys that you see as a potential contributor year one my my favorite name of that group is is wingo um yeah in in the round six do you think he will get any any run this year as a rookie he's got a shot at it for sure um to be the number three or number four defensive lineman uh and he's played uh he's he's the biggest problem is he's on odd size he's six foot 182 pounds that's not big enough to play inside and it's not small enough to play outside so they're sort of figuring out what what they've got in him he looked great in in the spring practices and he's a guy that's definitely you know upward bound. Vaki is going to play a tone on special teams that he might wind up being their return man a kick return man um he is certainly going to play extensively on all special teams units uh mahogany is a guy i loved his tape at boston college he is a bruiser um just a a gap scheme mauler lines run mall gap scheme so he he i i if kevin's eightler doesn't work out for some reason they've got christian hogany in there to to plug in uh but but basically they're they're buying him a year by bringing zeitler in but he's probably not gonna see a lot unless things go south or injuries happen in in his work he's in a givani mom who is an absolute project um incredible physical specimen just like he is 352 pounds and he looks like he's 252 um looks like a guy um he i've used line before it looks like he came out of the womb lifting weights like he's just ridiculously athletic legs or tree trunks but they're sculpted tree trunks like it's it's unreal like being in his presence we nobody knew who he was when they drafted him and the first time we saw marukie minicamp him like okay all right we get it i recall getting so he was a guy i think the cardinals met with or worked out there was i think he was a guy that who was it somewhat i had to be as agent that was pushing him probably yeah but as the like the sleeper in the draft like the i think yeah and i mean they traded a third round pick in 2025 to move up and get him in the fourth round i'm hopeful that he's able to be a backup tackle uh backup guards they're working them at both um just seeing what they've got but this is a guy um i equate canadian college football um i live in a d3 area hotbed i'm shot at the hope college um which is like a mile that way uh in the distance um that that's probably the level of play that the canadian college football was so there's a massive gap and just watching him in minicamp and ota's his techniques all over the place we have a brilliant offensive line coach and hank for really long-time NFL player he's a very good player developer he's got his hands full with mottu um this was a pick that was made with an i tour 2025 2026 um when tethered ecker might be retiring or moving on at some point but uh you know that's that's an investment in the future but uh yeah as far as 2024 is concerned makai wingo of the d3 guys is probably the guy that's most like gonna make an impact coming to next on the riceps here at podcast best our car let's talk on the web let's move on look ahead to 2024 the big expectations that there are in Detroit that's coming to next in riceps you read we're back on the riceps here podcast the best our cardinals talk on the web detroit viewed as one of these you know still viewed as the top pick although green bay is is ascending uh in the nfc north and what are kind of expectations because you you get to the nfc championship game you still have san francisco that looks really really good how fans how a fam's taken to the success are they now super bowl or bust or are they still rioting that hey we're good that's a great question and there's a there's a healthy blend of both of that oh i understand that completely as a son's fan here that you have to enjoy yeah you have to enjoy in the mba the success especially when you're bad for so long but the second they went to the finals after that it was now they're disappointing like they're good but now now they're not good enough so i don't know i don't know is it i i don't want that to happen like but that's a good place to be right because that means it is good but you don't like to feel like it's also a terrible feeling when you're covering a team you're like this team is good why aren't you happy yeah they're that that's very accurate um and i understand it like there's a term lionized for being a lion's fan like you're so used to being okay we thought this team like we thought the mathy staphrod and domicance team back at twenty twenty twenty twelve would be pretty good and they were but they couldn't take us then that next step and you know the the 90s teams with berry sanders and chris feelman and all those guys like that was a very good roster and they won one playoff game um they couldn't ever get past it like this there's there's certainly some concern among the fans that we've we've been here before we've seen this this franchise put out good rosters and they never achieved and i get that but i i really do think that this is a different thing i think winning that second playoff game lesser they had never won multiple playoff games in the same season before ever they did it last year and the core roster is back there's so many guys that are in the the relative primes of their careers which i don't think gets talked about enough when you're talking about windows pade's swole i'm on our st brown uh you know stand reporter rising in a second golf is still the young man like there's so many guys that are still like not at the edge of their window i think that that window opening it's just at the right time and uh it's very exciting they they should be expected to win the nfc north and i say that knowing that that team at green bay that's a good football team it is packers are a good team um i think the bears are better and will be competitive but i don't think they're there yet and and i'll be honest i don't know what to think of the likings i can see the Vikings going 12 and 5 i can also see them earning the number three overall pick in next first draft i mean they're their defensive line is abysmal like it's bad like like historically bad they're gonna be throwing out sand darnell to start the year yeah as much as people there's still some sand darnell people that are like this is his chance i'm like here's the thing about sand darnell of the truth there's too many mistakes you know he makes too he makes too many bad throws and he just turns the ball over too much and then you know that's that's he's kind of the polar opposite of a jayji mccarthy who yeah went out the consummate leader right like everything you hear about in pre-draft was not about his football right but i mean if you look at the like vikings weapon like that's he that offense is loaded and they've got a good line too so that they're scary but the lions are the best team in the nfc north they won their first ever division title last year i expect them to do it again but they're gonna have to earn it um it's not going to be it's not going to be given to them it's not going to be an easy road um you you know that for being in the west where there's some pretty difficult teams too would making the championship game again and failing to reach the super bowl would that be viewed as a disappointment this year probably but it it kind of depends on like did the lions give the game away that the way they did against san francisco where they literally got a ball off of a defender's face mask that they won the game and you know a steady wide receiver in jesarone's dropping a pass that would have won the game kregrenolds that's the running back that had the other play it was kregrenolds both rentals yes to win in those crucial moments like yeah it's yeah and and kregrenolds is only a very reliable guy and it just it just didn't work for yeah that's um i i think if they got beat by 18 that's really really good i don't think that there would be a lot of grumbling uh but most lions fans going to that san francisco game last year were like bro he's not beaten us come on and he did it um i'm sure you're familiar with that sentiment in eros when i'm like i'm interested in seeing like brock perry has been is basically perfect but his skill set like his strengths are perfect for chanahan's offense which would make which makes him so good because he's so smart but i'm i'm super interested to see the process once they pay him because the talent around him unless they're fantastic drafters yeah it'll be interesting to see how he plays when it's not the best arguably the best you have got the best running back you've got one of the best receivers you've got two of the best receivers you got arguably the best tied in to throw to yeah um they're they're they're that's very very loaded um they're so i get i actually give part pretty credit he led the nfl in completion percentage of downfield throws last year and it's pretty obvious what like he there some of us you had to give pretty some of that credit oh he my mind is he's held the field accuracy especially his it's very good accuracy is incredible and i think that's that that's the main difference is like the difference between like him and jimmy garoppolo jimmy garoppolo who was perhaps more talented but was not as precise a throw in fact the his receivers like there were lots of wide open receivers that he turned into no like no after the catch plays because he misfired and they made the catch but it should have been wide open and moving down the field and purty's really really good at that but he is very good at that jereg office too which is one of the reasons why he got paid in detroit but yeah we're um i think like if there's just like a juggernaut team it's like 15 and 2 and it's on the road and is not in detroit if the game's in detroit and they lose it's going to be an absolute disappointment no doubt about it and it could be in detroit this year um this is a team that that expects to be you know competing for that number one seed in the by um and i i don't get a lot of pushback from anybody on that like they're they're going to be competing for that doesn't mean they're going to get it no but like best-case scenario like a reasonable best-case scenario is it's a Super Bowl win like that it's not crazy to think that which is wild that's wild to think about the lions but like thinks what's the like do you think they're they're 12 wins that they had last year is that 11 12 wins probably kind of the floor that they're going to reach this year yeah they've got a weird schedule um where they could i can see 11 and 6 um yes i can unless they're ravaged with injuries or or you know guys who have played very well in the past just don't live up to it but i don't see that happening under dane campbell um that's just not not they're very good at weeding those guys out so i think um tying for the nfc north championship with with green bay i think it's probably the low point um if it's worse than that then then there then a whole lot of injuries happen and a whole lot of bad happened and that's just you can't anticipate the injuries or expect it i mean obviously if jerry golf goes down if i'm on our st brown goes down there's problems uh you don't you don't replace that um you don't practice screwed more often we'll say that's the best way to describe that that's like that's like uh like when the cult sad had had it pate and manning and and tom moor would say things like yes exactly we didn't practice that way like of course pate is getting all the ups because if the if this other guy gets in we're apt anyway yeah yeah curse peter was there back up for a long time if you have Curtis painters playing you don't want him in the game i don't want matt painter playing prink but a basketball coach yeah um if if reasonable health stays this team if they don't at least tie for the division title it's going to be a big disappointment but i don't think anybody really expects that in detroit or outside detroit um i i mean they're they're not going to they're not going to roll to games they're they've got a tough schedule they're going to drop some games um they don't match up particularly with with teams that have running quarterbacks which is one of the reasons why air why air is it that Arizona is not it is not it's their first road game too um they opened that they opened two games at home and they're going to have their first road game against Arizona who will have been coming off of uh their home opener against the Rams how do how do the line how do lions fans view that and match up i know still probably most people look at the game and that's a should win uh how challenging a game do you think that's going to be uh if kylor Murray is dialed in and can get some open space and Marvin Harrison Jr is is as advertised i'd expect him to be um i don't think that the the Cardinals have the defensive firepower to slow down the offensive attack you know um we talked before the show um Starling Thomas was in detroit last year um and wound up playing a lot a big role for uh a quarterback poor team like the lions were last year the fact that he didn't make that um and wound up being in in Arizona and it's still in the mix in Arizona I think that says a lot about where the Cardinals defense is so i think the lions should expect to outscore the Cardinals in that game i'm excited it might be it might be a 40 to 30 type of game um or 35 43 that next year if they offer that could very well be but hey i mean at least it'll be exciting because if there's one thing that is interesting is that if you have a good offense and a bad defense it's frustrating if you have a good defense and a terrible offense you're hopeless yes hopeless because there's the pressure you can't like you get more than seven points down when you have a bad offense and you're not like that's it we're done it was i think just several years ago um 2018 like it will go back to 2018 when the Cardinals were so bad and the lions weren't that good the lions got up by seven points and it felt like well we're done yeah i remember that game i remember it felt like it felt like we played every year back then um it's been like that for a long time it's been like for a long this year we're doing it because of the vision but you know if we play each other next year that's a bet that probably means or probably means good things for you i will i will say i i like i like where Arizona is heading they're pointed in the right direction i think they got a good good coach i think they made a good hire i think they drafted extremely well this year um and for the most part last year too so they you know the the arrows pointing up but San Francisco's good the Rams i'm curious what the Rams are going to look like without Aaron Donald but you can't write them off Seattle is a massive variable i don't know what the make of them i think that the Cardinals could realistically catch them i think if the Rams falter will i think that the Cardinals are in good position the Cardinals remind me of the Chicago Bears in the NFC North in that where their their upside is there and you can see it but is it going to manifest early enough for it to matter in 2024 or are you looking forward to 2025 as the year where where you can turn that division upside down um and that potential certainly there because i'm i'm not sure that San Francisco's defense is going to be as good as what what some of the the checks that are being written i'm not sure they can catch all those but uh that's still a very good football scheme not about it and with that we will end this edition of the rise up to your podcast of us are Colonel Stock on the web it's our opponent preview with the Lions that's Jeff Riston you can find his stuff all over the NFL wire scattered over the last few years but mainly over draft wire and at Lions wire um thanks Jeff for coming on that'll wrap this show up we will be back soon with uh more opponent previews coming up next coming up soon thanks for listening as always thanks for listening to the latest edition of the rise up see red podcast listen to previous episodes and subscribe to the show on apple podcasts stitcher radio audio boom or many other podcast platforms so shows are delivered directly to your mobile device please give the show a five star rating and always support the sponsors to support the show we'll be back soon for the best hour of Cardinals talk on the web rise up red sea b-red sea red and of course 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