Daily DLP: Rakestraw speaks, DMo gets paid Detroit Lions Podcast

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So, hey, Jeffers and here with the Daily DLP.

It is Monday, March 16th.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

I will apologize now for not getting a daily out on Sunday.

I was predisposed doing a lot of other things among them, enjoying the nice weather.

And as I look out now from my office window here, I see snow fluttering around and branches everywhere from the wind yesterday.

So, good times.

Hopefully you're dug out from the snow if you got some.

Kind of a quiet weekend on the line's front.

You know, they didn't sign anybody else after the signings on Friday of Tyler Conklin and Roger McCreery.

Doesn't mean they're not trying.

Haven't reached any agreements yet.

Pretty quiet weekend over the NFL, honestly.

Although it did start a little bit Monday morning, the jets traded.

Justin Fields to the Chiefs for a six-round pick.

And file that in the around the league vision.

Why hasn't it been involved in anything like that?

My understanding is that they are hitting the pro day circuit hard in the next couple of weeks.

And I will be as well.

You will see me in various places.

And I will try to get to, in fact, if there's anything that breaks at any of them,

or I get a chance to talk with any Lions guy who will be willing to go on camera, we will bring him on.

But I will see on that.

There were a couple things though that did pop up.

And we'll start with somebody who's not with the Lions anymore.

And that's David Montgomery.

Let me bring this up here.

Thank you to Jacob from Texans side.

And this is why they reported now.

And they have the contract breakdown.

The Texans gave David Montgomery a new contract.

It's a two-year contract.

It pays him 16.5 over two years, which isn't remarkably different from what he was going to make in Detroit.

The thing is they guaranteed a lot of it.

He gets 1.5 million guaranteed in 2026 and 2 million in 2027 along with a 6.5 million signing bonus.

So that right there, that is 10 million of it guaranteed.

The money that he had left in Detroit guaranteed was under 5 million.

So we weren't kidding when we told you that he was looking for more money.

And knew that the downsize role in Detroit was not going to help him get it.

Well, he got it in Houston.

You know what? Good for you, dude.

You got what you wanted.

You're going to be a feature back on what should be a playoff team.

It's hard.

It's hard as a fan.

So I like DeMo.

Sonic and Knuckles, like, yeah, he fit Detroit very well.

But the offense very well.

But the plane fact was his role was changing.

His role was being diminished through no real fault in his own.

It's the fact that to your kids is a superstar.

And, you know, he, he didn't, he had to capitalize while he still could deal with Montgomery.

That's 28 years old.

This is probably the last big contract he gets.

He's in money for running back.

It keeps him in the top 12 running back salaries.

Again, until Gibbs sends an extension, which we all expect the soft season.

So.

And he, he has spoken sort of out of both sides of his mouth since he left.

He's praised his time in Detroit, praised his praises, coaches and his team.

But it's also, you know, talked about, you know, how it's he's, you know, wonderful to get the opportunity to see it in Houston.

And, you know, was had been looking for that.

So.

Good for you, Demo.

You got yours. You got paid.

It just the biggest takeaway that I have from that is that it lends a lot more credence to what we had heard coming out of the combine.

It was that he wanted out.

He wanted his shot to go get more.

And he got it.

So mission accomplished.

So hopeful that juice, grugs can emerge into being the top reserve into your offensive lineman.

Hopeful for that.

Not counting on that, but I'm hopeful for that.

He can at least compete at any does have the experience there.

Kind of that way with Larry Boram too, at tackle, like.

He's, I'm fine with letting him compete to be your number three tackle.

And the way that they paid him though, in the case that he's going to like $5 million is not an insignificant amount for a tackle.

It's above.

It's above backup money, but it's not starter money.

It's kind of in that range where.

I do worry a little bit that the lions are going to.

I mean, right now he would be starting left tackle on the Detroit lions and I'm not thrilled about that, but.

You know, maybe.

Maybe new scheme, actual coaching, which he did not get in Miami will help him out.

We'll see on that.

But I'm still.

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Very, very convinced that the lions are taking an offensive tackle with one of their first two draft picks.

I think the other one will be an edge outside.

Outside.

It takes somebody in the secondary, but I think.

I think especially with with McCreary and Isian signing in and the roles that they play.

With McCreary being a slot in Isian, sort of for placing the Lante Maddox role.

Being a super sub utility guy all over the defensive backfield.

Think safety might be in play, but I don't think corner like their top four corners.

Because we're going to get to this in a second.

Their top five cornerbacks for 2025 or 2026 are already on the roster.

And that leads to one and this rake straw who made news over the weekend.

I'll post this post of this to his Instagram story.

Fully healthy, quit asking and healthy since December.

It's on this rake straw from over the weekend as captured by product Detroit and posted on their Twitter.

Thanks guys.

Did a good job while I was out and about.

Tianten Ohio.

Go Huskies.

Got my voice back finally after screaming yesterday.

Incredible win.

You don't see many college basketball games decided on a four point play with under three seconds to go.

And I got to see one in my team one.

So I'm happy about that.

So let's go back to rakes right here.

Oh, we've had this conversation a lot.

Good player, talented player fits exactly what the Lions want, whether it's outside or in the slot.

He's got the grit, competitive, plays the ball well, tackles well.

But it's the health.

There's always a yeah, but and with him it's staying healthy and he's not been able to do that in Detroit.

I like the fact that he's.

That he's he's claims to be healthy.

I believe him.

I'm still going to be skeptical that he can stay in that way through an entire off season and into.

The preseason because he is not and the McCreery signing and also the Isian sign really.

They have indicated that the Lions are not counting on.

And this rake straw to be a relied upon contributor in 2026, which is good.

I think we all like that.

Nothing nothing against rake straw.

But when you've missed two seasons, the way that he has.

And you're on a defense that has had all these injuries.

For the last two, three seasons.

It's smart to have proven backup plans.

And to not put all of your eggs in one, you know, fragile basket.

And that's that's what we've seen of in this rake straw thus far.

It'd be fantastic if he could come back and be healthy and win a starting nickel job or.

You know, push rock yes in one spot deeper on the outside.

Because he does have length. He can press.

Despite the fact that he's he's kind of wire rebuilt.

He he does have some power like he doesn't get overpowered as easily as you might think.

In that sense, he's sort of like Avion Terrell as a prospectus.

You're coming out of Clemson.

Avion's a little higher and he's got higher in speed.

But, you know, similar style of players.

But my fingers across for you, Annis.

But like I said, I'm not counting on you.

I don't think that the lions are anymore either.

And I think that's a nice.

It's just the arc that it needs to happen.

But again, if he's healthy.

It's a nice bonus.

Certainly not writing off an as rake straw.

Second round pick from a couple of years ago.

Significant investment put in him.

And when he has been healthy in the very limited times that we've been able to see him.

He has shown that he can play.

Hope that happens.

But, you know, once bitten twice shy, three times a lady.

That's where I'm at with it.

But it's great that he, and I know what I like the fact that he's being a little feisty about it.

I like the fact that he's got a little bit of a chip here.

That everybody, including myself, has dogged him for being injury prone.

I like that.

I like motivated guys.

That's good.

Again, not much happened on the free agent markets.

They have been out at pro days quite a bit.

The scouting staff has.

And one of them that they have been to recently was the Wisconsin pro day.

And I learned through sources at Wisconsin.

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But the lines had quite a bit of interest in this guy.

Nice abs, Jesus.

Mason Riger.

Edge.

Defensive and six foot four 251 pounds.

With abs like that.

Even while I was in good shape, I didn't look like that.

Most of us don't.

Unfortunately.

And Riger was a guy who grabbed attention at the strine bowl.

And that will bring up his profile here.

I have watched a lot of him going back to 2023 season at Louisville.

He played three years at Louisville.

2021 through 2023.

His absence in 2024 actually was the catalyst for one of my big draft crushes from last year.

And Jolote to get a lot more reps because they played the same position.

And Jolote took off and came.

I believe he was a fourth round pick.

Still like him.

Like him for the lines last year.

Different style of player than Riger.

Riger.

He's got the grip man.

Showed it in Frisco, wherever they hold the strine bowl at.

And in fact, when I had.

I had a friend, Owen Reese on who was the scouting director for the strine bowl.

For offensive lineman.

Talked over here about a guy who really helped himself that week.

And it was very clear was the game MVP had three sacks in the game.

Dominated practices one on one reps all week.

The pros.

For those of you who are on the audio only version, I'll read them off here.

Exudes max effort on every rep.

That shows back to his freshman year as a very part time pass rush specialist at Louisville.

Hair is on fire every snap.

Got a high level football IQ and just just to reinforce with that.

Like he played his weight.

He was a zero star recruit.

He's from the Chicago area.

No D1 offers walked on at Louisville.

Red shirted, but his second year he worked his way into playing.

Think he played about 150 snaps that year.

All is a pass for our specialist.

And that's kind of been what he's been throughout his career.

Very quick off the snap.

Good burst off the snap to attack the outside shoulder of the tackle or tight end.

Good luck if you're trying to block him with a tight end, especially a guy who doesn't have good feet.

He will eat them up and did eat them up at trine bowl.

Good balance for a taller guy has somewhat short arms.

He's only got a little over 32 and a half inch arms on a six foot five guy.

That's that's short.

Again, it's all about proportionality.

When you're six foot five and your arms are under about 33 and a half inches, you got short arms.

Just biology.

I do think he combats it well because he's got very active fans and he does pack some punch in the hands.

He's not a power based player, but he has power in his hands and I like that.

As for the cons, you know what we're going to start with a third one on the list here.

Because it's probably the most pertinent and it will make some of you instantly.

Either acts him off the lion's list or your lion's wish list or you're like,

Oh, that's going to love this guy.

Yeah.

Missed 2024 with a knee surgery.

It was his fifth, I'm sorry, his fourth surgery on his leg.

The first one didn't go right and he's had at least two surgeries to clean up the first surgery that didn't work.

He has a metal rod in his shin because that the surgery didn't take and he like had enough collateral damage from that.

Yeah, that's a big flag.

Now, he did play in 2025 for Wisconsin after missing a little bit of time at the beginning of the year.

Played well.

If you watched him play and if you go watch his Wisconsin film,

you'd never know that he's had those surgeries other than the fact that he wears a brace.

Because he moves like a guy that hasn't, like he's got a clean bill, but he doesn't.

So that is certainly a concern.

We'll jump to the last one because it's pertinent as well.

He turns 24 in August.

That's older for a rookie.

It's not a key mezzador who will be 30 by the end of his rookie contract, but it's.

One of the issues that you have when you when you,

I talked with Scott D. Bedadero, who I had on the on the daily DLP a couple of weeks ago,

from a Cleveland Brown Scout, had him on the radio last week.

And I had him explain, you know, what's.

What's one of the things that is a detriment to having an older rookie?

And the biggest thing is aside from, you know, that he's that advanced when you're getting the second contract,

but from a rookie contract and rookie standpoint,

they're much more physically mature and have basically been playing against guys that are sometimes four or five years younger than them.

And they're physical.

Look, think back to when you were 22, 23 years old and then when you were 18 and 19 years old.

You probably were a lot better of an athlete, a lot naturally stronger, probably more coordinated.

I know I was.

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And your upside is limited at that point.

It doesn't mean that he doesn't have athletic upside, but it means that you're probably don't have nearly as much juice to squeeze out of your body.

And it's a guy who's 19, 20, like Kildred Falk was 20 years old.

Right now,

Rears 23, he'll be 24 in August.

That's.

There is some significance to that.

You don't want to downplay that, but you also don't want to overplay it.

And it's kind of hard to find that medium on there, but it's.

Yeah.

Biggest thing from a lion standpoint, where I wonder how much interest they would have in him in the fourth or fifth rounds, which is generally where he's projected to go now.

I tend to think that's pretty accurate too.

Coming out of his protein, talking to people at Wisconsin.

He does not set an edge.

He is.

He is better at trying to set an edge than James Houston was.

It's one of the reasons why the Lions gave up on him very quickly, because he didn't really try.

Rear does try, and he can like at least like stuck blocking tight ends are probably not going to move him back.

But decent offensive tackles, pulling guards, they're going to blow him away.

They just do.

Not an edge setter.

And then there's the other thing.

So at six foot five, two hundred and fifty one pounds, you would think, oh, this guy maybe he can drop a little.

Maybe a smile.

Let us just where he can get out of the space.

Other than like a couple of reps at this, right?

Like I think he had twenty two reps in four years of college over a twelve hundred snaps in college, where he dropped into coverage.

He is a pass rush specialist.

Go attack the quarterback.

Period.

He can win to the inside, but it's much better.

Getting to the outside.

He is one of those guys to show.

Back when I did the profile on King Proctor.

I talked about how he was a catch blocker.

He's a passive pass setter.

And that he allows the defender to get into his pads.

And just because he's so big and strong, he can generally absorb it.

Reager loves playing against those guys because he gets in there and he can win quickly with his hands and disengage and then go around either side.

It's the guys that can match his quickness off the snap, fire out the arm with strength and delay him, knock him so he's upright and has to regroup.

And that's one of the reasons why you see down here.

86 career quarterback pressures, which is a decent, pretty impressive for the limited snaps that he had.

Only finished thirteen sacks.

Might be thinking yourself, wow.

It sounds like a lion from a couple of years ago.

You know, when we were good at getting pressure, but can't finish.

Yeah, it does.

He misses an extraordinary amount of tackles to career mistackle rate over 22% and I contacted a friend who works at pro football focus to break that down.

His mistackle rate in the backfield career is 30%, which means three out of every ten times he tries to sack or tackle or running back in the backfield he misses.

That's awful.

Sorry, dude, that's.

That's going to be a no for me on Mason regar, um, tiger, sorry.

I'm a friend named regar, who spells it just different, um, tiger.

Again, probably a fourth or a fifth round pick.

I'm not sure that the lions are going to be in on him.

And hey, that's one of the reasons why we do these prospects of the day to bring up guys that because he came up in the slack.

Our patrons like busy bottom up is and he.

There are certainly reasons to like him.

Absolutely.

And the lions have spent time researching him.

I can verify that.

But I don't think that he's going to be a guy that they're going to prioritize in that range.

Unless they're changing their past rest approach, which we've talked about a lot.

And I kind of hope they do.

But, uh, that is today's daily daily DLP.

Thank you for liking.

Thank you for subscribing.

I will be back with you tomorrow.

With a lion's mock dream.

Yeah, it's time.

It'll be Saint Patrick's day.

Good time to drink some green beer and lament the mock draft they come up with for you.

Appreciate y'all.

Jefferson signing out.

Be good to one another.