Detroit Lions Podcast: Taylor Decker Leaves the Lions - Detroit Lions Podcast

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Hey, everyone, Jeffers in here.

Tress a little different today with the Daily DLP.

We're doing this one live.

I am on the road.

I am in a hotel room in Market, Michigan.

As I get ready for Michigan Tusk Huskies, basketball today.

My son and the Huskies take on Grand Valley State in a Gleak semi-final.

I'm up here for that.

I have a little bit of time before I get together with some of the other parents here to talk

about Taylor Decker and the Detroit Lions and everything that's going on with the Lions.

Yesterday, this all happened as I was driving up here.

The news broke about 10 minutes after I left.

It is a roughly seven hour drive for me to get up here.

It was a harrowing one.

It was very foggy.

Crossing on the Mackinac Bridge yesterday, as I'm on the bridge, I look out to the right.

I can't see the water or ice.

I guess it's still frozen.

Look up.

Can't see the top of the bridge.

It was not exactly just dress-free drive.

The drive gave me a lot of time to think about what's going on with Taylor Decker.

It was going on with the Lions.

I thought I would go with that and offer you all the chance to go in.

I apologize.

The mic isn't working.

I don't have my mic with me who will work on it here.

Let's see.

Microphone should be good.

I hope so.

Hopefully that goes.

Anyhow.

Hopefully the sound is working.

I see your comments now.

Good.

Sorry about that.

I did not have my microphone that is still sitting on my kitchen counter at home.

My bad kettle left in a scramble.

We had a thunderstorm.

By the way, before I get into this quick prayers and thoughts for all the people that were

affected by the severe weather yesterday in the three rivers and Union City area.

It made the big news up here in the UP.

Hope everybody is okay on that.

I saw that the minority of the three rivers got hit.

As you all know, I may weather junky and I hate seeing disasters like that, especially

in March, it's very early for tornadoes.

I hope everybody is okay with that.

Let's get in the decker on that somber note.

This is a surprise in, I think it's more surprising to tell the decker honestly than it is to

a lot of us.

The city is coming back and we're all excited and I'm certainly one of them.

I was very happy to have him come back and it apparently didn't dawn on him or a lot

of us and throw my hand in that too, but I just might ask him to take a pay cut.

He's making a lot of money for a guy that's playing in what should be his last year and

hasn't been healthy.

Look, his play definitely declined in 2025.

There's no way around that.

The shoulder injury clearly impacted him.

He can't practice.

I'm not sure that was going to get better going forward and the Lions wanted to take some

financial responsibility for that risk.

He apparently wasn't willing to play ball on it.

Again, that's just my understanding of the situation wasn't in there, I haven't talked

to Taylor.

I would like to, Taylor, if you're watching, love to talk to you sometime when the dust

settles a little bit, hopefully.

It's just frustrating because now we're back to where we were a couple of weeks ago when

we're like, oh crap, we need to start a left tackle right away.

We've got to get one and I talked about it on the daily a couple of days ago yesterday

and two in the mail.

By the way, thanks for the questions.

They were drafting an offensive tackle, Taylor Decker's replacement regardless of whether

he was on this team or not.

That hasn't changed.

I do think that it now changes the dynamic and the urgency for it where the first round

pick now feels like it almost has to be the offensive tackle.

It doesn't, whether it's Blake Miller from Clemson, who I think is probably their preferred

target, Caleb Lomu, I don't think Monroe Friedland's going to be there.

In fact, they're radio spot this morning in Cleveland where they're like, he's our favorite

at six.

It seems to be that's the growing consensus on that.

Yeah, as far as Decker goes, I don't think asking him to take a pay cut was unreasonable

by the Lions.

It might have been, it's weird that he wasn't prepared for that and just based on his

reaction on his Instagram post and when he asked for his release, it felt like he was

blindsided by that and I'm not sure that he should have been, I think his agent might

have wanted to feel things out a little bit there and look, I understand Taylor's side

of it.

He's very well paid.

He's not going to get another big contract when you're pondering retirement openly the

way he did and you come back like, yeah, you're on your last year.

Nobody's going to pay you $18 million for one year.

It is not even as good as he can be with the injury history that he had with the way

that his played declining last year.

I think it's perfectly fair for the Lions to ask for it and I think the lack of foresight

on his part that they might ask him to do that.

That's on him.

It's on his agent because the Lions have maybe reached out to him and like let him know

that beforehand.

We don't know that they didn't, but this one strikes me as that's more on the player

and the fact that he's going to play hardball on that and not take a pay cut, I get that

for Decker.

I don't like it as a Lions fan, but I understand that he's got to maximize his earnings in

what looks like his final season.

That's where is that with Decker.

As far as blaming the Lions on this one, this one strikes me as much more being on the

player's end though.

As far as Decker is asking for his release, look, we know Taylor Decker.

We know he is a spirit to dude.

He probably didn't take the perceived slight or insult or asking for his money back very

well, which is understandable.

He decided to take his ball and go home or go to Chicago or Cleveland or somewhere else

Houston.

It's a little strange that they didn't try to trade him.

By the way, we don't know that they're not trying to trade him or work something out

behind the scenes to get things done, but he's not going to be on the Detroit.

It's just a matter of where he gets to, where he winds up.

But now they do have a massive hole at offensive tackle.

The tackles, other than Penny's stool, who's the best in the business at right tackle,

are Giovanni Manu and maybe, maybe Miles Frazier.

I still think Frazier's a better tackle than guard, but I don't know that the Lions

share that opinion.

They didn't last year.

We'll see how that changes, but I loved his college film when he was at Florida International

at tackle, left tackle.

And I do think that what he does, the way he plays, he's better at left than inside.

But we'll see, they've got an option there.

Manu, who knows?

Manu is great that LaTralis Bentley posted the video of Manu working out.

He looks like he's physically fantastic, but can you play football?

I don't know.

I don't think anybody in this chat knows.

I don't think the Lions know yet.

It would be great if he could replace Dan Skipper as a number three.

I think that's probably the most realistic aspiration that Lions fans can have for Giovanni

Manu right now.

He said, he can come in and be the sixth tackle or six offensive lineman and number three

tackle.

And you pray to God that, and starters, don't get hurt.

I apologize.

Forget to meet my phone.

That's my bad.

I did not do that email either.

Great.

Anyhow.

One of the things that I wanted to hit on, and so I, like, I was driving yesterday.

So I didn't get up here until, like, 8.30.

And I clicked on my social media feeds, and they were full.

And I wanted to, there was an interaction that happened on X, and I wanted to spotlight

that, because I thought it was a good discussion, like, it was, like, both sides of the argument,

and I don't think that people, the guys involved, like, they didn't agree, but they didn't

make it personal.

Like, they had good points.

So the guys, and I alerted them that I was going to do this.

One of the guys who I interact with a lot on Twitter, GFS Reg, he's, he's a knowledgeable

dude.

I enjoy interacting with him even when we disagree, like, it's, it's professional, it's

a discussion.

And he wrote, hope Brad has a plan, because it's hard to imagine we can fill all the holes

we now have in one year.

Should be interesting, but our captains and Anzaloni, Monty, Decker, do not sound happy

with this regime, there's a lot of people that feel that way.

There are a lot of people that feel that way, and it's easy to see that angle, for sure.

And then Max, Max 111089, I hope this is your zip code, I don't know that, responded

with the counter.

All old guys will be, will be replaced just like every year, 15 and 20 new players coming

in next two months.

New captains take the reins and you mentioned Suol Campbell, St. Brown, Hutchinson Gough.

All good teams that resign stars have to cut vets.

This is how all good teams act.

We're just not used to this.

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I agree with all that too.

Like it's weird, when both sides make good points that are true, like, and you kind of

have to filter through your, your design and then, then, um, uh, Villo Gonzalez chimed

in.

Um, we were used to our guy staying past their due dates.

And this is where I wanted it to go because I think there's a lot of truth in that.

And this is different for the Lions because they are now a contender.

Yes, they're still a contender.

It's very hard to let guys like Decker in the situation that he's in where he's at

the end of his career.

And you let him go because we've loved to take look.

He's the last vestige of the Quintricia regime.

He was the first pick.

He was at Beck 2016 that he was their first round pick.

None of those guys were left with Glasgow being gone again.

That's, uh, that's stunning, but it is also an acknowledgement that they can, they think

they can do better for the money.

So I just wanted to bring that, that discussion up because I thought all three people who contributed

to it brought different viewpoints and I'm seeing them in the comments here.

Like, they're all good points.

They're all valid.

And I know some people are going to sit on the fact on the, on the, the side of the fence

where the Lions made a mistake in letting Decker go.

And there are going to be just as many who are like good riddance.

He wasn't worth the money anymore.

It's time to move to the future, um, the Dave and Montgomery thing because it happens

so close to the Dave and Montgomery thing.

I think that also gets wrapped in where it's been a shocking week for Detroit.

It has.

It's been crazy.

Um, we sort of knew, especially coming out of the combine, those of us who were down

in the Indy, the Dave and Montgomery was not long for Detroit, that he was looking to

get out.

And while people didn't want to hear it, then actually think that the Lions did a pretty

good job of both doing it right by Montgomery and sending him to a place that's where he can

be the number one running back and we'll get a lot of carries and get a chance to maximize

his career earnings because that's, don't think for a second, that's not what it's about.

He would have been okay getting limited carries in Detroit, but you can't pay him as much

as you were to be a guy who touches the ball 12 times a game.

Well, Houston can pay him that and he'll get the ball 20 times a game down there.

That bodes well for his next contract or a renegotiation of his current contract where

Houston pays him a lot more money as a bonus and extends the year out at deal.

That wasn't going to happen for him in Detroit.

He knew that.

The Lions knew that.

Juice scrubs, I don't know, man, like I hope he can play.

I've seen him at his best, I've seen him at his worst, his best, he can be what Evan

Brown was in Detroit as a stopgap interior offensive lineman that can give you six good

games out of 10, but you're always going to want a little bit more at his worst.

He doesn't make the team straight up.

Wasn't good last year.

Does do his best work at center though, so I'm optimistic about that.

I see the comments over here.

I probably should be paying more attention to this.

Chris normally does this.

Chris couldn't be with me today, so I'm doing it by myself.

Decker asked for his release.

The Lions haven't released him yet.

That is true.

He has the transaction was not processed by 4 p.m. yesterday, so it did not make that transaction

the deal with transaction log.

NFL doesn't do business on weekends, so it won't happen until Monday.

Somebody asked here, so trading Decker is still a possibility.

Yeah, I guess, but if you know that he's going to be released, why would you trade for

him?

When you trade for him, you're absorbing the contract that Detroit doesn't want to

pay.

I don't think another team is going to want to pay.

Decker wasn't $14 million for a year to compete to be their starting tackle when you've

got a very robust draft coming up.

It makes sense for a team.

I'll use the browsers as an example, because they needed an entire new starting offensive

line, and they did actually make a trade to get one office line from Houston.

That's a move that a contender makes.

What contenders, other than the Texans, really need a starting offensive tackle?

Patriots maybe?

I don't know, but they're not going to give up that kind of resources for Decker.

It would be one of those where the lions would be eating a significant portion of the salary

just to get rid of them when they can just release them and save even more.

Decker can get out there in the open and get an offer of services to where he wants to

go and for whoever wants to pay him the most.

From that sense, I don't see any trade happening, although it is technically possible, they still

could do it, but you're not going to get that.

It's just not the reality of football in these days.

Tyler, you're right.

It's amazing when we went from having the best of the line two years ago to whatever it

is now.

Well, it's not awful.

I've seen worse, I've seen a lot worse in Detroit.

You have the right side of the line is as good as any going forward with Penaisoula and

Tate Ratlich.

Ratlich might move to center, don't know that he is, don't know that he isn't, but he's

a good one.

He's keeper.

Going to be an above average starter at either spot, I absolutely believe that, that he can

move in the center and be fine there, be better than fine.

Not asking him to be frank right now, but he'll be better than what we've seen from Grand

Laskow or Evan Brown or other interlopers while Ragnar has been out like that.

Christian Mahogany, he's got to play better.

I think a full healthy offseason would do him wonders.

It would be great to get him, because I still think he's a starting, a quality starting

guard.

He's got to be better than it was last year.

He needs to be challenged for that.

That's what Jude scrubs us for.

He might be what Miles Frazier is for.

And beyond that, yes, it's kind of barren, but at least you're starting with a couple of

bedrock building blocks.

Draft, you've got to address offensive line early, whether it's your first pick, whether

that's Blake Miller from Clemson, whether it's Caleb Blomu, whether it's Spencer Fano,

who could fall because he's got short arms, by the way, there are a lot of draft analysts

who think that he's best at center.

I don't necessarily share that, but it's worth a try.

I mean, you've seen it work with Zach Tomman in Creek Basic or an example of it, just

because of the short arms.

Francis, Moana is probably a guard or right tackle only.

There are options, you know, Max, I he knucker from Arizona State is a guy that he's

moving up the draft board.

So you're probably not going to get him at 50 anymore.

Can you maneuver, can you use the draft pick that you acquired in the Montgomery trade,

the fourth rounder and package it with your second rounder to move up?

Sure.

If you need to.

If you want to, if you're hell bent on taking somebody at 17, that's at a different spot,

you can do that.

Well, thank you, thank you for the super chat.

I appreciate that, Aaron.

Appreciate the kind words.

I do unfortunately have to cut this in a few minutes.

We have a Michigan Tech parent pregame that we always do.

It's a ritual.

I'm enjoying being part of it.

I think let me in because it's fun, it's great, great environment.

I had a lot of nervous energy so I needed to get this out here too, I appreciate that.

As far as the tackles, I'll go into them a little bit.

I do like Blake Miller a lot, I talked about him in the video the other day when I did

the top five options at top five realistic options at 17.

He is absolutely one.

He was one before, now I think he's even more realistic.

I love how much his game grew in 2025 after starting for three years prior.

He kept getting better, more to the point.

He got better at the things he needed to get better at to be good in the NFL.

That tells me that he's going to keep working.

That tells me that he's got that Taylor Decker mindset of, because Marlon Taylor Decker

got here.

And this was the knock, this was the knock on him in my Scotting report when he's coming

out of Ohio State.

90% of the plays in the game, he's going to be good, but there's like, there's a random

like three to five plays a game where you look at him like, have you ever played football

before?

He got better at that.

Those largely ironed outs where it was maybe one game.

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That development still happens at the next level and I think Blake knows a very good

one.

I do like Caleb Lumeau a lot.

I do.

For Musa, I think he can play left tackle that would keep Panay at the right, which is

my preferred outcome, although I, it's weird when you say that and people instantly think,

no, I'm not opposed to moving in the left tackle, but I would prefer that he stay at

right.

He's the best in football there.

Don't break.

Don't break something that isn't broken, doesn't need fixing, you know.

But if he moves to the left side, I have no doubt the peninsula would be one of the best

left tackles in football right away as well.

And it might be easier to find a free agent replacement at right tackle, whether it's

Braden Smith from the Colts who's coming off of an injury, but it was a good, I believe

it was a second-round pick, good player.

He can start.

That's an option, absolutely.

So you're not necessarily stuck with, you know, Panay has to stay on the right side.

You're not stuck with, we have to get a left tackle, we have to get a right tackle.

And that flexibility plays well in this draft class and also in free agency where, look,

it's not a great free agent, class, a tackle it never is.

Rashid Walker is probably the top-regarded offensive lineman.

He doesn't fit Detroit.

He doesn't move anybody in the run game.

He doesn't have great range.

He is a pass blocking specialist, which, like, there's a use for that, certainly.

But the way that the liners want to ground and pound the ball, he's not the best fit,

honestly.

So I don't see them chasing him as we get in the free agency, which starts.

There are, Blake Miller probably needs to play, I see the question, is there any, again,

I got to pay more, Chris is much better at hosting these, I apologize for that.

Blake Miller can play right, can play left, I would prefer him at the right side, though.

He just doesn't have the agility to handle the speed rushers that typically wind up

on the quarterback's blind side.

He does still struggle some with the smaller, the David Bailey style pass rushers of the

world.

The guys who like to get low and flatten the corner quickly, there aren't a lot of them,

but Bailey is certainly one, he's a good one, he'll be long gone before the lion's pick

at 17.

But he could go number two, I don't think he will, but he could.

Blake Arville Reese is going to, some of these styles probably going five, New York's

getting some, some of my state bankers in there, somebody rubbed, Germain Aluminor, he's

a decent option on the free agent market as well, wouldn't, wouldn't they bring in

him in there at all?

He's probably a little bit more affordable, he has played for my Kafka and the Giants.

At worst, you bring him in and he is your Dan Skipper replacement as the top swing tackle

that's sort of throwing in the towel on Giovanni Manu, but spent two years, we haven't

seen Squadius yet, so like, and this is, this is the Hartman, this Hartman's back to

the earlier thing that I was talking about, it's difficult to let players go that we like,

and a lot of us really liked Taylor Decker, a lot of us really liked David Montgomery,

and seeing that change in such a stark way, it's a reminder that football is a cruel business,

it's a reminder that the lions who have business to do by the same token, they haven't won

yet.

Were they going to win the Super Bowl?

What was, is Taylor Decker not having him, does that keep them from winning the Super Bowl

any more than it did?

Like, I don't know, man, because of his injury status, I'm much, I'm much more on the

side of, I think this might be a positive, it's a risk, but I think it's a risk that's

done with the foresight that they can get a replacement in here who could be just as

good if not better than him right away.

So that's, that's where I'm at, sorry, I asked you to consider Manua Guard, it's asking

them to do something that he's not done before, he's having a super tall guard, he is 6-8-6-9,

that runs into trouble when you're a pocket passing team.

The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the rules that you're bouncing

game from, had this issue, because they're, they had color Murray as a quarterback, which

exacerbates it.

But, like, he helped if Roll, to their center, he's like 6-8, 6-7-6-8 and like, you can see

that Murray had trouble seeing around him.

Like, he got in the way of passing lanes at times because he's so tall and be one of Manua's

problems as he plays straight up, he plays very tall. That's one of the reasons why you have

your tall guys generally play outside. Remember Cornelius Lucas, by the way, he's in the market again,

was six-nine, tackle only. They tried him in a couple of practices at guard and Stanford

kept him with the ball. I was there. It was weird. So that is a very real issue with moving

money inside. Good thought, though. A couple of questions. I'll try to give you the questions here.

Let's see. As you ask me, shop Jaymo. God, I hope not. I mean, because then you're creating a

hole that you don't need. Like, you've got dynamic one, two-punch at wide receiver,

insane brown and Jaymo and Tisla is coming on. That's something you want to get rid of when

you're going to be a team that has to outscore what your defense gives up.

And that's one of the things that I really hope that the lion's mentality gets back into

is that we need to go out and score early and often. And they got away from that last year.

You have to have a different set. How do I say this? There's a mindset that comes when you don't

have a good defense. And you know that you have to keep scoring. It's one of the reasons why

why Dan does go for it. I've worked them a lot. But it's also one of the reasons why maybe you should

take some points instead of taking that risk. Kick that 52-yard field goal instead of going for it

on fourth and sixth from the opposing 35. But it's also like setting up like we got to empty the

barrels on offense. And I don't think they did a good good enough job of that last year compared to

how they did it the year before and the year before that where the defense wasn't any better. In fact,

the defense was much worse those years. But they knew that they could do it on offense. And I want

them to get back to that. And if you don't have Jaymo, you don't have Laporte, you don't have Gibbs.

Like you got to have all those weapons, all those hands on deck. That's what I want them to do.

But it led to believe that they sort of see it that way too. That's one of the things that I think

bringing in Kafka specifically will help a lot. He's got some experience with that with the places

that he's been. Yeah, just a couple more of the comments here. Taylor Decker has all been done.

You are not stabilized after shoulder cleanup surgeries. Yeah, that's fair. I think that's where

the wines are coming at this. You've got, again, I wasn't in the building. I don't know the

conversation, but I imagine it probably went something like, Hey, Taylor, we're glad you're back.

But we can't afford to pay you all that money and have you never practice and miss a handful of

games just because your shoulder isn't right that day. We don't know that you can make it through

the entire season. We've got to have reinforcements in and we need all the money to do that. And again,

they blocked at that. That's his right. It's disappointing, but it's his right, you know. And if I

were him, I might have done the same thing. I'd like to be in a situation where I have to wait

whether I want three million or 14 million. That would be a nice problem to have. Yeah,

I'm rigged. This is fun. I wish I'd have CT and just take her play from Ed and I've seen what

it wouldn't surprise me to all of your minds up in Chicago. Because again, their left tackle,

Aussie Trapilo tore his AC or a Miniscus. He has a Miniscus tear that will keep him out for at

least the first six to eight weeks of the season. If not longer, Taylor Decker can come in.

He knows Ben Johnson. He knows the offense. He can ride that until Trapilo gets back. Hopefully,

hopefully from their standpoint, Decker could get that eight to ten games and then go off in the

sunset, arrest his shoulder and hang out with his family. That's, I can definitely see that happening.

And Decker is the sort who will like want to poke the bear. You know what I mean? Like,

the Lions let me, I'm done with the Lions. I'm going to go where I can hurt the Lions. I can see

him being that kind of guy, which is sad because he, I don't know if he was ever going to be one of the

the people that was inducted into the ring of honor or he certainly wasn't going to use Jersey

retired, but this was a guy who was a very good player for a long time. Always fan-friendly.

Always a good dude and it just sucks, man. Wes said with Deemo a better year early than a

year late. Yes. And that is probably more applicable with Decker than Deemo because I do think that

the reduced usage actually ironically probably extends his usefulness for a year or two as a running

back. When you're 28 years old and you're only getting the ball eight to ten times a game,

which is what he got down the stretch. Anyway, one thing that bugged me about the whole

Deemo thing, I'll just detour on this real quick. Everybody was saying that it was the John

Morton offense that forced him out because they were producing his touches. No. He got the ball

more, a lot more, when Morton was still running the offense. It was when Dan took it over that his

touches fell off. So don't mix that narrative up. Like, there are a lot, there are a whole lot of

valid reasons to eat what John Morton did to this team. That's not one of them unfortunately.

My day kicks off with the refreshing Celsius energy drink, then straight to the gym.

Pre-K pick up, back home to meal prep, time for my fire session shift. One more Celsius gotta keep

the lights on. When the three alarm hits, I'm ready. Celsius, live, fit, go. Grab a cold refreshing

Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com.

Yeah. Oh, Chris, Chris Trimeson, thank you. Thank you for joining me, my fearless co-host

in the comments section. I got about 10 minutes left before I got a ski battle.

Let's talk about some of these second and third tier offensive linemen. I brought up a

Haynaker. He's a developed Nemo guy. He might be not ready to play in 2026 as a left tackle right away,

but in like in 2027, 2028, he might be better than Mauinoa. He might be better than Fondo. He might

be better than Lomu. Like, he's got that kind of arc, and he is definitely a lion's type of guy.

I like Caleb Tiernan as a second round pick from Northwestern. He's a little bit upright. He

actually has a lot of the same detriment that the early Taylor Decker did. And he plays a little

stiff, doesn't always bend. Shorter guys can get under him and into him and around him.

Good player though, quality player. You want to go deeper? If you watch with the combine,

you're going to hate me for saying this, but crown over from giant dude from Texas A&M because he

fell down in the wave trail. He does have some good film. He's a fourth round fifth round pick

that you take as a flyer as a developmental guy that you can work him in where he would be a backup

in year one and come in and beyond that. Caleb Proctor, I have never seen him as a lion's fit,

and after absorbing the combine, I think, even less of that as a fit. I don't want to

dog the guy, but I don't think he's a first round talent. I know a lot of people agree with that.

A lot of people don't wear NFL license gear as their professional thing agree with that.

I think he's also going to play guard. Wouldn't surprise me at all if he was the brown's first pick

in the second round and they install them as their left guard. Yeah, we haven't even gotten

to the interior offense flying like the lion's feet. Look, depending on what they do with Miles

Frazier, and I don't know what they're going to do with Miles Frazier. I wish I did.

I think Miles Frazier would like to know what they're going to do with Miles Frazier,

quite frankly. He's in the mix somewhere. You got that's a hard part, is that you're needing

maybe two new starters. That was the upside of Taylor Decker coming back. Even in his dilapidated

state, he could still start for you. He knew the offense. He knew he was still a good run blocker.

Past protection kind of came and went with the shoulder, but now that he's gone,

like that bandage ripped off, man. When you've got other needs on the team, you do still need a

safety. You're going to have to replace Anseloni and Rodrigo in some form. I don't know

that Rodrigo is going to be gone. Don't know that. I suspect that another team is going to value

him more than the lions do and reward that contractually. I don't think Alex Anseloni is back in

Detroit. I think if you're a Jets fan or if you're an Alex Anseloni fan, you can probably

ask him what number he's going to wear with the Jets when we're here, Jersey. Now,

before Vary Agency starts, like the least well-kept secret that's out there. AG loves him.

I still love him. It's going to be sad to see him play another uniform, but that's the reality of

being in the NFL these days. As a fan, like you buy the Jersey with the understanding that

he might be gone in a year, my friend Sarah. My husband got me in Depot, Jersey, for Christmas.

Yeah. We're with pride, man. He was good here. Might not want to wear it this year, but like

down the road, like we still see all these old player jerseys. There's a lot of golden

day jerseys out there. There's a lot of reggie bush jerseys out there.

There's a Lewis Delmas Jersey that do shows up every year at training camp with his Delmas

Jersey. I applaud you, sir. Loved Delmas. Still do. Hoping that Kirby Joseph isn't Lewis

Delmas 2.0 with the injuries. They need safety. They do need tight end depth. They've got to find

somebody there. Like there are a lot of holes. You've got to find a number two running back.

Talk about this in the mailbag, and I do think that we might be going through a shift in the team

dynamic at the number two running back. Junior Gibbs is clearly the alpha dog now. Nothing. He wasn't

last year. They might be okay with Jacob sailors taking over the 8 to 10 touch 2 to 3 drive a

game demo role for a dirt cheap contract. Guys showed some things in the U.F. Ellie showed

something in training camp last year. I wouldn't hate it. I'd like to have Craig Reynolds back.

Doesn't sound like he's coming back, unfortunately, but he's in New England now.

They don't. I don't think they're going to devote the recent. This is just my thought. I don't

think they're going to devote that much resources to the number two running back role when they have

so many other roles to fill. That can be a lower priority. Running backs are a low paid by nature

for a reason. They are largely disposable if you're not a star. Will you really notice the difference

between David Montgomery and his 4.5 yards per carry and Jacob sailors getting 4.3 in the same

amount of touches? I can't answer that, but I don't think it will hurt the offense that much. I

really don't. That's one of the reasons why the Lions made the business decision. One of the

reasons why David Montgomery wanted out and he did want out. No people do want to hear that, but

he wanted out. As far as like the team culture, I think they're fine. Just look, again, I encourage a

strongly encouraged Lions fans and mass. Open the window, look around the NFC, look around the NFL,

look what's happening in Philadelphia where they're now trying to unload Jalen Carter because

they're tired of him too. They lost their offensive line coach. They are very close to losing

a couple of offensive linemen or good. They have one year left with them. They are

trying to trade AJ Brown. He wants out. Seattle, they're letting the Super Bowl MVP walk

why? Because they can't afford to keep him. Kenneth Walker is a fantastic running back.

The market might not be there for him that he thinks either.

All the contending teams have the same sort of level of doubt and offseason. Because we haven't

added anybody yet, I think this is true with all NFL families. Because there's no new additions,

we're focused so much on the subtractions. That's happening in Houston. I can tell you that.

It's happening in Baltimore now that they have Max Crosby. They're a little bit different.

Different situation. New coaching staff. Think about what's going on in Pittsburgh right now.

TJ Watt might not be back. It was suggested at the combine that he might be

tradable for a team that is getting very, very, very old and has a new coaching staff.

It's not just Detroit that is going through this. It's under the microscope because we are

Lions fans. That's what we see in front of us all the time. We hear on the radio all the time.

Lions are not unique or unusual in that standpoint. Try to keep that in mind when you're stressed out

about where this team is going and where it's focused on. It is hard though. Are the Lions

as good now as they were at the end of the season? Hell no, they're not. Lost your starting left

tackling. Start lost a good running back. You're losing your captain linebacker. These things have

to be replaced. It's not easy to do. That's the hard part. But if you have faith in homes,

you have faith in Campbell. You have faith in your coaching staff. You have faith in the leaders

that are still on this team. The very high end talent that's still all over this roster.

One of the reasons why we can't afford to pay Taylor Decker is what he was going to get

is because they've paid stars, jaymo, saint, stool. They're going to pay Gibbs soon.

Hutch, they paid their safety. Kirby Joseph, if he's ever healthy, is an all pro.

There's a lot of really good high end talent still on this roster. It does need help though.

I do have to call it a day with that one. Unfortunately, I thank you all for joining me on this.

We're going to try to do a little bit more of this. I'd rather enjoy this. I will remember

on my microphone next time. Thank you all for joining in, man. I appreciate it. This is Jeff

Risen with the Daily DLP signing out. Be good to one another. Thank you.