Speaker 1: When you go to a website you want content, man,
Speaker 1: you get it. Pride to Detroit dot com Holeak. Jeremy
Speaker 1: Riisman is a busy man, his fingers constantly typing, whether
Speaker 1: it's about the signing of Jake from it's about the
Speaker 1: injuries yesterday, the full list of Lions players injured missing
Speaker 1: from training camp, and then the bubble watch big shifting
Speaker 1: and defensive line, defensive back roster predictions. You can follow
Speaker 1: him on Twitter or on x however you want to
Speaker 1: call it at Detroit onlinon and he joins us here
Speaker 1: on exis and Bros. Jeremy, thanks for taking time, Thanks
Speaker 1: for taking a breath. How are you today?
Speaker 2: I'm doing all right, Steff. I appreciate the words.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you bet man, good stuff. Before we dive into
Speaker 1: some of the things you've recently written, I do want
Speaker 1: to ask you about what you recently produced too, and
Speaker 1: that's the Matthew Stafford coming back to Detroit and the
Speaker 1: emotions and all the things that have been said about
Speaker 1: Detroit and the out and the atmosphere and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. You saw the recent interview with Sean
Speaker 1: McVeigh and how he touted Ford Field as the loudest
Speaker 1: place he's ever been. What's your overall breakdown and take
Speaker 1: of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think it's humbling right to see
Speaker 2: the Lions fans is kind of excitement, and I guess
Speaker 2: just the impact that they can have on a game,
Speaker 2: from two sources that would know best on that sort
Speaker 2: of thing, it speaks I think to what we've all
Speaker 2: kind of known for a very long time, which is
Speaker 2: this is a football city through and through, and once
Speaker 2: they produced a winner, things are going to be kind
Speaker 2: of nuts here. And I thought I thought Stafford was
Speaker 2: very mature about the whole thing. I know some people,
Speaker 2: you know, saw the micd Up thing where it looked
Speaker 2: like he got mad at all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 2: but I think, you know, he knows the city better
Speaker 2: than most people, and for him to come out and
Speaker 2: say like, yeah, this is this is what I expected.
Speaker 2: I knew Lion's fans would boom me because they're going
Speaker 2: to do anything to help their team win. And I
Speaker 2: was just the guy that day. So it was cool
Speaker 2: to see and I think staff was being mature about it.
Speaker 2: And I think the city of Detroit got some well
Speaker 2: deserved praise for how they helped the team last year.
Speaker 1: We talk about this quite a bit. Jeremy. I fear
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm too close and too emotional to it, so
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. I think the Lions are
Speaker 1: one of the blueprints in the NFL and perhaps all
Speaker 1: of sports on how they run their organization. Where am
Speaker 1: I right? Where am I wrong? In that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I do think there are multiple ways
Speaker 2: that you can build and different kind of personalities you
Speaker 2: can put at the front of your franchise. But I
Speaker 2: do tend to think that they were a little bit
Speaker 2: ahead of the curve here when it comes to maybe,
Speaker 2: you know, filling your coaching staff with a bunch of
Speaker 2: former players. They certainly weren't the first team to do that,
Speaker 2: but they took it to an extreme, right, Like the
Speaker 2: whole coaching staff essentially has played in the league almost
Speaker 2: and that certainly seems to be a trend that's on
Speaker 2: the rise. And then, yeah, putting your faith behind a
Speaker 2: guy like Dan Campbell, who I'm a very emotional leader,
Speaker 2: a very transparent guy, that's something that I certainly think
Speaker 2: could could be on the rise. And again, I think
Speaker 2: the lines were maybe at the forefront of that wave,
Speaker 2: just because you look at the way that certain players
Speaker 2: are this year, Like you know, these days, the authoritarian
Speaker 2: type that you know, maybe you describe Matt Patricia as
Speaker 2: doesn't work as well. Players are a little bit more
Speaker 2: aware of their own strength and their own ability to
Speaker 2: to talk and and you know, put things out publicly.
Speaker 2: And so maybe a guy that knows what that perild
Speaker 2: is like, knows what it's like to go through training camp,
Speaker 2: knows what it's like to go through injury, is a
Speaker 2: more apt guy to run a football team. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: I think a lot of ways that there are a
Speaker 2: lot of things that the Lions are doing right that
Speaker 2: that I think a lot of teams are going to
Speaker 2: be looking at. You see their front office getting plucked
Speaker 2: by by several other organizations because they know that the
Speaker 2: that the personnel departments are are knocking it out of
Speaker 2: the park right now. So yeah, I think I think
Speaker 2: you're right in what you say there.
Speaker 1: Or with Jeremy Rice and Priude of Detroit, what a
Speaker 1: great website. You can food him on x or on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Detroit on Lion. Check it out. Great information there.
Speaker 1: We'll get to what took place yesterday. He reported it
Speaker 1: first on the injuries to especially the rookies, we'll get
Speaker 1: to see how significant that truly is. But I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you about where we were wrong, because when
Speaker 1: Dan Campbell was first hired, everybody made fun of the
Speaker 1: kneecaps and the press conference sayings that he had. And
Speaker 1: now we realized that that, first of all, that's who
Speaker 1: he is. The second of all, his team has taking
Speaker 1: on his persona, and now we embrace it and love it.
Speaker 1: When did it turn for us? Do you think and
Speaker 1: all of us?
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, it's a great question, because obviously it wasn't
Speaker 2: right away. The Lions. You know, they go three thirteen
Speaker 2: and one that first year and they start the next
Speaker 2: season one in six or whatever it was, and you know,
Speaker 2: there were calls for Dan Campbell's head. There was calls
Speaker 2: for like, is this all kind of an act? It's
Speaker 2: all kind of you know, just you know, this raw,
Speaker 2: raw guy, but not the you know, intelligence behind him.
Speaker 2: And then obviously things turned around in a hurry in
Speaker 2: that twenty twenty two season and it's been kind of
Speaker 2: on a huge upward trend since then. But I will
Speaker 2: say I probably changed before that in my tone and
Speaker 2: not that I was very critical of the higher at
Speaker 2: the time. I'm always very much a kind of like,
Speaker 2: let's see how this plays out type of thing. But
Speaker 2: when you saw that what he did in that opening
Speaker 2: press conference, like you said, was not an act, was
Speaker 2: not just him like flexing his muscles or trying to
Speaker 2: raw raw or anything. That's just who he is on
Speaker 2: a daily basis. That sort of authenticity was not something
Speaker 2: that I don't think. It was not something that I
Speaker 2: think we've seen in Detroit in a while. Like I
Speaker 2: think we've seen a lot of tough guy attitude and
Speaker 2: things like that, but it didn't feel as genuine as
Speaker 2: as what Dan Campbell was giving out every single day
Speaker 2: and so on that once that it kind of be
Speaker 2: clean clear that that's just who he is on a
Speaker 2: daily basis, no matter what is it is, no matter
Speaker 2: if the team won or loss. I was kind of
Speaker 2: buying into at least that sort of leadership. Whether it
Speaker 2: was eventually turned into wins or losses, I don't think
Speaker 2: anyone could really believe until it actually started happening. But
Speaker 2: I think seeing that authenticity from him on a day
Speaker 2: to day basis was something that kind of had me
Speaker 2: in his corner pretty early.
Speaker 1: How much do you appreciate there is very little drama
Speaker 1: in camp. I mean, if you want to look at
Speaker 1: the fights with the Giants, go right ahead, but look
Speaker 1: at the drama that has taken place in Dallas, in
Speaker 1: New York, with the Jets in San Francisco. A. How
Speaker 1: impressed are you that there is very little of that?
Speaker 1: And B how much do you think those type of
Speaker 1: I'll use distractions as a word, affects a team compared
Speaker 1: to a team that isn't experiencing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the second one is really tougher to answer. I
Speaker 2: tend to think we a little bit exaggerate the impact
Speaker 2: of things like that. You know, in the off season,
Speaker 2: there's not much else to talk about, so we get
Speaker 2: hung up on contract negotiations. You know, Green Bay was
Speaker 2: in the conversation of this, you know, three weeks ago,
Speaker 2: and then Jordan Love deal gets done and no one
Speaker 2: cares anymore and they're fine. But when these things linger
Speaker 2: into the regular season, well you know that matters, right,
Speaker 2: Brandon Nyuk situation is lingering into the maybe into the
Speaker 2: season that matters. Dallas is lingering into the season, Maybe
Speaker 2: that matters. So from that aspect, yeah, sure, I think
Speaker 2: getting a deal done early, just so you don't have
Speaker 2: to worry about it. Leading into the regular season is great.
Speaker 2: I do tend to think though, we overexaggerate some of
Speaker 2: those things. And for Detroit, I don't know if it
Speaker 2: was the plan to kind of get ahead of all that.
Speaker 2: It certainly helps to in terms of contract numbers, to
Speaker 2: get ahead of some of the other deals that are
Speaker 2: getting done, save yourself a couple of million a year
Speaker 2: by getting being the first one to set the market.
Speaker 2: But in general, I do think some of that stuff
Speaker 2: is a little bit overblown.
Speaker 1: Are you broke it? Yesterday? You were talking about the
Speaker 1: rookies and the injuries. All right, jimyor Gibbs obviously not
Speaker 1: a rookie, but he suffers an upper body in injury, right,
Speaker 1: or I'm sorry, hamstring injury. Yeah. And then you get
Speaker 1: Terry on Ard upper body injury which sounds more like
Speaker 1: a hockey injury description anyway, because we're not specifical what
Speaker 1: that is. And then the ankle to Rakestraw. How concerned
Speaker 1: should Lions fans be with those three specific injuries?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to speculate on the
Speaker 2: severity of any of them, just because we don't know.
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes an injury can look really really bad
Speaker 2: in practice and then they're okay. That happened with CJ.
Speaker 2: Gerner Johnson last training camp, where it looked like, you know,
Speaker 2: he was going to be out for the season, maybe
Speaker 2: nikilles or anything like that, and he was back in
Speaker 2: practice like three days later. But obviously you don't want
Speaker 2: those guys out very long, if at all, because you know,
Speaker 2: Terry on Unarn was going to be a starter, is
Speaker 2: set to be a starter. Hannis Rakestraw was essentially like
Speaker 2: the first guy off the bench to be a corner.
Speaker 2: You lost the Manuel mostly last week for a long term,
Speaker 2: so what was a really deep cornerback room suddenly so
Speaker 2: like it could be pretty thin and maybe back at
Speaker 2: where it was last year, and considering all the effort
Speaker 2: and investments they put into that cornerback position, that's that
Speaker 2: would be pretty disheartening to not even get to week
Speaker 2: one and experience some of that depth that they added.
Speaker 2: As for Jamier Gibbs, you know, he hasn't had a
Speaker 2: ton of work this training camp at all. You know,
Speaker 2: he started out training camp kind of limited in his
Speaker 2: role and so this is just him potentially missing more time,
Speaker 2: which is not great either. Because this is a guy
Speaker 2: that you're trying to incorporate more into your passing offense,
Speaker 2: and that takes practice, that takes reps, and so if
Speaker 2: he's missing more of those reps, even if he doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily miss a game, that's that's gonna be an impact,
Speaker 2: and that's that's frustrating in that that could hurt the team.
Speaker 2: But I will say that David Montgomery looks like he's
Speaker 2: in mid season form and don't underestimate his impact on
Speaker 2: the team because he's one heck of a runner.
Speaker 1: Love him, absolutely love him. You wrote the Bubble Watch
Speaker 1: Defense Special Teams, great breakdown of every single play. It's
Speaker 1: amazing research and I don't want to suggest that you
Speaker 1: can summarize it quickly. But when you look at Marcus Davenport,
Speaker 1: who I think will be really important or at least
Speaker 1: somebody to help Aiden Hutchinson in rushing the quarterback, how
Speaker 1: imperative is it that you get him into this scheme
Speaker 1: and seeing what he can do and what he's going
Speaker 1: to provide for this club.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's huge, right. I think every Lions fan
Speaker 2: over the past two years has been looking for that
Speaker 2: guy opposite Aiden Hutchinson and to me, it looks like
Speaker 2: they might have their guy. I know, Marcus Davenport has
Speaker 2: battled injuries the last few years and a little bit
Speaker 2: of inconsistency, but this is a guy that had and
Speaker 2: half nine sacks this season, and I think he's very
Speaker 2: much capable of that if he's had a really strong
Speaker 2: training camp, hasn't missed a ton of time. You know,
Speaker 2: they gave him the veteran roster treatment for the preseason
Speaker 2: game because they're that confident in what he's doing. And
Speaker 2: you know, I don't think he's on the roster bubble
Speaker 2: at all at this point. I think he is penciled
Speaker 2: in as as the starter as long as he can
Speaker 2: make it to week one. And so yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it's huge because he he also brings something a little
Speaker 2: bit different where Hutchinson is. You know, he's got speed,
Speaker 2: he's got athleticism, he can he can pretty much do everything.
Speaker 2: The amount of power that Marcus Davenport plays with and
Speaker 2: violence is a whole nother thing that offensive lines are
Speaker 2: going to have to deal with, maybe with which is
Speaker 2: maybe something that they weren't getting from, you know, the
Speaker 2: likes of you know, the Aquaras or anyone who held
Speaker 2: that role in the past, so I think he's gonna
Speaker 2: be a very important piece to what they do defensively
Speaker 2: this year.
Speaker 1: Who has surprised you most and who's impressed you most
Speaker 1: so far?
Speaker 2: The answer to both those questions might be LEVI own Zaerike,
Speaker 2: because I think a lot of people had been, including myself,
Speaker 2: had pretty much buried his his NFL career after the
Speaker 2: back injuries kind of took a toll his first three years.
Speaker 2: But he has been a man on a mission. He
Speaker 2: has also been a guy that that's basically been a
Speaker 2: starter all of trading camp and he's earned it. He's
Speaker 2: being disruptive on very much a daily basis and heading
Speaker 2: for what I think again is it is probably going
Speaker 2: to be a major role in transforming this defensive line
Speaker 2: into something that's a little more balanced across the board
Speaker 2: rather than just the Aiden Hutchinson show. But I'll throw
Speaker 2: another name out there that's impressed me, and that's a
Speaker 2: Meek Robertson. And I think he's also a guy that,
Speaker 2: you know, if these cornerback injuries are bigger long term
Speaker 2: or wherever, he's a guy that can fill him in
Speaker 2: multiple spots. He was kind of headed to be the
Speaker 2: starting Nickels, especially with the Emmanuel Moseley injury. But he
Speaker 2: got a little work on the outside yesterday after the injuries,
Speaker 2: and that's something he played with the Raiders last year too,
Speaker 2: so he's also kind of set for Okay, he's going
Speaker 2: to be a part of this defense, whether it's on
Speaker 2: the outside or whether it's nickel. Kind of we have
Speaker 2: to wait for the injuries to shake out, but he's
Speaker 2: he plays physical. He got a couple of pass breakups
Speaker 2: yesterday in practice. He's a guy that I think is
Speaker 2: consistently being good and he was great in the preseason
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: As they get set for preseason game number two, what
Speaker 1: is the expectation in terms of playing time against the Chiefs?
Speaker 1: Do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's hard to say. Dan Campbell basically said he
Speaker 2: wanted to see how yesterday's practice and Wednesday's practice plays out.
Speaker 2: You know, they plan on doing a scrimmage on Wednesday,
Speaker 2: So if he feels the you know, the first teamers
Speaker 2: get enough good work in those two days, then I
Speaker 2: kind of expect a lot of what we saw in
Speaker 2: the first preseason game. But because there weren't joint practices,
Speaker 2: because you're playing the Chiefs, who notably do tend to
Speaker 2: play their starters for at least a driver to I
Speaker 2: think there's definitely an increased chance that we see some
Speaker 2: of the starters in this game. But also given some
Speaker 2: of the injury concerns that are creeping up, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be surprised if the lines kind of dial things back
Speaker 2: and play it a little bit more conservatively.
Speaker 1: On Saturday, Jeremyrisman proud of Detroit joining us here on
Speaker 1: Exus and Bros. You can fall him on X or
Speaker 1: on Twitter at Detroit Online on It's great stuff. There's
Speaker 1: a ton to sift through the various roster moves. You
Speaker 1: wrote this the other day, but Jake from signing what
Speaker 1: I think two oftentimes I really do. I think too
Speaker 1: oftentimes we focus on the quarterback, but look, Jeremy, because
Speaker 1: it's such an important position, and not just in football
Speaker 1: but in sports, our mind has to take us there.
Speaker 1: So I was having a discussion the other day about
Speaker 1: if there's a guy like Ryan Tannehill available, why wouldn't
Speaker 1: the Lions go get him. My philosophy was, look, if
Speaker 1: if Jared Goff goes down tomorrow, do you think they're
Speaker 1: riding this season with Nate Sudfeld or Hendon Hooker or
Speaker 1: Jake from the answer to me would be no, So
Speaker 1: why not go out and get that guy? Now? Explain
Speaker 1: that that mindset for me and for our listeners and
Speaker 1: what you think about that whole take.
Speaker 2: Well, I think their ideal scenario was a head and
Speaker 2: Hooker was going to make a ton of strides this
Speaker 2: offseason and put up a big training camp and just
Speaker 2: be that guy. And obviously it hasn't quite worked out
Speaker 2: that way. I thought he played relatively well on Thursday,
Speaker 2: but now with the concussion, looks like he's probably going
Speaker 2: to miss this entire week, including the preseason game, which
Speaker 2: is you know, critical to his development. And so I
Speaker 2: do think there there is now a question of what
Speaker 2: the plan is here because I you know, I think
Speaker 2: they like Nate Subfeld a lot more than fans tend
Speaker 2: to do, and to be fair to Nate subfelt generally
Speaker 2: he's had a strong training camp, you know, the kind
Speaker 2: of training camp you'd like to see from a backup.
Speaker 2: Not a guy where you expect him to challenge for
Speaker 2: the first string spot or anything like that, but a
Speaker 2: guy that can handle the offense, that knows where to
Speaker 2: let the ball go and and can make sure he's
Speaker 2: not making big mistakes. But unfortunately didn't play well in
Speaker 2: the preseason, hasn't looked great in training camp, the you know,
Speaker 2: the the following two days after that preseason game, and
Speaker 2: now now I think you do kind of have a
Speaker 2: little bit of a question on your hands on who
Speaker 2: you can trust the most in Week one. I think
Speaker 2: Jake from is, to be quite honest, it is just
Speaker 2: here to have an extra body for the preseason game.
Speaker 2: And you know, whenever Hended Hooker is healthy, From's probably
Speaker 2: headed back to the to the waiver wire. But the
Speaker 2: problem with bringing in anyone, even if it is someone
Speaker 2: as veteran as a guy like Tanna Hills, It's going
Speaker 2: to take time for him to develop, you know, chemistry with
Speaker 2: the receiver. It's going to take time for him to
Speaker 2: learn the offense. You know, every offense seems to have
Speaker 2: different verbiage, so it's going to take time for all that.
Speaker 2: Now he's a veteran guy, he could probably do it.
Speaker 2: It's just a matter of whether he would want to
Speaker 2: come here too. Is he is he interested in the
Speaker 2: backup job, is he interested in you know, uh, being
Speaker 2: that veteran guy who's a clipboard holder, or does he
Speaker 2: want a real chance to start her? Is he even
Speaker 2: interested in playing at all? Maybe he's retired. So there's
Speaker 2: a lot of complications that we just don't know the
Speaker 2: answers to.
Speaker 1: All Right, lastly, real quick, great answer, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: They did get rid of Antoine Green, which maybe surprised
Speaker 1: me just a little bit, although with the concussion and
Speaker 1: the issues that they can always bring him back. As
Speaker 1: as you pointed out on the website Pride of Detroit
Speaker 1: dot com, quickly, who's the lead candidate for the number
Speaker 1: three and four receiver in this whole group?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you can count Kalie Fraeman in as
Speaker 2: either three or four, whichever one you want to call that.
Speaker 2: He's probably not going to generally start, but he's going
Speaker 2: to be a big part of this offense, and he's
Speaker 2: basically a roster lock at this point that that other
Speaker 2: spot is the challenge, and I think three Fountain is
Speaker 2: the leader. We heard Dan Campbell yesterday say basically, we
Speaker 2: need someone to show up. We're desperately seeking for someone
Speaker 2: to show up. But three Fountain is the guy who's
Speaker 2: regularly been getting those first team reps and even though
Speaker 2: he's been inconsistent, I think he's got to be, you know,
Speaker 2: the leader in the clubhouse right now.
Speaker 1: Interesting stuff. Hey really enjoy the website, really enjoy the
Speaker 1: insight as well. Thanks for taking time. I know you're busy.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people are tugging at you.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you and taking the time out for our
Speaker 1: listeners here today. Have a great rest of your Tuesday
Speaker 1: and keep up the great work Jeremy YouTube CHEP.
Speaker 2: Appreciate it.