2011 NFL Offseason

[UMFan83]

it's an asinine comparison that people are making, because our wins in '08 were mostly just meaningless Drew Stanton preseason 4th-quarter Comeback Specials™, whereas this year our starters actually look terrific (rushing offense excepted)

 

anybody with a pair of eyes should have known we were doomed for failure in '08; i think i forecast a winless year like 3 weeks into the season

 

I remember watching the first quarter of the lions first game. I want to say it was against the Falcons. I just watched Michael Turner run effortlessly through the Lions defense almost untouched and that was probably the first time I thought the Lions might go winless.

 

I remember a guy I work with tried to make a bet with me that the Lions would win the North after their 3rd preseason game and couldnt stop gushing about how dominant they looked. I will say though that this friend is the biggest homer I have ever seen in my life, for any city for any sport. That said, because of him, I have always been able to recall that 4-0 preseason and the resulting 0-16 season quite easily.

[BCVM22]

Holy frijoles. Eagles give Vick 6 years, $100 mil, $40 mil guaranteed.

[dew1679666265]

PFT makes it seem like Eisen got a promotion, but it just seems he's cutting back on how much he's doing for NFLN.

 

I'd assume at this point Eisen is a pretty big part of the NFLN and is able to dictate his schedule more so he's cutting back his on-camera time to work in the younger talent some.

[dew1679666265]

Does anyone else think there's almost too much optimism surrounding the Lions this year? I know I have been anti-Lions in the past, but it has nothing to do with them. It just seems like when a sub .500 team gets so much preseason hype and gains more with an impressive preseason, people tend to get excited and overrate them. I definitely respect the talent on the Lions, but I wouldnt be surprised if they finished like 6-10. I also wouldnt be surprised if they went 10-6.

 

Don't get me wrong, Lions fans have a right to be excited because it seems like they are putting together an exciting team. But don't let preseason play get your hopes up too much. Just a few years ago they went 4-0 in the preseason and 0-16 in the regular season.

 

The Lions finished the year with a -7 point differential, better than every team with a losing record (which includes every team in the NFC West) last year - without their best QB, Matthew Stafford for basically the entire year. I'm really interested to see what this team can do if Stafford can stay healthy all year (a very big if at this point).

 

My prediction is that if Stafford can stay healthy all year, they'll be a playoff caliber team (9-10 wins). If he goes down for a large portion of the year again, though, they'll probably have a similar year to last season.

[UMFan83]

Yeah I think a big part depends on Stafford. From what I've seen in the past he looks legit.

 

The point about the -7 differential is valid but take out the outliers (44-6 win against St. Louis, 45-24 loss against NE) and its a -24 point differential. They also lost a lot of close games last year, so then again their record could have easily been better than 6-10.

 

We'll see. Certainly don't expect a 12-4 or 11-5 season, but 9-10 wins wouldnt shock me.

[dew1679666265]

The point about the -7 differential is valid but take out the outliers (44-6 win against St. Louis, 45-24 loss against NE) and its a -24 point differential. They also lost a lot of close games last year, so then again their record could have easily been better than 6-10.

 

If memory serves, -24 is still better than every team with a losing record. And the reason I think the Lions could make a big jump is that they really never got blown out last year (save the NE game). They were competitive in every game with Shaun Hill at QB - you switch him for Stafford plus a few other tweaks and you have a team with playoff potential.

[NCCubFan]

Cedric Benson has been sentenced to 20 days in jail. He will begin his sentence during the Bengals' bye week, and with early release may only miss one game.

 

EDIT: Actually he may not miss ANY games. With the bye week he may only miss one or two practices.

[UMFan83]

The point about the -7 differential is valid but take out the outliers (44-6 win against St. Louis, 45-24 loss against NE) and its a -24 point differential. They also lost a lot of close games last year, so then again their record could have easily been better than 6-10.

 

If memory serves, -24 is still better than every team with a losing record. And the reason I think the Lions could make a big jump is that they really never got blown out last year (save the NE game). They were competitive in every game with Shaun Hill at QB - you switch him for Stafford plus a few other tweaks and you have a team with playoff potential.

 

I think they lost by around 20 to Dallas too but I'm not sure the circumstances of the game.

[SpongeWorthy]

Stafford's shoulder will blow up within the first month of the season.

[dew1679666265]

I think they lost by around 20 to Dallas too but I'm not sure the circumstances of the game.

 

They lost 35-19 to Dallas, but were down just 21-19 heading into the fourth before the Cowboys pulled away. I don't think of 16 points - especially when it's a 2 point game heading to the fourth - as all that lopsided.

[dew1679666265]

Stafford's shoulder will blow up within the first month of the season.

 

If it does, the Lions might need to start thinking about another long term option at QB.

[Magnetic Curses]

Does anyone else think there's almost too much optimism surrounding the Lions this year? I know I have been anti-Lions in the past, but it has nothing to do with them. It just seems like when a sub .500 team gets so much preseason hype and gains more with an impressive preseason, people tend to get excited and overrate them. I definitely respect the talent on the Lions, but I wouldnt be surprised if they finished like 6-10. I also wouldnt be surprised if they went 10-6.

 

Don't get me wrong, Lions fans have a right to be excited because it seems like they are putting together an exciting team. But don't let preseason play get your hopes up too much. Just a few years ago they went 4-0 in the preseason and 0-16 in the regular season.

yeah, what's to get so excited about a former #1 overall pick putting it all together to the tune of a 154.0 QB rating?

 

go ahead and talk about how much preseason games mean to the Lions when our starters were all sitting on the bench watching Brady, Mayo, etc. still playing for nearly another whole quarter of play, visibly frustrated

 

nobody's getting excited about stupid preseason wins, they're excited that our first-stringers are having their way with other team's first-stringers, which is all you really care about in preseason action

 

but hey, if you have a strong feeling about it, you definitely should be jumping all over the under for wins, at +150 right now

 

oh please get your hopes up

[UMFan83]

I think they lost by around 20 to Dallas too but I'm not sure the circumstances of the game.

 

They lost 35-19 to Dallas, but were down just 21-19 heading into the fourth before the Cowboys pulled away. I don't think of 16 points - especially when it's a 2 point game heading to the fourth - as all that lopsided.

 

Fair enough, but if you play that game you have to consider their game against the Eagles, where the Philly had a 35-17 lead with 6 minutes left in the 4th lopsided despite 2 quasi-garbage time touchdowns to make it close.

[sneakypower]

Stafford's shoulder will blow up within the first month of the season.

hey, don't be hating because my QB plays through injury

[Magnetic Curses]

Stafford's shoulder will blow up within the first month of the season.

hey, don't be hating because my QB plays through injury

 

my quarterback played with undiagnosed diabetes for a whole season. i'm not impressed.

[WeGotWood98]

Patrick Peterson is the next Darrelle Revis.

[Banedon]

Stafford's shoulder will blow up within the first month of the season.

hey, don't be hating because my QB plays through injury

 

Stafford has missed 19 games in 2 seasons. He has 19 TD's to 21 Int's. And if W-L Record is your cup of tea, he's 3-10.

 

I don't think you wanna start comparing QB's.

[dew1679666265]

I think they lost by around 20 to Dallas too but I'm not sure the circumstances of the game.

 

They lost 35-19 to Dallas, but were down just 21-19 heading into the fourth before the Cowboys pulled away. I don't think of 16 points - especially when it's a 2 point game heading to the fourth - as all that lopsided.

 

Fair enough, but if you play that game you have to consider their game against the Eagles, where the Philly had a 35-17 lead with 6 minutes left in the 4th lopsided despite 2 quasi-garbage time touchdowns to make it close.

 

18 is borderline lopsided, but that's quibbling over terminology. My main point is that last year's Lions team was better than its 6-10 record would indicate and that's part of the justification behind hyping them this year - it wasn't a typical 6-10 team that got hammered by most of the good teams it played and struggled with the bad teams. Even without Stafford it was a team that was really close to 2-3 more wins.

[sneakypower]

Stafford's shoulder will blow up within the first month of the season.

hey, don't be hating because my QB plays through injury

 

Stafford has missed 19 games in 2 seasons. He has 19 TD's to 21 Int's. And if W-L Record is your cup of tea, he's 3-10.

 

I don't think you wanna start comparing QB's.

comparing Cutler to a rookie is setting the bar pretty low, don't you think?

 

Peyton Manning had even worse numbers his first 13 games in the league (2-11, 21:25 TD-Int's), so suffice it to say i'm not too worried about Stafford's prospects at this point

[Magnetic Curses]

everybody had better numbers than peyton manning. it's like saying michael jordan got cut from his high school basketball team so i must be as good as him.

[sneakypower]

his rookie numbers would interest me if there were any historical precedent whatsoever; 21 year old NFL quarterbacks just don't succeed in their rookie years, it's never happened

[UMFan83]

I'm assuming you are being sarcastic, but if you weren't for some reason, I can think of two 21 year old QBs that have succeeded off the top of my head.

[sneakypower]

who

[Magnetic Curses]

roethlisberger is one.

[UMFan83]

roethlisberger is one.

 

Yup. OK and I jumped the gun on the second one. I just looked it up and Marino was 21 when he started his rookie season, but turned 22 before week 2 of the season, so I guess that one doesn't really count.