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Stack or Shed Ep.2 Lions edition · Football Junkies podcast

• 0:00
  What's going on, everybody? This is your GM,
• 0:01
  Kale, your bad girl, Dom, is here to bring you
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  episode two of the Stack and Shed series. Now,
• 0:06
  in this series, we're going to do a deep dive
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  on a few different areas for every single team.
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  And those areas are, what went wrong? What do
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  they need? Stack or Shed? Their draft picks?
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  One move I would do if I was their GM. and their
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  cap space okay now originally i was going to
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  just group everybody in but i was like you know
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  what that's going to take way too much time and
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  i may allocate too much time for this team instead
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  of that team so what we're going to do is we're
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  going to break everything up moving forward okay
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  so let's start with the lions so what went wrong
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  in their season now eventually say it was predictable
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  play calling on key downs and hiring the wrong
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  oc so let's start with predictable play calling
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  I understand that Dan Campbell's identity is
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  aggressiveness. And I understand that it works
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  sometimes and fails. But the problem that we're
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  seeing recently is it's starting to fail the
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  Lions more than actually succeed. And the reason
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  why I'm bringing this up is as long as Dan Campbell
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  continues to be aggressive on key downs, the
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  Lions are going to lose those key down matchups
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  and possibly lose key games that they need to
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  win. Let's be honest here. The Lions are in their
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  window. And the only way that you can maximize
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  your window is playing smart. There's a time
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  and place to be aggressive. The only time I should
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  see your coach being really aggressive is in
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  the third and fourth quarter. Outside of that,
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  there's no need for you to be aggressive. If
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  it's fourth down, but you're in field goal range,
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  kick the field goal, get the three points, who
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  cares? But if it's third and eight, well then
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  guess what? You may have to do something a little
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  bit different. But what you don't do is just
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  be super aggressive all the time because defenses
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  are going to pick it up and then they're going
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  to have a counter for it. And we see it all the
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  time. It was cool when it was the first two or
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  three years of Dan Campbell's tenure with the
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  Lions, but everybody knows what to do against
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  Dan Campbell. I don't care if you have Amon Ross
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  St. Brown. I don't care if you had Randy Moss.
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  I don't care if you had T .O. It's not going
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  to solve anything. You don't believe me? I got
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  some stats to back it up. According to Sumer
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  Sports. The third down conversion rate without
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  Ben Johnson is 213 attempts for 87 conversions,
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  which is 40 .8%. Their fourth down conversions
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  without Ben Johnson is 117 attempts for 20 conversions,
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  which is 17 .1%. I'm not saying these things
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  just to say these things. I know what I'm talking
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  about. The Lions have to do a better job on key
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  downs. If you do that, I guarantee you you'll
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  have a better result than what you have right
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  now. Now on to the offensive coordinator spot.
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  I understand that at some point Ben Johnson was
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  going to lead the Lions and he was going to take
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  a lot of people with him. Now you would have
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  thought the Lions would have been proactive instead
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  of reactive. But clearly that's not what happened
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  and now they're in the situation that they're
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  in where they're currently looking for an offensive
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  coordinator. Now I don't hate them for making
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  the move that they did, but... I just feel like
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  they didn't do enough. And the reason why I say
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  that is because name me one offensive coordinator
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  that wouldn't want to work with this offense.
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  An offense that has Panay Sewell, Jameer Gibbs,
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  David Montgomery, Sam Laporta, Jamison Williams,
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  Amon Ross St. Brown, Isaac Tisla. Now I'll give
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  you some slack because I know sometimes if you
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  make an external hire, they have to bring in
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  their own staff and they may use the players
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  that you have in a different way. Okay, fine.
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  But you mean to tell me you couldn't have at
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  least done a little bit of homework on some potential
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  candidates? If you brought in two or maybe three
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  people just to poke their brains just to see
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  how they would use this person and that person,
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  okay, fine. That shows me that you're open to
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  new ideas. But what you don't do is make an internal
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  promotion and think, okay, we solved the problem.
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  No, you didn't. All you did was just put a band
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  -aid over the situation and say, you know what?
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  We're going to deal with that in the future.
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  And see, I wouldn't have a problem with this
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  if the offense didn't have a lot of weapons.
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  But this offense has a lot of firepower on it.
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  So you need to bring in somebody that knows how
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  to maximize multiple positions to the fullest
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  of their extent. And we saw that there were points
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  in the season where the offense wasn't playing
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  their best. There was a point in time where Dan
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  Cable took the play calling from John Morton.
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  Anytime that happens, your play calling was trash.
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  Now with that being said, what do the Lions need?
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  And that is a new offensive coordinator and a
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  right tackle. Now with the offensive coordinator
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  spot, that's a little bit tricky. I know they
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  brought in a couple people. Mike McDaniel, they're
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  supposed to be bringing in Arthur Smith fairly
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  soon. I think they also brought in Cliff Kingsbury
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  as well. Now out of the people that they're probably
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  going to bring in, I would say Mike McDaniel
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  is the best choice. And the reason why I say
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  that is because... Although the Dolphins had
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  a bad year, I think honestly he's a better offensive
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  coordinator than head coach. His run schemes,
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  phenomenal. And with you having Jameer Gibbs
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  and possibly David Montgomery, I think this is
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  great for you. Although the personality stuff
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  might be a little bit weird because like he's
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  a little bit quirky and nerdy and Dan Campbell
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  is like alpha male. We're going to run through
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  this wall. We're going to enforce our will on
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  everybody. Like it's going to be a weird combination,
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  but when they get on the field, they're going
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  to be great. Okay, now when it comes to the right
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  tackle spot, hear me out because this goes in
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  with the one move that I would do if I was the
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  Lions GM and that is draft the right tackle.
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  Let's be honest here. Parts of their offensive
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  line are getting old. And we know that both Dan
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  Skipper and Taylor Decker have said that this
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  might be their last year. So with that being
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  said, the best thing for you to do is to move
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  Panay Sewell at left tackle, then draft you a
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  right tackle. Now, originally I was thinking
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  the Lions should go after a pass rusher, but
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  once Taylor Decker has said that he's most likely
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  going to retire, I was like, you know what? Right
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  tackle. They need to get a right tackle right
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  now, get this over with, and you don't have to
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  worry about it for the next few years. Now they
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  could go on a free agency and spend a boatload
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  of money on Braden Smith, but I don't think that's
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  the best idea. I think it's just best that you
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  draft one. But when we talk about pass rusher
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  for just a brief moment, I think you can get
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  a really good pass rusher in the second or third
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  round because there's going to be a lot of pass
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  rushers and not all of them are going to be drafted
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  in the first round. So if you get a high quality
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  one in the second round, who's really complaining?
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  Or you could trade for one. Or you could pay
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  Al -Quddeen Muhammad. Because technically speaking,
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  according to Spoltrak, his market value is only
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  $8 .2 million, which translates to a two -year
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  $16 .4 million deal. That's not bad. So I think
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  you have a lot of options with pass rusher compared
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  to right tackle. Right tackle is something that
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  you're going to have to draft high. Now, with
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  that being said, the question that we all need
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  to ask ourselves is stack or shed? And I would
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  venture to say stack. And the reason why I say
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  that is because... The infrastructure is there.
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  All they have to do is just move some pieces
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  around. Once they move those pieces around, they're
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  going to be right back to playing productive
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  football. Yes, it was expected for them to have
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  a down year once Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn
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  left, but they have a chance to get back on straight
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  street. Now, I'll be honest, your division is
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  going to be a lot more competitive now. The Bears
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  look like serious contenders. The Packers are
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  no slouches. If Michael Parsons didn't get hurt
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  this year, they probably would have beaten the
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  Bears and would still be in the playoffs right
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  now. So I understand that there's a lot of frustrations
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  within the Lions fan base, and rightfully so.
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  But you guys have to be patient because let's
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  be honest here. You still have the pieces. All
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  of your top players are in their prime. All you
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  have to do is just address the few holes on your
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  team. Once you do that, you're going to be fine.
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  And as long as everybody stays healthy, which...
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  I have a theory about why their secondary can't
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  stay healthy, but I can't prove it, so I'm not
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  going to talk about it in this episode. But if
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  there's more information that comes out about
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  it, I definitely will. But all you have to do
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  is just maintain the course. If you maintain
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  the course, everything is going to be fine. As
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  long as you don't do anything stupid in the draft
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  or in free agency, everything is going to be
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  fine. Now, with that being said, you're going
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  to have seven draft picks. You're going to have
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  your first, your second. You're not going to
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  have a third. You're going to have your fourth.
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  You're going to have your fifth. You're going
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  to have two sixth round picks and a seventh round
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  pick. That's not bad at all. Honestly speaking,
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  you can use some of those picks to move up in
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  the draft or down in the draft depending on how
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  the board falls. Who's really complaining? Not
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  to mention, you're going to have $71 .6 million
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  in cap space, which technically speaking, you
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  could create more if you move some money around.
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  So you're in a really good spot. All you have
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  to do is just have an honest conversation this
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  offseason and really ask yourself, what do we
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  need to get over the hump? How can we get over
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  the hump? And what decisions can we do to get
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  over the hump? Now, some people will say those
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  are easy questions to answer, but in actuality,
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  it isn't. Because honestly speaking, you're going
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  to need to have some uncomfortable conversations.
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  And some people may not like them, but they need
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  to be had. Because guess what? The same conversations
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  that you're having, the Ravens need to have,
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  the Bills need to have, the Eagles need to have,
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  everybody else that are Super Bowl contenders,
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  they have to have those same conversations. Now,
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  I know this might sound weird, but if I was the
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  GM for the Lions, I would have a theme board.
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  And every single offseason, we would choose a
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  word to describe it. So for this offseason, it
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  would be uncomfortable. Because we need to have
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  uncomfortable conversations about the entire
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  landscape of the roster. I don't care who's your
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  favorites. I don't care who you're close with.
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  It doesn't matter. Because at the end of the
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  day, we are all here for one thing and one thing
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  only. And what is that? To win a championship.
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  And the only way that you can do that is if you
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  have uncomfortable conversations. Conversations
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  that are going to have you think twice, maybe
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  three times about every decision that you make.
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  So instead of you saying, oh we need to go after
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  this big free agent pass rusher, you need to
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  think twice about it. You need to ask yourself,
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  is this pass rusher going to get us closer to
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  winning a Super Bowl? If we draft this prospect,
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  is he going to get us closer to the Super Bowl?
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  If we hire this person to our staff, will they
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  be able to unlock something in either the offense
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  or the defense that can get us closer to winning
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  a championship? Those are the things that need
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  to be asked every single day by everyone. And
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  until that happens, they will not be able to
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  get over the hump. They will not be able to win
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  a championship. But I'm going to end this episode
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  here. If you guys like what you are listening,
• 10:36
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  at GM Kale. G -M, M as in mummy, Kale, K -A -I
• 12:00
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• 12:04
  K -A -I -L -E, all right? As always, I hope I
• 12:07
  gave you guys the fix that you guys need. I love
• 12:09
  you guys. I appreciate you guys so much. Thank
• 12:10
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• 12:13
  of the Football Junkies podcast, the best podcast
• 12:15
  that you can listen to on a week -to -week, day
• 12:18
  -to -day basis, as well as the second episode
• 12:20
  of the Stack and Shed series. So as always, this
• 12:23
  is your GM Kale signing out. Peace and love.
• 12:25
  Later, guys.