Processing all that has happened since I last wrote about the Lions, a requiem for Matthew Stafford (perhaps presciently) has been a lot, and it is a lot to unpack, and I can’t do it all here, so let’s just circle back to Stafford to start. Okay? Okay.
I’m happy for Stafford, that he finally gets a chance to leave behind the Lions of it all to see if he really is a good enough to lead a real team to the Promised Land. It is interesting, perhaps, that this is in Los Angeles, a city and place fabled for both making dreams come true and for the illusory nature of that deceitful lie for most people. So, is Stafford destined to be one of those dream makers, dream takers, etc., or is he destined to be just another dude who ends up waiting tables in between meetings with a no longer interested agent?
These are all interesting things to talk about, and I’m sure that I will over the course of the next season or few seasons in the wider scope of my NFL coverage here at Armchair Linebacker, but this right here, right now, is about the Lions and what it means for them. For them, for us, it is a fresh start, a fresher than fresh start, a true rebooting of the whole thing since the last time they rebooted following the hellscape of 2008. It is perhaps appropriate that I am here again to try to make sense of this just as I was that earlier time around. I get the chance the tell the story again, reshaped through the prism of whatever the hell this will turn out to be. Since it is Lions football, we can only assume there will be shrieks of horror, sniffs from the ether bottle, assorted ramblings into the deep insanity of the universe which sees The Great Willie Young emerge from the jungles as our Colonel Kurtz. But here we go anyway, because why not, it is only our collective sanity at stake?
I have written enough about Stafford, I think, and my most recent post about him was again perhaps a prescient elegy for something that maybe I sensed was about to happen. You can go back and read that if you wish, or you can hang with me here. I assume you have probably been along for the ride at some point here, so maybe just stick with me for now. And, anyway, in the Pressing of the Button upon which a new world will arise amidst the flickering memories of the A-Bomb imprinted on our eyelids and our souls, I will remerge with a sense of cautious optimism, if only because that, despite all reports to the contrary, is my basic nature.
So, Stafford is out, and in his place is Jared Goff, another 1st overall pick, who by virtue of landing here in the greyed skies of Detroit, has already revealed himself to be pretty much a failure. That is not a good place to start. But, he was a number one overall pick for a reason, he did quarterback the Rams to a Super Bowl appearance, and the guy who scouted him for the Rams and advocated his selection is now the new General Manager of the Detroit Lions in Brad Holmes.
That is an interesting start to the discussion, I think, as it shows that Holmes, at the very least, is still willing to stick to his scouting guns when it comes to Goff. Of course, this could all end up blowing up in my face and being irrelevant if the Lions turn around and draft a QB with their first round pick this year, but for now, we’ll stick with what we know. And that is that Brad Holmes has not once, but twice, stuck his neck out for Jared Goff. That is a perhaps not insignificant investment, both emotionally and professionally, and already sets us up for a good first look at what these dudes are all about.
I have already slid into the shit-talking portion of my analysis on Goff through this past year, so it would be a lie to say that I have no qualms or concerns here. The dude faded away in LA, broken thumbs or not, and we’re left to wonder if that is an indictment of him or of his relationship with the Rams fabled brain trust, specifically coach Sean McVay.
The Rams went from a team that seemed to be aggressively bent on carpet bombing other teams in a Win Now At All Costs philosophy with Goff as the triggerman to a Win With Defense and Smart Execution with Playcalling on Offense, which shifted the onus of responsibility from Goff onto the defense and coaches with perhaps Goff as a liability to be won with in spite of himself.
This was maybe subtle for a while, but became less subtle as this past season wore on and the Rams became the team of Aaron Donald once and for all, a team that became focused on bringing in a hired hot gunslinger like Matthew Stafford, to balance the team and put it over the top, rather than Goff’s team. This is just how these things play out sometimes. We simply don’t know how much of that is about Goff himself and how much of it is about the shifting philosophy within the Rams organization. But, the one thing that seems clear is that at some point along the way, the Rams lost faith in Goff to be a part of the winning time equation.
So, why should Lions fans be excited at all about Goff? I don’t know, other than he is a dude with significant gifts who has not always been a LOSER and sometimes these things have peaks and valleys, and at a certain point it simply becomes about your own native perspective about these things, whether you are an optimist or a born cynic, etc. I am always willing to give things a chance with a true fresh start, and that seems to be the case here. This isn’t the Lions trying to catch a train already on the move, but an attempt to find a whole new engineer and dudes to fuel the engines for a whole new ride.
If Holmes indeed has True Faith in Goff than this will be an immediate test of his ability to run this team and the faith that Lions fans put in him. It is a Big Ask, as always, when it comes to getting Lions fans to come aboard, but it seems significantly more focused and thought out than Let’s See Who Plays the Nicest With Stafford. This is not about Jim Caldwell meshing with a playoff ready roster or about Insane Patriot Ways with Kool-Aid drinkers and Bat Wavers and Rapists prowling the insane circus. This is about trying to get it a right in a Let’s Start From the Beginning Kind of Way.
With that said, perhaps more optimistically than Goff’s presence – and for better or worse, at the very least, he is a stabilizing let’s just get through the next couple of years option – is that the Lions sat back here and tried to catch the biggest fish they could with their biggest piece of bait instead of just jumping on the first fish that swam by. Hauling in a plethora of juicy draft picks is always a god place to work from, and at a certain point it all just involves a deep breath and an Okay Let’s See What We Can Do outlook from fans and the people within the organization. What the Lions do in the next few months is more important than what the Lions just did.
Which brings us to the new coach, Dan Campbell, who immediately freaked everyone out by going on an insane Biting Kneecaps tirade that freaked out the easily shook members of the Lions fanbase, perhaps harkening back to the stupidest parts of the Rod Marinelli era. But it seemed to be a genuine enthusiasm born from a dude honestly devoted to believing the By God Let’s Do Some Football Men school of thinking, and as goofy as it threatens to be, when something is Real, it is always easy to trust in. You may be cautious at first, but Real Genuine Emotion is the absolute number one way to get people to die on a hill for you.
Patricia tried to fake a version of that and people immediately saw through it. Marinelli perhaps meant it but was clearly incompetent which is a good way to lose everybody on day two. It is those two things: Real Emotion and Competence which are the keys to any successful endeavor, and right now I’m left with the sense that Campbell at least has one of the two. The second is perhaps harder to come by and there is every chance that this ends with a man shitting his britches as his soldiers run away in a hasty Fuck This retreat.
But like with Holmes and Goff, right now I am willing to give the dude at least the chance to show that the competence element is somewhere inside of there. Is this a Big Ask for Lions fans? Of course it is. But at some point, someone has to come along and at least ask for faith, and at some point we have to take a deep breath and say okay.
So, that’s where we are today. Tomorrow it may already be burned villages and screaming women as the headless corpses of napalm burned babies roll down the street. But war is always hell, and at least on the first day, you should make a commitment to being the one that delivers it, not receives it.
