Right.
So.
Okay.
This is complicated.
I’m a Detroit Lions fan. I was thinking about this the other day, and the amount of sorrow that this time of year brings me year after year. I was also thinking about the timeline related to my fandom, and the fact that at almost 22 years old, I’m approaching a decade with this team. Yeah, I didn’t grow up in a football household and actually chose to be a fan of the Detroit Lions.
So after the Ravens/Niners Super Bowl in February 2013, and a couple years in the past spent bandwagoning around the league cheering for usually the ‘non-flashier’ version of the better team in the Super Bowl, I was languishing. I didn’t really feel attached to Baltimore, or Seattle, or wherever. Oh wait, more backstory really quick. I wasn’t allowed to play football until I got to high school, and that timeline was starting to line up. I was scanning the league as a tall, athletic by Vermont standards kid, looking for a player or team to latch on to.
Seeing 81 in blue line up across from his matchup (or two, you’ve all seen that clip of the Saints CB’s) was an absolutely astonishing thing every week. Six foot five, and faster on a straight line than almost anyone at his position or the contrary positions. He could out jump everyone, and could save games quite literally with his athletic ability. That, and that super underrated quarterback he had throwing to him.
Fast forward through a great year of Lions football that was 2013-14 (look it up, that was a great Lions year), and years of Stafford/Bush/Bell/Johnson/Tate/Pettigrew/Ebron to go along with Suh/Mosely/Ansah/Levy/Whitehead/Slay/Quin and Co., it was kind of fun sometimes, kind of a bummer most of the time.
I do not want to talk about the M*tt P*tricia years, so I’m not going to. They were an absolute disgrace, and when Matt Stafford said that the only place he wouldn’t go to this past offseason was New England, let’s just say I understand.
So we’re here now, in the Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell era. This season, the Detroit Lions will more likely than not win a lot of football games. Our schedule is ludicrously challenging, tied as the sixth hardest in the league with Cincinnati. Our team is much less talented than teams of years past. Stafford is gone to Los Angeles. Golladay, New York Giants. Jones Jr., Jacksonville. Our offense this year is going to be based around our offensive line, and the running back tandem of D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams. That doesn’t really rustle my jimmies, although I do love our offensive line’s makeup. Penei Sewell was arguably the best player in the draft, and he will undoubtedly be a focal point of the offense going forward.
Jared Goff and the wide receiver room make me very nervous, much less so than the running backs and O-line. Amon-Ra St. Brown is showing flashes of going down as an all-time steal, and there’s no doubt that he will see a lot of targets from Goff. Between him and T.J. Hockenson, I guess there will be more than no air game. I’m not a Goff hater either, but he throws a bit of a wobbly ball and doesn’t have the known sidearm cannon that his predecessor does.
The defense is headlined by Michael Brockers and the brothers Okwara. Jeff Okudah is heading into his second campaign looking to make a real impact in the secondary. Three draftees this year could be looking to make an impact in Purdue’s Derrick Barnes at linebacker; to go along with Levi Onwuzurike and Alim McNeil up front. Returning mainstays also include Jamie Collins and Trey Flowers, both of whom should make an impact on day one.
It’s going to be a hard year, but I think we’re going in the right direction. We’re in the baby stages of a major culture shift, led by a couple of absolute madmen. We have young players at important positions, like running back, offensive line, and all over the defensive side of the ball. As long as fucking number 12 in green up in that godforsaken frozen city is there, and those other two teams keep drafting well in our division, it will be hard for us to compete for the division title. But whether I like it or not, football season is right around the corner again, and I have 17 games to gear up for this year. Stay tuned, this saga of fandom is going to be a fucking doozy.
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