Frank Ragnow Interview

[tomdalton22]

I'm not sitting here saying they are going to be good. I will have to see the team that is put together. All I'm saying is the opportunity is there and you have said absolutely nothing to refute that. Teams drafting well isn't a pipe team, that's what good teams do. if Holmes does that in 2021 and 2022 we have an excellent shot at turning this thing around as soon as 2022.

What would you consider a good draft? 2 average starters year 1? Maybe one good starter and 2 guys that contribute? That is a good draft by most accounts. You are still making the assumption that Goff will be successful here and Swift is good. They don't have a single pro bowl caliber player on defense. Nobody even close to being a difference maker. Even with good drafts, Detroit has never been a free agent destination. The Lions chance to make the playoffs in 2022 is about 10%, and that's if Goff is a top 10-15 QB. If he's a bust and they need to replace him, you are looking at 2024.

But hey, there is an opportunity.

 

[detroit1811]

lmao we started talking about how to build this team in 2023 just to be average. This is why you dont put rebuilds on hold with crappy retreds! Shit should have been blown up this year and get your rookie QB a year of experience.

Im starting the 2022 draft page now...with the #1 overall pick the Lions select!!!!! From the university of transfer portal Tyler Shough. Played at Oregon last year....hes transfering. 6-5 faster version of Herbert.

Just a question for you. Say we re-sign Golladay and draft Waddle at #7. Do you see any chance at all Goff changes your mind and goes out and has a very good year (top 6-10 QB)?

 

[tomdalton22]

Just a question for you. Say we re-sign Golladay and draft Waddle at #7. Do you see any chance at all Goff changes your mind and goes out and has a very good year (top 6-10 QB)?

do you really think signing Golladay is a good idea? I think he'll cost $17-$19M a year. I think that would be a mistake for a team in a total re-build.

 

[detroit1811]

What would you consider a good draft? 2 average starters year 1? Maybe one good starter and 2 guys that contribute? That is a good draft by most accounts. You are still making the assumption that Goff will be successful here and Swift is good. They don't have a single pro bowl caliber player on defense. Nobody even close to being a difference maker. Even with good drafts, Detroit has never been a free agent destination. The Lions chance to make the playoffs in 2022 is about 10%, and that's if Goff is a top 10-15 QB. If he's a bust and they need to replace him, you are looking at 2024.

But hey, there is an opportunity.

A lot different ways to have a good draft. Slay sucked is year one, but by year 3 was lights out. Some players are instant impact players at first, some take time.

For this team to be competitive by 2022, I would say coming away with three solid starters this year by 2022 (one true stud). Plus a couple solid depth guys. Then turning around and finding multiple instant impact players in 2022 (one being a stud), and some depth contributors. That would be changing out 5 starters in two drafts, and some solid depth. 2 of the 5 being game changing type players.

In this theory one game changer is this year at #7 (a WR). Maybe find another at DT the following. Then throw in two starting LB'ers and a Safety, with some depth at DE and CB.

Supplement the rest of the team in 2022 FA.

As far as Swift goes what about his rookie year makes you think he isn't at least a solid 1A RB?

 

[detroit1811]

do you really think signing Golladay is a good idea? I think he'll cost $17-$19M a year. I think that would be a mistake for a team in a total re-build.

I think Golladay is a risky signing and honestly wouldn't be mad if they moved on. With saying that the guy has played really good football for us and hasnt been nearly as injury prone as people seem to think. If he was two years younger I wouldn't even question it. I think we are in a very good cap situation in the coming years, so if push came to shove I would have to say sign him for 16-18mil a year, but put the guaranteed money more up front, so we have a potential out after the first 2-3 years.

 

[tomdalton22]

A lot different ways to have a good draft. Slay sucked is year one, but by year 3 was lights out. Some players are instant impact players at first, some take time.

For this team to be competitive by 2022, I would say coming away with three solid starters this year by 2022 (one true stud). Plus a couple solid depth guys. Then turning around and finding multiple instant impact players in 2022 (one being a stud), and some depth contributors. That would be changing out 5 starters in two drafts, and some solid depth. 2 of the 5 being game changing type players.

In this theory one game changer is this year at #7 (a WR). Maybe find another at DT the following. Then throw in two starting LB'ers and a Safety, with some depth at DE and CB.

Supplement the rest of the team in 2022 FA.

As far as Swift goes what about his rookie year makes you think he isn't at least a solid 1A RB?

He might be, but I'm just not sure. Put it this way, what did he do that makes you think he is?

He only had 2 games with over 67 yards. 16 for 81 and 14 for 116.

Basically, he hasn't done anything to make me think he will be a 1A or that he won't. Another question mark.

My guess is he will be a serviceable RB. Nothing special but not a bust.

 

[mhughes0021]

Just a question for you. Say we re-sign Golladay and draft Waddle at #7. Do you see any chance at all Goff changes your mind and goes out and has a very good year (top 6-10 QB)?

Its a good question 1811. I think if he has Golladay, Waddle, Swift and Hockenson...ontop of the fact posters already mentioned our oline is top half. Then we should be putting up 30 points per game and anything less than that is a failure. Probably wont translate to many wins because that literally means we used all our cap space to resign KG and we spent our first rd pick on a WR. Our defense would give up 40 a game lol.

But...if we go all out on offense he will need to perform.

Its an interesting take. What does Holmes do....does he prove his guy Goff...is the guy and go get him a ton of help to be productive. Or does he fix the defense. He cant do both. Even if he chose just to fix the defense he probably cant do that in 1 off season. But if he focused on offense he can probably get those pieces in place this year.

In reality i dont think he goes into next year with Golladay or Waddle. I think a tag n trade happens for KG for a 3rd this year. And i think he waits until rd 2 or 3 for a WR. Holmes seems to be analytical and the analytics will tell you top 10 WRs dont help your team. Look no further than our very own Calvin Johnson who had great production...and his team sucked every year of his career.

 

[boogerlovejoy]

Its a good question 1811. I think if he has Golladay, Waddle, Swift and Hockenson...ontop of the fact posters already mentioned our oline is top half. Then we should be putting up 30 points per game and anything less than that is a failure. Probably wont translate to many wins because that literally means we used all our cap space to resign KG and we spent our first rd pick on a WR. Our defense would give up 40 a game lol.

But...if we go all out on offense he will need to perform.

Its an interesting take. What does Holmes do....does he prove his guy Goff...is the guy and go get him a ton of help to be productive. Or does he fix the defense. He cant do both. Even if he chose just to fix the defense he probably cant do that in 1 off season. But if he focused on offense he can probably get those pieces in place this year.

In reality i dont think he goes into next year with Golladay or Waddle. I think a tag n trade happens for KG for a 3rd this year. And i think he waits until rd 2 or 3 for a WR. Holmes seems to be analytical and the analytics will tell you top 10 WRs dont help your team. Look no further than our very own Calvin Johnson who had great production...and his team sucked every year of his career.

Wait a minute......your post made a lot of sense right up until the CJ part. Are you saying Calvin Johnson didn't "help" make an impact on games?

 

[detroit1811]

He might be, but I'm just not sure. Put it this way, what did he do that makes you think he is?

He only had 2 games with over 67 yards. 16 for 81 and 14 for 116.

Basically, he hasn't done anything to make me think he will be a 1A or that he won't. Another question mark.

My guess is he will be a serviceable RB. Nothing special but not a bust.

He only had 6 games with double digit carries and each of those games he was over 4.5 YPC. He showed really well catching the football and Should?ve been used there a lot more. He is just such a natural runner. It is possible he might not evolve past that, but he already is a solid RB.

 

[mhughes0021]

Wait a minute......your post made a lot of sense right up until the CJ part. Are you saying Calvin Johnson didn't "help" make an impact on games?

Im saying he made all the imapct in the world....and we still didnt have good teams. You have a dude thats 6'5'' runs a 4.3, gets basically triple covered every play and it still didnt translate to wins lol. There was an article on this topic i read recently...cant find it but it pointed at all the recent blue chip WRs:

Jerry Jeudy/Hamler - Denver sucks
Ruggs - Raiders suck
CeeDee Lamb - Dallas sucks

and how much better are they off would they have been getting a blue chip guy at a different position in rd 1 and grabbing a guy like Jefferson in Rd 2?

Take this year for example....Smith, Chase and Waddle are great. But if you can get Micah Parsons at 7 and then Terrance Marshall in rd 2. Does your WR production fall off that much? The point the article was trying to make is WR talent doesnt fall of that much therefor the value is in rd 2 and rd 3 vs top 10 of the draft.

 

[mhughes0021]

He only had 6 games with double digit carries and each of those games he was over 4.5 YPC. He showed really well catching the football and Should?ve been used there a lot more. He is just such a natural runner. It is possible he might not evolve past that, but he already is a solid RB.

Swift has a ceiling of Kamara....he can do everything Kamara can. We will never realize that talent because we run him 9 times a game because our coaches are morons.

 

[detroit1811]

Swift has a ceiling of Kamara....he can do everything Kamara can. We will never realize that talent because we run him 9 times a game because our coaches are morons.

I agree on the similarities with Kamara. Kamara is a little twitcher I think, but still very similar.

 

[dtroitlionsfan951]

He might be, but I'm just not sure. Put it this way, what did he do that makes you think he is?

He only had 2 games with over 67 yards. 16 for 81 and 14 for 116.

Basically, he hasn't done anything to make me think he will be a 1A or that he won't. Another question mark.

My guess is he will be a serviceable RB. Nothing special but not a bust.

He had 10 tds on a very limited amount of touches. Don?t just count rushing yards anymore, receiving yards need to be included, with that he had many games from 70-80 yards.

 

[tomdalton22]

He had 10 tds on a very limited amount of touches. Don?t just count rushing yards anymore, receiving yards need to be included, with that he had many games from 70-80 yards.

true. He does seem to be a good receiving back. That said, he had 2 games with over 100 combined yards. 123 vs Jax and 149 vs the Redskins.

 

[detroit1811]

true. He does seem to be a good receiving back. That said, he had 2 games with over 100 combined yards. 123 vs Jax and 149 vs the Redskins.

I would say that as a rookie, who was inexplicably sharing too much time with Peterson, he produced really well. I would say there are a lot more reasons to be optimistic about his future then pessimistic.

 

[tomdalton22]

I would say that as a rookie, who was inexplicably sharing too much time with Peterson, he produced really well. I would say there are a lot more reasons to be optimistic about his future then pessimistic.

I agree that he shared WAY too much time with AP. That guy should never have been signed.

 

[detroit1811]

Its a good question 1811. I think if he has Golladay, Waddle, Swift and Hockenson...ontop of the fact posters already mentioned our oline is top half. Then we should be putting up 30 points per game and anything less than that is a failure. Probably wont translate to many wins because that literally means we used all our cap space to resign KG and we spent our first rd pick on a WR. Our defense would give up 40 a game lol.

But...if we go all out on offense he will need to perform.

Its an interesting take. What does Holmes do....does he prove his guy Goff...is the guy and go get him a ton of help to be productive. Or does he fix the defense. He cant do both. Even if he chose just to fix the defense he probably cant do that in 1 off season. But if he focused on offense he can probably get those pieces in place this year.

In reality i dont think he goes into next year with Golladay or Waddle. I think a tag n trade happens for KG for a 3rd this year. And i think he waits until rd 2 or 3 for a WR. Holmes seems to be analytical and the analytics will tell you top 10 WRs dont help your team. Look no further than our very own Calvin Johnson who had great production...and his team sucked every year of his career.

You could definitely be right about the route Holmes goes. Beefing up the defense and neglecting WR could be a good way to go. My point was just that Goff is a good enough QB to have success with. I don't think he will ever be an elite guy (Mahomes/Brady/Manning/Rodgers), but he can settle in as a really good QB with the right supporting cast (think Matt Ryan). That is FAR from a given, but I think that's his upside.

I honestly am starting to warm up to the idea of retaining Golladay and drafting a WR high. Give Goff a real shot to show what he can do this year and by 2022 you know what the future holds for him. Grab a few pieces on defense this year, and let the young guys play. The defense will likely be awful, but then make defense the primary focus in 2022.

 

[boogerlovejoy]

I agree on the similarities with Kamara. Kamara is a little twitcher I think, but still very similar.

Good comparison. Kamara is probably a bit shiftier. Swift probably a little straight line faster.