Los Lions

Drew Petzing is the name that was chosen to be the next offensive coordinator for the Lions of Detroit this week, a hire that kind of came as a surprise to many, including myself. Now look. Do I trust Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell? The short answer is yes. The extended answer is yes, but if this hire doesn’t work out then my trust will be dwindling a little bit. The Morton hire obviously failed, the draft classes haven’t been as impressive as the last ones, and the lack of significant moves for free agents is worrying. But at the end of the day, these guys are the ones that got us to the point where we are right now, with a 36-15 record over the last three years.

So who is this man in charge of our offense that bears a lot of resemblance to Lex Luthor? Drew Petzing has been the OC for the Cardinals of Arizona since 2023. The Cardinals have gone 15-36 since then, an exact opposite record of Detroit. But it’s not all doom and gloom. The offense has averaged 19th in points per game, and 16th in yards per game while he was there. And look, these Cardinals teams over the last three years have simply not been good. Their head coach Jonathan Gannon, who has been there since 2023 with Petzing, just got fired. Kyler Murray, their starting QB, has been more and more of a disappointment since the years have gone on and was benched midway through the season. The vibes aren’t good in Arizona.

But despite this, the offense hasn’t looked completely dead. Once they started Jacoby Brissett (of all people) it wasn’t a total dumpster fire. Yes, he accumulated one win over twelve starts. Yes, he led Arizona to the 3rd overall pick. But the difference between the teams ahead of the Cardinals, the Jets of New York and the Raiders of Las Vegas, is that those two teams couldn’t put up points to save their life. In fact even the teams below them, the Giants, Titans, and Browns have a worse offense than Arizona. The large part of the 14 losses that they accumulated this season was due to a pretty horrific defense. Arizona had the 4th worst defense this year in terms of points scored. Not Petzing’s fault.

And even though Jacoby Brissett only won one game, he balled out in those losses. Trey McBride, the tight end of Arizona, finished as the number one tight end in fantasy football this year. Jacoby Brissett set the NFL record for most completions in a game this year with a whopping 47. He hasn’t done a bad job necessarily, but with a team as bad as Arizona was this year, he did an alright job on the offensive end.

Obviously I would have preferred McDaniel, who went to the Chargers of Los Angeles  to coordinate their offense, but I think people are overreacting. We haven’t seen what this guy can do with a much better team. We have nothing to go off of. So is there reason for concern? Sure. But we’ll know a lot more about this guy and his systems once we see him actually do stuff with the Lions. Which we haven’t yet.

Hopefully Lex turns Goff and company into the kryptonite for the NFC defenses.

Wings, Red

The Wings got some very impressive wins over the last week and a half, most notably against the Hurricanes of Carolina and Canadiens of Montreal, two very good teams who will probably make the playoffs. The Wings are currently 2nd in the Atlantic just a mere two points behind the Lightning of Tampa Bay. However one key moment in Sunday’s clash against the Senators of Ottawa highlighted a key worry in Hockeytown.

So midway through the game the infamous Ridly Greig, who’s almost as dirty as Brady Tkachuk, injured Lucas Raymond. Shocker, the same guy that takes slapshots on empty nets also makes dirty plays. Anyways, Raymond’s injury, though worrisome, does prove something that is being overlooked this season.

We have been insanely lucky when it comes to injuries this year. The worst one came to Patrick Kane earlier in the year, and although I love Kane, he isn’t essential to the Wings’ success the way Raymond is. No key injuries to any of our ‘stars’ is a huge reason why we are in a battle for the #1 spot in the Atlantic.

The team that wins the Stanley Cup isn’t always the best team. It’s the team that can stay healthy through the playoffs. That’s not just limited to hockey either. The fact that we are as lucky as we are is shocking given the past history of injuries in Detroit. In order to be a winning team, you have to be good and lucky. So far, things are going both ways. So far.

I still think we should trade for someone minor, just in case someone goes down. More on that next week though.

Obviously knock on wood about the injuries.

Motor City Kitties

Arbitration. The dreaded arbitration rears its head towards Chris Ilitch and Scott Harris over these next few weeks and the big talking point is the one massive issue regarding two time Cy-Young ace Tarik Skubal.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t 100% fully get how arbitration works in the MLB. The basics are simple enough to get, but it goes way deeper. Anyways, the basics are this: once a player is drafted by a team, they are under that team for six years unless they’re traded or retire. They can’t enter free agency until the end of their sixth year. The first three years are just usually the minimum salary or something low. However, years 4-6 players and the team go through something called arbitration. The player and the team each give a salary for one year. This is problematic because the player can see exactly how much the franchise thinks they are worth. If they cannot agree on a number, it goes to a panel of three judges and they decide who exactly is in the right.

So, Skubal being in year six, he had to give a number and Ilitch and company had to give one as well. Skubal and his slimeball of an agent, Scott Boras (we don’t like Scott Boras) said that he was worth 32 million for the year. A completely fair number, in my opinion. Maybe a little high, but Boras is known for being difficult and Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball and is coming off two straight Cy Youngs. The Tigers’ number was 19 million for the year. So this presents a number of problems.

Not only is this the largest arbitration gap in league history, but it also lets Skubal know that the organization values him significantly less than he thinks. For a team that, I would guess, wants to remain on good terms with Skubal, this is not the way to do so. 

It also just goes to show how much of a problem the ownership is. I do like Scott Harris. I think he’s a fine GM. Not otherworldly, but he’s fine. Chris Ilitch on the other hand does not know how to run a baseball club. I mean yes, he brought in Hinch and Benetti and did some good things to the park but I can’t excuse not re-signing Skubal when he is on the record saying he wants to be a Tiger for life and you clearly have the means to do so. To low ball one of the greatest players to ever don the english D publicly is embarrassing. I have faith in the team right now to win the central this year. I have faith in the long term future of the Tigers with the prospects we have. 

I do not, however, have faith in Chris Ilitch.

The ‘Stons

Cade and company narrowly beat the Suns of Phoenix and Celtics of Boston, two very good teams likely going to the playoffs, this past week, but those victories were overshadowed by the demolition derby that occurred against Indiana. We held the Pacers to 11 points in the first quarter, and 25 points in the first half. Indiana is last in the league in points scored in the first half with 55.1. We held them to less than half of that. That is simply incredible on the defensive end. They did gain some ground in the second half, but the final score was still 121-78. 

This defense is what’s going to take us to the top. The east is still wide open, and the Thunder are still beatable. But one lingering question remains in the locker room. The question of Jaden Ivey.

Ivey looked great to start last season, being our second highest scorer in points per game and was looking to make quite the jump. He was shooting better than ever before, averaging more rebounds, turning the ball over less, etc. And then he got hurt. And now everything has changed. 

I was never a huge Jaden Ivey guy, I liked him, thought he was good, but I never really was a diehard fan of his the way I am with Cade and Ron. This year, he’s averaging 8.4 points, 1.7 assists, and 2.2 rebounds, all career lows, on not so great shooting. 

I understand that Ivey was one of the stars of the dark days of this franchise and had an amazing rookie season, but it’s time for him to go. He is a restricted free agent after this year, and given his sub-par stats, it might be time to trade him.

Ideally we would want a shooter in return, but given Ivey’s contract situation, I would take the most that we can get. We’re bottom four in three pointers attempted, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it could elevate us to another level bringing in another shooter. I don’t think Ivey would cut it by himself, including Tobias could be beneficial, but the point remains the same: Ivey has to go.

Pains me to say it.