Examining if the Detroit Lions lost ground in the NFC after the NFL trade deadline.
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00:00 There's some speculation about other teams catching up with the Detroit Lions,
00:03 which begs the question, have the Lions lost ground in the NFC?
00:07 Here today to answer that question and give his thoughts is SIO Lions, John
00:11 Mackard. John, give me your thoughts on this topic.
00:14 And do you think the Lions have indeed lost ground in the NFC?
00:17 Yeah, Cameron, it's real interesting following the trade deadline.
00:20 You started to see early on with Seattle adding Leonard Williams.
00:25 You start to see the blockbuster trade made by the 49ers
00:29 in adding Chase Young.
00:31 And you look across the landscape of the NFC.
00:33 All the heavy hitters added defensive players and marquee defensive players.
00:38 I think a surprise was the Bears adding Montez Sweat.
00:41 You look at the landscape of the National Football League right now.
00:46 Offensive numbers are steadily declining at this point.
00:49 Defense has started to kind of take a little bit of hold.
00:51 It's still an offensive league, but I think that a lot of the other
00:56 NFC contenders wanted to sure up their defense, maybe in response
01:00 to what the Lions are doing.
01:02 It's real interesting in that many viewed the Lions as a team
01:05 that needed to upgrade the defense, maybe adding a defensive back
01:09 or an interior defensive lineman or another edge rusher to help Aiden Hutchinson.
01:15 But the Detroit Lions looked the other way in terms of the trade deadline,
01:19 adding wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones.
01:21 I think it was a good, solid trade, but I do think that Brad Holmes,
01:25 it would have behooved the front office to add another defensive player to sure up
01:30 what I think is one of the weaknesses in terms of their pass rush.
01:34 So you look at it and I say, yeah, they did lose ground
01:37 because all your rivals got better and you slightly improved.
01:41 So it'll be interesting to see if the Detroit Lions defense,
01:45 who are going to get some healthy players back, namely, hopefully
01:48 James Houston, maybe at some point in December,
01:51 Josh Pascoe will continue to get healthy.
01:53 Those two players will definitely provide some relief in terms of some pass rush.
01:58 But I do think that the Seahawks and 49ers made some moves
02:02 that really made them a solid football teams and really teams
02:06 that will be formidable in the postseason.
02:08 But for the Lions, the key is going to be if you're going to have some
02:12 marquee games in the playoffs, you're going to want to have them at Ford Field
02:15 because I think on the road, it's going to be super challenging
02:18 to overcome everything in terms of the elements,
02:21 the quality of play of your opponents.
02:23 And I just think that for whatever reason, I asked Dan Campbell,
02:26 you know, looking at the landscape, your rivals added defensive players.
02:31 And you guys, you know, have have targeted wide receivers
02:35 to shore up a position of need.
02:38 And his response was short and sweet.
02:40 He said, good for them.
02:41 So it'll be interesting to see how the Lions
02:45 play in the second half defensively and how that takes shape.
02:49 But I do think that right now, the landscape in the NFC is ultra competitive.
02:53 But their rivals got a little bit better
02:55 and probably had a better trade deadline than the Lions did.